Walker On the Green: Artist Designed Miniature Golf

Walker Art Center's two brand-new, seven-hole mini golf courses aren't your average putt-putt experience. They don't have oversize windmill blades covering the tunnel to the hole, or any other mini golf clichés. Artists designed the holes around the theme "Green," and were given the freedom to make them in whatever fashion they chose. The resulting holes vary wildly in both difficulty and setup. Water Hazard, designed by Blake Loya and Geoffrey Warner, is a simple enough hole, but has dozens of water bottles dangling from above, making it incredibly difficult to move through. The creators say it's to draw attention to environmental consequences of bottled water. Andrew MacGuffie created Paul and Teddy, a hole featuring a 12-foot-tall statue of Paul Bunyan and a cutout of President Theodore Roosevelt with an open mouth as ramp. Michael Keenan's hole, Big Kahuna, gives the course a distinctly summer feel. It's a wave-shaped hole constructed of recycled glass; the player must putt the ball onto the wave and have it "surf" to the hole. While making both artistic and environmental statements (one hole is made entirely of recycled copper, which will be recycled again when the course in dismantled), Walker Art Center's putt-putt will definitely be the most creative sport you'll play all summer.
Wednesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Starts: May 24. Continues through Sept. 7, 2008