I used to be good at mini golf.

Seriously- I used to be pretty darned good. We used to frequently head out to Putt Putt, right off of 494 in Bloomington, and I would usually get a few holes-in-one, and par (2 strokes) most of the rest of the holes. I remember one night in particular, where there were 5 guys and 3 girls. Somehow I got stuck with the girls, and the foursome of guys had a big bet going (this was right after graduating high school, so "big" was probably $5 apiece. Since I wasn't in their group of golfers, I wasn't allowed to participate in the bet. I proceeded to have the mini golf game of my life. I can't remember the details, but I think I aced 10 or 11 holes. It's possible I set a course record, but the ladies really didn't care all that much. They weren't taking it too seriously, and weren't even really keeping track of their own scores.

Now, I'm not positive if that's the last time I went mini golfing. It would have probably been the summer of '94, and it does seem like it's been about 12 years since the last time I stepped on a course. Well, I should have pulled a John Elway, and gone out on top. Jen and I hit Adventure Gardens Mini Golf, located in the big park in Richfield on Portland Avenue this evening. Putt Putt is long gone, and Bullseye Mini Golf closed when I was in junior high. Adventure Gardens is a 5 minute drive from our house, so we decided to try it out. Big mistake for me:



Jenny golfed pretty well. She got 7 pars and three birdies. I was simply atrocious. I beat her score on exactly one hole (#15), and tied her on 5 holes. For those of you keeping score at home, that means she won 12 holes! I ended up with 1 par and 2 birdies (and the birdies were gifts- they came on holes that really should have been labeled par 3). My total score was 70, 27 strokes over par. Why couldn't I have suggested something else for us to do? Now I have two choices: try and erase this debacle from my memory (anyone have Dr. Mierzwiak's number?), or sneak off to the mini golf course when Jen thinks I'm working, and recover my game. Ah, screw it- I'll just wait another 12 years before I get back out there.