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Argentina  INESfun

22 Feb 2020 at 13:37

There are about 300 recesses on one golf ball, and thanks to them, the ball flies three times farther than a smooth one. ... Balls of the same size...

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United States of America  Smitty

07 Jun 2023 at 04:45

Jason and team make this place beautiful and the tournament is fun and well run.

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United States of America Patrick Sheridan's blog« See all PatPenguin's blogs

A new minigolf year is upon us!
05 Jan 2018 at 13:33 | Posted in: Personal | Views: 5455 | Comments: 2
A new minigolf year is upon us!
Cool Crest Minigolf Rocket

With 2017 now in the rear view and 2018 laid out before us like a brand new lane, I wanted to take a few minutes to look back on my year as a minigolfer and Editor-in-Chief of the site. 2017 ended up being one of the busiest minigolf years for me in a long time. It was one of our slowest years at The Putting Penguin, getting in just about 15 new reviews between our own travels and visitor reviews, but we expected it to slow down as we conquered more and more of the easily drivable courses. Mandy and I have both done our best to hit up courses when work or other vacation plans take us out of the Northeast and that has helped to expand our reach as we got into some new states and played some more internationally. It’s also been a challenge to run both that site and Minigolfnews at the same time but it’s been worth it.

While we didn’t get a whole lot of reviews done for The Putting Penguin I did play in the most tournaments I’ve ever played in a calendar year (5) and overall it was a good year in terms of how I finished in those tournaments. This was the first year I played in both the USPMGA’s major tournaments and while my
Master’s finish of 46th could be improved upon, I felt like I didn’t play that bad for the first time and little practice. My U.S. Open experience was much better, having returned to Bluegrass Minigolf in New Jersey, where I had my previous best finish of 12th, and managed to break into the top 10, finishing T-10th . It was really great to play the final few rounds with some of the biggest names in U.S. miniature golf and helped me continue to establish my place on the competitive side of the sport. In the more local tournaments I took 2nd at the Maine State Open . (where I had won in 2016) and 3rd at Farmington , tying my best finish there. Finally, The Putting Penguin ran the tournament at Matterhorn Mini Golf , this year (the 1st International Pro-Am) and in doing so I also managed to make the money in the 4th place while losing an epic playoff hole to a not-yet-teenager – we’ll be very interested to follow his career (to paraphrase a Sith Lord). The tournament itself was a great success, beyond even what we had hoped for from a first year. My goal for 2018 is to complete all of the same tournaments and I’ve put in my application to make Team USA for the World Adventure Golf Masters, so we’ll see where that goes as well. One of the best parts of playing in the tournaments have been writing the blogs. It’s been fun to share experiences, provide commentary, play amateur oddsmaker and in a way it helps to take off the stress of the tournament even if I’m staying up late at night to get the posts done. It’s a great way to wind down and reflect on everything that’s happening and not just focus on the negatives which I know we all can get caught in when trying to do something competitively. (Side note – if you are interested in trying it we’re always on the lookout for bloggers – no big commitment needed, just hit me up!)

With Minigolfnews 2017 was the first full year I was at the helm after reviving the site in May 2016. It was an incredibly successful year for the site as we saw our article views increase as well as our social media following grow. With the major championships happening in Croatia this year there was plenty of big international content to share. In addition, we ended up with stories from 14 different countries covering tournament results, special programs and interviews of players from those countries. The blog space has also heated up as we’ve expanded our pool of bloggers who are providing insights into the events they play and their connection to miniature golf. I want to take a moment to thank everyone who had contributed in 2017 as the growth of the site couldn’t have happened without your hard work. I also want to thank our sponsors who have been with us throughout the year. Every little bit counts in terms of helping fund operations and we hope your association with us has paid dividends.
Late in 2017 I also had a chance to meet in person, albeit briefly, with the new WMF Media Manager, Marion Homer. As the official news site of the WMF we work very closely with them to help provide the best media coverage for WMF events and press releases in addition to our coverage of worldwide miniature golf. We talked about various plans for 2018 and we think we can execute on a few things to help continue the growth of minigolf coverage we’ve seen recently. There’s still a long way for us to go and it won’t happen in a year but every little bit helps.

The other thing that helps is all of you reading this doing your part to promote the sport. It doesn’t have to be via articles or blogs. Simply talking up tournaments, both those in your own country and internationally, to friends, family and co-workers always generates interest. I know in the United States the view of minigolf as competitive sport is not widely known and there’s next to no knowledge about the international events. I’ve done my best to share pictures, videos and stories with friends and co-workers to give them a taste of how big the international sport of minigolf actually is. I don’t expect them to play in a tournament but I do hope that somewhere along the line, 6 degrees separated from me, some random person knows about the World Adventure Golf Masters or the World Championships because I put a bug in a friend’s ear. You never know where a story like that will end up (if there are any cable sports executives reading this – hit me up – I got ideas for coverage you need).

Once last thing I’m going to tackle in 2018 –
my second child! The newest Putting Penguin is scheduled to arrive at the end of June. My first child, Malcolm, isn’t even 3 yet and he’s already been on at least a half-dozen courses so I fully expect his sibling to follow in those footsteps.

Comments (2)

United States of America PatPenguin (Patrick Sheridan) | Delete

14 Jan 2018 at 14:41
Thank you!

United States of America Rick A (Rick Alessi) | Delete

12 Jan 2018 at 16:15
congrats on child #2 pat
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