“Golf is an easy game … it’s just hard to play”—Anonymous

Clare Briggs, Golf: the book of a thousand chuckles: the famous golf cartoons, c.1916, "Adventures of a Lost Ball."

September 21 is Miniature Golf Day. The illustration at left follows the adventures of a lost golf ball, probably on a turf course, but is still definitely in the spirit of the fun game, I mean sport, we call miniature golf or mini-golf.

Minigolf, or miniature golf, often called crazy golf in the United Kingdom, is a miniature version of the sport of golf. While the international sports organization World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) prefers to use the name "minigolf", the general public in different countries has also many other names for the game: miniature golf, mini-golf, midget golf, goofy golf, shorties, extreme golf, crazy golf, adventure golf, mini-putt and so on.—Wikipedia

The Libraries also has, across its collections, some interesting books on this world wide, not just American, pastime:

Planet Golf : putt to learn, June 5 – September 12, 1999. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, Pa. : Academy of Natural Sciences, c1999. Museum Studies Reference Library.

Putt-modernism: 18 hole miniature golf course & exhibition: August 1-September 27, 1992, Artists Space, sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc.; [essay by Ken Buhler]. Artists Space (Gallery). New York : Artists Space, 1992. Hirshhorn.

John Margolies's miniature golf, with color photographs by John Margolies and text by Nina Garfinkel and Maria Reidelbach. New York: Abbeville Press, c1987. Cooper-Hewitt Museum, National Museum of American History.

Golf-o-rama: the wacky nine hole pop-up mini-golf book, illustrated by Bill Mayer; [designed by Jim Deesing; paper engineering by Dennis K. Meyer and José Seminario]. New York : Hyperion Books for Children, c1994. CHM Bradley Room.

See you on the putt-putt course!

—Elizabeth Periale