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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

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Lights! Camera! Minigolf! (Part 3 - Buddy vs Duff 2)


Minigolfnews 04 May 2020 at 13:43 | Published by: PatPenguin | Views: 17948 | News search

Lights! Camera! Minigolf! (Part 3 - Buddy vs Duff 2)
Michelle Wie playing a minigolf cake hole  (Photo by Screenshot - Food Network)

Welcome back to our series looking at how miniature golf has been portrayed in various visual media throughout the years! In our last episode we visited an updated version of the classic cartoon Scooby Doo in "A Terrifying Round with a Metallic Clown". For part 3 we are turning our attention to reality television and a show that blends a couple of concepts we'e explored miniature golf being paired with, namely food and art.

In an episode just aired in April, "Buddy vs Duff 2" episode 8 is focused on building minigolf cakes. From the Food Network website: "It may be called miniature golf, but there's nothing small about Buddy Valastro and Duff Goldman's cakes, created as playable holes for a putt-putt event hosted by LPGA tour professional golfer Michelle Wie." You can check out a clip of the episode on
YouTube.

The concept of the show is a reality staple - the contestants are given a challenge to build cakes around a certain theme and then they are judged. This series is a little different that instead of an episodic winner or an elimination, points are accumulated throughout the season. For those of you unfamiliar with the contestants,
Duff Goldman is best known as the owner of Charm City Cakes and the Ace of Cakes television show, while Buddy Valastro is the owner of Carlo's Bakery and is best known for the Cake Boss television show.

The episode opens at
Golf N'Stuff (believe it's the Ventura location, it's sister course famously is the home of a Karate Kid scene), with the group talking to Michelle Wie who is involved as part of a "Get Inspired to Golf" event, which tries to being more youth into the sport of golf. One of the things Michelle talks about in terms of her love of minigolf that hit home with us was her love of obstacles and that playing miniature golf involves solving problems. It is a great way to frame what goes on when playing a course because you're constantly solving problems - where to tee off, how hard to hit it, how to deal with obstacles, how to deal with second (or third or more) shots, what balls to choose (in some instances), etc. Michelle seems to have a fondness for minigolf, having also appeared on season 1 of Holey Moley so it's good to have the endorsement of our sport from a professional golfer.

Once the challenge has been given, Duff and Buddy start their design work. Buddy decides to go with something a little less fancy but highlights the history of his shop and has minimal use of obstacles/electronics. Duff, on the other hand, wants to have a series of nautical themed obstacles that all work together to provide a more interactive minigolf experience. A majority of the episode is then spent with the bakers executing on their designs and of course some things go to plan (more for Buddy) and there are obstacles to overcome (more for Duff). One thing that stuck out to us was that Buddy didn't seem to be thinking much about the playing experience of his hole while Duff was very focused on that. However, Duff definitely needed a minigolf pro there to help him realize his design had a flaw in it before he got it to the course (though he ended up fixing it as we thought he needed to)!

Part of the fun of the episode was not just watching them develop their designs in cake but then having to transport them to the course and set them up on the hole. It was a whole other level of engineering challenge versus some other shows where you present your final work in the kitchen where you created it. Personally, we thought that Duff has the better "minigolf" cake given that his cakes were done in a way that nearly replicated the look of fiberglass obstacles and the play style involved a lot of the quirkiness that the American public thinks of when it comes to miniature golf. The mechanics in the lighthouse also worked which was pretty impressive. While beautiful to look at, and we appreciated the inspiration to cover 2x4s in sprinkles to add to the edging of the hole, we though Buddy's was a bit more simplistic and was more "cake on a minigolf course" than a "minigolf cake".

The judges thought differently, however, awarding Buddy the win for the episode after Michelle got a chance to test the play-ability of the holes. One of the fun parts of the episode was also giving the kids a chance to try out the holes and engaging them in the fun.

Overall we thought this episode was a good highlight for miniature golf. While the sport of it wasn't talked about much, having Michelle Wie there did add a little credibility to the sport aspect. The important part was that everyone on the show really talked positively about minigolf and were very much into developing the holes. There wasn't any discussion of it being childish or silly and that's a positive impression of minigolf to leave with the viewers. We definitely recommend giving it a watch if you can!



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WMF International Tournaments Canceled for 2020

WMF 27 Apr 2020 at 13:22 | views: 17341 | Comments: 0

On April 26th, the World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) Executive Committee announced that all remaining scheduled World and Continental minigolf events are canceled, due to the current Covid-19 situation. A primary reason for this is the uncertainty over ...
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WMF International Tournaments Canceled for 2020

Lights! Camera! Minigolf! (Part 2 - Scooby Doo)

Lights! Camera! Minigolf! (Part 2 - Scooby Doo)

Minigolfnews 06 Apr 2020 at 12:22 | views: 19332 | Comments: 0

Welcome back to our series looking at how miniature golf has been portrayed in various visual media throughout the years, be it television or movies. In our first article we looked at the classic episode of The Simpsons "Dead Putting Society". In this article ...
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World Adventure Golf Masters 2020 Canceled

Austria 02 Apr 2020 at 13:45 | views: 17546 | Comments: 0

The World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) recently received a letter from the municipality of Marktgemeinde Gumpoldskirchen, the site of the 2020 World Adventure Golf Masters (WAGM) informing them of the cancellation of all public events through June 2020 due to ...
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World Adventure Golf Masters 2020 Canceled

Lights! Camera! Minigolf! (Part 1 - The Simpsons)

Lights! Camera! Minigolf! (Part 1 - The Simpsons)

World 18 Mar 2020 at 12:53 | views: 20668 | Comments: 0

Given a large amount of the world is staying home to help suppress the spread of COVID-19 and likely watching a lot of television, we thought it might be fun to look at some shows and movies where minigolf has taken center stage for an episode. If you are ...
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