Mini-Golf Episode

Astroturf and tiny windmills ahoy!

"It's MINIATURE golf!"

—Rupert Puttkin, Codename: Kids Next Door

What's a fun, friendly way to introduce a little competition into a series without having to commit to a multi-episode format like a Tournament Arc?

A Mini-Golf Episode!

A few rounds at a petite putting green could bring out the competitive side of the characters, or give them an opportunity to meet a villain on more friendly terms. Crafty characters might even build their own mini-golf course out of whatever materials are on hand if they can't get to a real mini-golf green. The courses themselves are likely to feature obstacles in the form of windmills, pirate ships, chomping monster mouths, and miniaturized versions of world-famous monuments - which opens the floodgates for some humorous Monumental Damage if the mini-golf round goes off the rails. Mini-golf rounds can (and often do) devolve into a Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game.

This trope is most commonly found in western media (due to the fact that mini-golf's popularity and cultural relevance has by and large been limited to the United States and Europe).

Related Tropes include Baseball Episode, The Boxing Episode, and Paintball Episode.

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Examples:

Advertising

• A commercial for Duracell batteries featuring the Puttermans has the titular family go to a mini-golf course with Larry Dodie, a friend of theirs who runs on a lesser battery. When Larry's battery runs out, his golf club gets stuck on the claw of a giant rotating display lobster, resulting in him being sent twirling around the hole and Herb having to get him unstuck.

Animation

• In episode 60 of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, Wolffy plays golf with the goats. At first he plays golf and messes with the goats' golf balls, but he eventually uses the game as an opportunity to distract the goats and attempt to catch them.

Comic Books

• One arc of Big Nate featured Nate playing mini-golf with Jenny and Artur. Artur sinks nearly every shot perfectly (despite never having played mini-golf before), and Nate tears himself up trying to outperform Artur.
• Scooby-Doo (DC Comics) Issue 114, Fangs But No Fangs, included the short comic "A Horror in One." The comic followed the gang as they contended with a wolf-monster who appeared at the horror-themed "Golf Wolf Mini-Golf Course," all while Freddie competed in a mini-golf tournament.
• Issue #2 of the Teen Titans Go! comic, "Par for the Course", shows Beastboy and Robin raising the stakes of their mini-golf game by instituting humiliating punishments for the loser and arguing over whether the use of their powers and gadgets constitutes cheating. Cyborg steps in to referee, but he judges that there are no rules.

Films — Live-Action

• Happy Gilmore has this in the third act of the movie when Happy (known for his long drives adapted from a powerful ice hockey slapshot, but who sucks at his short game) takes up Boxing Lessons for Superman from former pro-golfer Chubbs Peterson. Chubbs takes him to a mini-golf course to practice putting. During that episode, he finds his Happy Place, which helps him in the final tournament against Shooter McGavin.
• Jonathan and Cammie play mini-golf during a date in The Singles Ward.

Live-Action TV

• The Americans: After the Time Skip at the end of "The Magic of David Copperfield V", Paige is seen playing miniature golf with Pastor Tim and Alice.
• The Barney & Friends episode "Play Ball!" sees Barney, Baby Bop, and the kids play around of mini-golf on the playground, using a makeshift golf course (windmill and all).
• The Bones episode "The Putter in the Rough" focuses on a murdered "superstar mini-golfer."
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In the second season episode "Ted", the title character of the episode, the new boyfriend of Buffy's mother Joyce, takes Joyce, Buffy, Willow and Xander out for mini-golf, and when Ted overreacts to Buffy cheating — while they're not in front of the others — it's Buffy's first clue Ted isn't what he seems to be.
• CSI: NY: One of the victims in "Clue: SI" is a mini golf employee who is found on one of the greens near the "Ball Room."
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: In the episode "Stop Will! In the Name of Love" Will and a girl he picked up go on a double date with Ashley and Bryan, a boy she likes, to a mini golf course. The date ends abruptly when Will gets overprotective of Ashley (Will saw Bryan pull off the same moves on Ashley he pulls of on girls he dates) and annoys Bryan to the point where he storms off.
• Mr. Bean: "Tee Off, Mr. Bean" features the title character's efforts at mini-golf, with his game growing increasingly convoluted as he rigidly adheres to the rule of playing the ball where it lies, including when it flies out of bounds.
• Parks and Recreation: In "Swing Vote" Leslie and Ron face off in a mini-golf game to win Councilman Jamm's casting vote on whether to cut funding to the mini-golf centre.
• Odd Squad: Season 3, Episode 7, "Odd Squad in the Shadows" has North Carolina Ms. O brings every one of her agents to the precinct's annual mini-golf tournament. Fitting, considering that Pinehurst, where the episode is set, has a long and extensive history with the sport of golf.
• The appropriately titled "Miniature Golf" episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody features Zack getting beaten at mini-golf by Ella. After asking Mr. Moseby to train him and winning the rematch, he becomes quite arrogant.
• While not an episode entirely devoted to mini-golf, the "Angel Heart" episode of Supernatural sees Dean and Claire taking a break to play mini-golf. Playing mini-golf gives Dean insight into how the Victim of the Week was killed.
• The Upside Down Show episode "Mini-Golf". However, most of the episode actually revolves around finding the mini-golf course rather than playing the game, as Dave and Shane initially don't know what a mini-golf ball is, and thus where it should be returned.

Video Games

• Cartoon Network's website once hosted the Cartoon Cove Mini Golf game. Players were presented with nine holes of online mini-golf inspired by the network's classic cartoons from the early 2000's, including Codename: Kids Next Door, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Dexter's Laboratory, Ed, Edd n Eddy, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls, and Time Squad.
• The "Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex" of Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach includes the indoor mini-golf attraction "Monty's Gator Golf" as an explorable area. The sprawling, jungle-themed course includes a golf ball themed merry-go-round, mini-golf gift shop, and an arcade console called "Monty Golf AR-Cade" which includes a playable mini-golf minigame.
• Golf Story contains a hidden mini-golf green in Wellworn Grove, where players are tasked with proving a pair of scientists wrong by completing a mini-golf course in fewer strokes than predicted.
• Gruntz: The Miniature Masterz takes place on a mini-golf green with rolling golf balls in place of rolling boulders.
• Several installments of the golf-themed PGA Tour series include mini-golf-mini-games.
• Once unlocked, the "Golfer" NPC of Terraria sells items that can create a mini-golf course.

Visual Novels

• A player's first date with Brian of Dream Daddy takes place at a mini-golf green, and includes a mini-golf minigame.

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner: In the Strong Bad Email "mini golf", Strong Bad and The Cheat go to "Sweet Puttin' Cakes", a Sweet Cuppin' Cakes-themed miniature golf course which is located in Another Dimension and is "every bit as messed up as the cartoon on which it's based". For example, several of the holes defy the laws of conventional physics, you're spontaneously transported there by having a strong urge to play mini-golf, and you have to "will yourself back into reality" when you're done.

Web Comics

• Due to a wrist injury, the author of Paranatural once substituted a regular comic page update with a short side story called "THE ACTIVITY CLUB and the FINAL HOLE," detailing the exploits of Max, Isabel, and Isaac as they hunt a ghost that supposedly haunts the last hole of the mini-golf course at "Small Business Benson's Gas Station & Human Joy Emporium" on the outskirts of Mayview. They've been told the ghost can only be drawn out by playing a full round of mini-golf, so the Activity Club members are forced to golf their way past fake clowns and plastic skeletons, through pirate-ship lagoons full of stagnant water and swarming mosquitoes, and around a treacherous mini-windmill. The short story was eventually expanded to include illustrations and moved to Gumroad.

Web Video

• The Game Grumps playthrough of The Wacky World of Miniature Golf for the Phillips CD-I. Though they don't so much play a game about mini golf as much as they suffer a horrible game about mini golf. It's one of the few games they play where the normally jovial Dan Avidan is seething with Tranquil Fury.

Western Animation

• The Arthur episode "Spar for the Course" is about Binky, Buster, and Muffy trying to build a mini golf hole.
• Episode 7 of Bless the Harts, "Myrtle Beach Memoirs", features mother-daughter duo Jenny and Violet entering a mini-golf competition with a cash prize to try and make a little extra money. Violet discovers that the last hole is rigged, and is forced to work around that as she tries to land her final shot.
• Bob's Burgers episode "Putts Giving" sees the Belchers spend their Thanksgiving morning playing mini-golf at Planet Mystery World. The kids wind up breaking the course's animatronic yeti, while Linda gets overly competitive with Bob when she scores a hole-in-one.
• Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese: The episode "Putt Putt Pals" focuses on the gang forcing Boy to represent them in a mini golf competition against their adversary Stevie Smiths.
• Bugs Bunny Builders: "Mini-Golf" involves the Looney Builders building a new and more challenging final hole for the ACME Acres mini-golf course.
• The "Doom's-Day-Putt!" episode of Chop Chop Ninja sees ninja Iro enter a highly competitive game of mini-golf against a mini-golf champion (though unbeknownst to him, it's a trap set by The General and Splat).
• The "M.I.N.I.-G.O.L.F." episode of Codename: Kids Next Door pits Numbuh 2 against "miniature golf" enthusiast Rupert Puttkin, despite the fact that Numbuh 2 has never played (or shown any interest in) mini-golf. After Numbuh 2 wins by sheer beginner's luck, Puttkin goes nuts and becomes "The Great Puttinski", challenging Numbuh 2 to a rematch... one in which Numbuh 2 and various world monuments have been miniaturized with a Shrink Ray.
• Villain Lilli-putt is introduced in the Darkwing Duck episode Getting Antsy — he steals and shrinks monuments to decorate the grounds of "Goony Golf," his miniature golf course.
• Double D goes all out building the Eds' Miniature Golf Course in the Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Ed". Eddy was more concerned with expanding the business, including the addition of a cart rental. Ed was busy playing with sock puppets. Then their scam gets side-tracked when a bored Eddy convinces Ed that their friend is a super-intelligent lizard-man in disguise.
• In the The Fairly Oddparents episode "Pixies Inc.", Timmy builds his own miniature golf course for a school project. Unimpressed with how it looks, Timmy decides to wish for a professional-looking one, only to find out the Pixies have acquired Fairy World and all the Fairies in a hostile takeover. When Timmy finds out from Cosmo that the Head Pixie loves golf, he challenges HP to a game of mini-golf. If Timmy wins, he gets one free wish, and if HP wins, Timmy has to give Cosmo and Wanda up to him. After Timmy wins the game and the Fairies get Fairy World back, he decides to use his own homemade mini-golf course for his school project after all.
• The Fillmore! episode "The Nineteenth Hole is a Shallow Grave" is dedicated to Fillmore (who was an excellent mini-golf player in his delinquent days) going undercover when mini-golf players at the school appear to be throwing their matches. Like everything else in this series, it's treated as Serious Business, with X Middle School having its own mini-golf team who treats the game as seriously as professional golf.
• Gravity Falls episode "The Golf War" sees Mabel competing against her rival Pacifica Northwest to see who's better at miniature golf. They sneak into "Ye Royal Discount Putt Hutt" for an after-hours showdown, where Mabel and her brother Dipper have enlisted a secret society of tiny, golf-ball headed creatures called "Lilliputtians" who live in the golf course's miniature buildings to help defeat Pacifica. But the fiercely competitive Lilliputtians get carried away and try to kill Pacifica before turning on Mabel, forcing the kids to put aside their rivalry and team up to fight their way to freedom.
• The Kaeloo episode "Let's Play Golf" had the main four play mini-golf. After seeing Quack Quack and Mr. Cat do an extremely good job, Kaeloo feels insecure and decides to cheat so she doesn't look inferior to them.
• The New Woody Woodpecker Show: In "Miniature Golf Mayhem", Buzz Buzzard tricks Woody into playing a charity miniature golf game to scam him out of his money, disguising Tweaky as a mini-golf champion named Panther Irons. Buzz resorts to cheating to ensure that Tweaky wins, but when Woody discovers that Panther is really Tweaky, he fires back with a few tricks of his own.
• The Phineas and Ferb episode "Put That Putter Away" features the titular characters building a gigantic miniature golf course in their backyard when they find out that Little Duffer's, the town's only miniature golf course, is going out of business.
• Popples: In "Popples Play Pee Wee Golf", Billy and Bonnie want to buy a birthday present for their mother but have only seven dollars to spend on it. When Billy notices the local mini-golf course is offering a twenty-five-dollar prize to whoever makes a hole-in-one and, in spite of his sister's reluctance, they enter the golf course and lose the money. Two dollars on entrance fees and the rest on snacks for the popples. In the end, one of the popples scores a "hole-in-none" by jumping into a hole and the Wagner siblings give their mother a certificate for a free play at the mini-golf course.
• The Powerpuff Girls (2016): Season 1, Episode 12, "Mini Golf Madness" has the girls at a mini golf course where a mechanical mascot goes on a rampage in Townsville when Buttercup takes her winning golf ball with her.
• Ready Jet Go!:
  • The season 2 episode "Mini-Golf at the DSA" has the Deep Space Array install a mini golf course. The kids compete against the adults in the DSA's first mini-golf tournament, and they win by applying their knowledge of force.
  • Mini-golf is a major plot point in One Small Step. Mindy is very eager to play mini-golf at the sleepover. The reason that Jet and Sunspot went missing is because they were building a mini-golf course on the moon. The kids then play mini-golf there. Towards the end of the movie, Mitchell and Mindy play mini-golf together.
• The "Daddy Issues" episode of Regular Show reveals that CJ's father is Carl Putter, a successful mini-golfer whose training caused CJ to hate the sport. At Rigby's insistence, she competes in the Putterpalooza mini-golf competition in order to win a "Cut the Cheezers" card (which would allow the holder to travel to the front of the line at Cheezers for the rest of their life). CJ's father also joins the competition, resulting in a father-daughter showdown.
• The Rugrats (1991) episode, "Ice Cream Mountain" has Stu and Drew who are playing mini-golf; the babies are more interested in the "Ice Cream Mountain" hole, which is dominated by a giant plastic statue of a sundae they believe to be real ice cream. When they reach the statue, they discover that it isn't really made of ice cream, and in doing so, they un-rig the obstacle that was preventing Stu and Drew from getting a hole-in-one...
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Dead Putting Society", Homer forces Bart to enter a miniature golf tournament against Ned Flanders' son Todd. Bart does a good job, but both he and Todd get tired of so much pressure being put on them and deliberately end the match as a tie.
  • The episode "Natural Born Kissers" sees Homer and Marge visit a miniature golf course, though not to play, but rather to "get busy" inside the windmill hazard. Hilarity Ensues.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "A Friendly Game" has SpongeBob and Patrick build a miniature golf course inside SpongeBob's house when it's raining. They then try to play a round without disturbing their grumpy neighbor Squidward.
• Steven Universe episode "Rose's Room" starts with Steven eating four cans of creamed corn so he can take the Crystal Gems mini-golfing, only to face disappointment when they must immediately leave for another mission. He resorts to playing a mini-golf video game, Golf Quest Mini, but misses the all-important final cut scene of the "secret ending" when the Gems accidentally blow up his television. He finally gets his wish at the end of the episode when the Crystal Gems make time to go mini-golfing — Garnet even wears Greg's old golf pants.
• Tiny Toon Adventures:
  • In the short, "Miniature Goof" from the episode, "The Wacko World of Sports", Buster and Babs try to play a game of mini-golf on a course owned by Roderick and Rhubella Rat. After being treated unfairly by the Rats, Buster and Babs, disguised as Biff and Buffy Vanderbunny, challenge them to a game of mini-golf to claim ownership of the course.
  • In the short, "Minister Golf" from the episode, "Sports Shorts", while playing a game of mini-golf with Buster, Babs, and Hamton, Plucky tells them about the time he first played mini-golf as a baby with his father.
• In the "Peril Patch" episode of Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, a mysterious mini-golf course grows right up out of the ground for the trolls to play in. King Peppy warns that it's actually a plant that plays on the irresistible urge of its prey to play miniature golf, and once the plant thinks its drawn in enough Trolls it will seal the gates and trap everyone inside.
• The What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode "A Terrifying Round with a Menacing Metallic Clown" features Shaggy competing in a tournament at "Putt Putt Paradise," a mini-golf course haunted by a clown-shaped course obstacle that seemingly comes to life and attacks the mini-golfers. Velma goes off cowering with Scooby because she's afraid of clowns.
• In the "Putt with Honor" episode of WordGirl, TJ, Becky, and Eileen compete against each other in a mini-golf tournament for a place on the golf course's hall of fame.

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