Like its namesake, miniature golf started in Scotland, at the Ladies Putting Club of St. Andrews, which in 1867 had a "Himalayas" 18-hole putting green. (At the time, women were not permitted to swing the club past their shoulders.)
James Barber's Thistle Du putting course, built in 1916 in Pinehurst, N.C., was America's first mini-golf course. During the Depression, more than 150 courses dotted the rooftops of Manhattan. In 1964, Astroturf was invented, and soon after the game became a roadside attraction where parents could take their children for inexpensive fun — an activity, that like Saturday morning cartoons, most kids outgrow. That is, of course, if they don't decide to play professionally.
