Miniature Golf: Indoors and Out
Every November we head to Chicago to attend the annual Chicago Toy & Game Fair held at Navy Pier. We meet up with some favorite game companies like Endless Games, Spin Master, Looney Labs and more. We also love discovering new companies and products that are either just about to hit the retails shelves or are late in their planning stages. Oh, and of course we grab some famous Chicago-style deep dish pizza while we’re in town!
2013 was the first year our girls wanted to participate in the process and helped out by filming a number of on-site interviews. One of them was with Noochie Golf, a new company with a very unique product.
Like I did, the people at Noochie Golf grew up in an age of miniature golf courses. At one time you could find many of them in every city – think of how over-saturated the yogurt store market is today, that’s how many courses there were around. I personally remember long wait times to get on a course back in the 70’s. Sometimes as long as 2 hours!
There is only one course that I’m aware of in our area, and it is rather plain. No windmills, volcanoes or water hazards – just a plan course that I have to pay $8/round for. With four of us in the family, that’s over $35 with tax every time we want to play one round. Noochie Golf saw that problem and came up with this solution – a portable mini golf course you can set up in your own yard, driveway or even inside the house!
This is much more than a hole in your yard and a couple golf balls. This is a high-quality configurable plastic course, allowing for over 25 different layouts in one box. Combine it with a second set and your possibilities are almost endless! (Well, maybe not endless – I’ll let someone else do the math.)
Connecting the four included panels is a snap – literally. Much like assembling a train track, the plastic tiles lock into place creating a very well done and almost seamless transition to the next panel.
Each panel is covered with artificial turf perfectly mimicking the surface you would play on at your local miniature golf course.
One of the included panels also has a couple hazards to avoid. No, they’re not as neat as a rotating windmill, but also a LOT safer for the age group this is targeted towards (3-8).
What we thought would be a drawback to the set – the need to take apart and reassemble it for different holes, actually turned out to be a bonus for the kids playing. They had a ton of fun just creating different layouts and challenging themselves with harder and harder holes.
The Noochie Golf starter set includes everything you need to get up and running, including two regulation-sized golf balls, a kid-sized putter, four panels and instructions with suggested layouts. Additional individual panels and replacement balls and putters can be picked up in their online store. It would be nice to see a 3-panel discount if you’re adding to your set (or even a deluxe package with more panels). Maybe that will be in their next round.
Our kids may not ever get to experience miniature golf like we all once did, but thanks to Noochie Golf, the game isn’t completely out of reach. For under $100 you get the entire setup. You’ll just have to make your own water hazards.
Follow Noochie Golf on Facebook and Twitter to see what shapes and obstacles they come up with next!
That looks like fun. It’s definitely more affordable than paying to take the family to a golf course. Great way to introduce the game too.
This would be great for a kids birthday party! Looks like they had a lot of fun!
What a great idea! I think grandpa will secretly buy one for himself and use it in his office all day! Mini Golf at home. love it
This seems like a fun game. I don’t think I can remember the last time I was miniature golfing. I bet my kids would get a big kick out of the game.
Kids sure do love miniature golf and this makes it easy to play right at home. I am glad to see that having to take it apart doesn’t take away from the game at all! I would have worried about that too. Very nice!
My kids would love this. Looks fun and easy to set up.
My 9 year old would totally love this! He’d put it in his room and play it all the time! He’s crazy good when we go on vacation!
We love playing miniature golf. This is such a fun way to spend time with the family and kids.
This looks so fun. I think my family would really enjoy this!
I used to love playing miniature gold! I think there may still be one or two around here somewhere. I think this is a great idea this company came up with!!
That looks like so much fun. I love mini golf
Gotta like minigolf!
This would be a fun way to spend an afternoon…
As someone who LOVES mini golf, I totally appreciate this option of playing at home!
I am a pretty big minigolf fan but $75 seems pretty high for one hole. It would be great to be able to set up more than one at once as well as have more than just a basic hole.
Stephen, thank you for taking the time to read and comment, we greatly appreciate that!. The interchangeable pieces were designed to make over 25 combinations. Additional pieces can be added and exponentionally more courses created. The starter set comes with 26 recomended layouts.
*recommended*
Thank you all for your kind words. This is our “family” project that has taken 5 years to make it to market. Our sons Tre and Dom are super excited to see their invention become a reality.
This looks like a lot of fun, and I know my family would enjoy it.
I love this premise, especially since we have a rather small backyard ourselves. All of the different configurations look really neat too!
I like the grass for your driveway.
$130 is way too high for a children’s toy like this.. I could take my daughter mini golfing on a much bigger course 13 times for the same price.. definitely a cool toy but way too expensive.. I’d say the price point should be around $59.99 TOPS.
Ashley – It’s been a couple years since we reviewed this set and at the time it was under $100. I haven’t checked, but perhaps they upgraded the components or changed what the set includes since then.