Golf Quest
Mini-Golf: The Castle Course Return
to Connecticut
page
(860) 621-3663
Price: $6 Other
Activities: Driving Range and Batting Cage
Par: No par listed
2001 Ratings 2009
Ratings
Difficulty: 5 Difficulty: 4
Creativity: 2 Creativity: 2
Atmosphere: 4 Atmosphere: 4
2001 Review
Sadly, we find ourselves again at a course that isn’t too good and not all that fun to play. Although its ratings show that it is better than some of the courses we’ve played, its proximity to another great course makes playing here less than appealing. Unfortunately, this course is visible from I-84, which probably means that it does more business than it really should.
Let’s start with the atmosphere, the only ratings section in which this course seems to try to put some effort into. It all begins with the staff at the ball and club booth. Although the guy was nice enough, he came across as indifferent and you could tell this was nothing more than an after-school job for him. This is better than some courses we’ve been at, but one really does like to see people who enjoy their job and the game of mini-golf working the counter. From there the atmosphere tries to pick up with a decent landscaping around the course. This course isn’t the eyesore that some we’ve played are. However, even this takes a dip as you move around the course and find a few thorn bushes thrown in and a couple of places where the vegetation is slowly taking over the hole. More negative points on the atmosphere scale arise with the occurrence of those dreaded holes in the carpet for drainage. As we’ve seen in other lower-end courses, this seems to be the only solution to keeping water off the carpets, whereas better courses have found alternate ways to solve drainage problems. Going along with the water theme, the waterfall works but the little rivers that run through the course do not. The main problem here seems to be that the lake under the waterfall doesn’t have enough water in it to flow over it’s edge, causing the movement of the rivers. In another attempt to add some good to this course, there is a miniature version of Castle Krieg that sits upon a hill in Southington/Meriden. Even though it is not used as an obstacle this dash of local color adds points. There are two more small points that take away from the course atmosphere. First, there are flags in every hole. Now, while that may seem like a nifty idea, it’s a bit annoying when you have to keep pulling the pin. Second, some of the few obstacles and sand traps that exist are in disarray. They were in dire need of some paint and a little maintenance. Additionally, you can tell that the course has tried to move the cup placement from time to time because you can easily spot where the old cup was. You can even pick up the section of carpet where the cup used to be. (Good courses cover old cups with obstacles or find a way to make it near seemless). This makes for some nice ridges and strange putting if your ball happens to travel over the old cup. As one final note on atmosphere, this course had no pars on the holes.
Difficulty on this course is about average. There’s some hard holes and some easy holes, but nothing that really pushes the scale in one direction. However, we again found ourselves having problems rating the difficulty because of such design flaws as the drainage holes which adds to the misery of some holes. Another point that wasn’t mention above is that every hole slopes 3”down in the back where the sidewalk to the next hole begins. Thus, if you over shoot the hole and get within about 6” of the back wall, rest assured you’ll be back against the concrete. There is no saving yourself from the Golf Quest dip.
Then there’s creativity. Not much to say about that on this course because there is very little. There is one neat obstacle that almost guarantees a hole in one (except for myself of course) and nifty use of a water hazard. Other than those two standouts, one mostly finds lots of holes that are green and have a few bumps. This course also overuses the two-cups-for-one-hole concept. It’s fine to have something like that once and a while, especially if there is a penalty associated with one cup, but to do it 3-4 times on a course is ridiculous. What makes it even more confusing is that only one cup has a flag in it. Does this mean we are supposed to shoot at that cup? If so, then what the heck is the other cup there for? Again, we always look for the good in the bad and yes, this course did have a phallic hole. Chalk yet another one up for Mr. Freud.
As a last note to this review, it is only too fitting that Mandy nailed the free game hole on the final hole (she always gets them). Thus, we have a pass to a mini-golf course that we may never want to play again. Such is our luck.
Reviewed by Pat, Mandy and Putt
Reviewed in 2001
2009 Review
After 8 years, a couple of us stopped back at this course to give it a new review since the sign touted “new minigolf carpets.” First, we wanted to address a couple of points from the previous review. The course did remove the flags from the holes, but the multi-cup holes are still around. We played this course on July 4th and none of the water was working (waterfall included). We were also the only people on the course, which may say something for the condition the course is in. The slope of the holes also wasn’t as evident as before, which is a good thing, however there was still some overgrowth on some of the holes, which made putting interesting.
The first new item we’d like to talk about is the new carpets. While they were in pretty good condition, they were some of the strangest minigolf carpets we’ve ever played on in terms of texture. They felt almost like a cheap carpet you might through in a rec room in your house. Some of the different colors were interesting, but there were holes that had some combination of colors at the front of the hole. We thought it might indicate a tee area, but it wasn’t consistent throughout the course so it just looked as if they needed a place to stick some extra carpeting. The holes themselves haven’t gotten any more creative. There’s no real features and the only hole that seemed to have one (Hole 15) we couldn’t figure out how to possibly hit the ball into the obstacle. The one good thing we can say about the course is that the price is still a pretty reasonable $6 for a round.
Given the overall difficulty and creativity of the holes, coupled with the overall boring atmosphere and unexciting course conditions, we would recommend playing on of the other miniature golf courses in the area over this one.
Reviewed by Pat, Liz and Putt
Reviewed in 2009
2009 Course Pictures (click to enlarge)
Interesting
carpet, but no theme to go along with it
Putt
can’t figure out how to use the obstacle
Free game hole- hard but not impossible
Map
Price: $4
Par: No par listed
Difficulty: 1
Creativity: 1
Atmosphere: 1
I am usually generous with my rating scores but this course was in absolutely deplorable condition. Golf Quest franchises do not seem to be interested in maintaining their mini-golf facilities.
Reviewed by: Glenda R.
Reviewed in 2017
Price: $6
Par: No par listed
Difficulty: 1
Creativity: 1
Atmosphere: 1
I went this morning with my husband and 10yr
daughter. It was my daughters first time playing. Unfortunately
we found the course dirty and run down. It was evident that it had not been
taken care of in a long time. The carpets were filthy and moldy. The water was
black and not filtered. I asked the attendant about why the course was so
filthy, and was greeted with a shrugging of the shoulders. Needless to say, we will not be returning.
Reviewed by Tara
Reviewed in 2011