The Check is No Longer in the Mail

My entry fee has been cashed and the receipt is in my inbox.

Entry fee to what?

The U.S. Open of Miniature Golf of course.

Wait, what?  And why are you blogging?

The answers to both of those are tied together  It's true, The Putting Penguin is not known for blogging.  We leave that to the most famous bloggers in the miniature golf world.  Our main focus is providing a website dedicated to miniature golf course reviews. However, part of our miniature golf experience is also playing in tournaments.  While we focus on the family atmosphere and the accessibility of miniature golf for everyone, we also want to be part of the competitive side of the sport.

So we'd thought it would be fun to give you insight into the preparation and tournament experience of an everyday auditor who also happens to be a professional miniature golfer.  For the next five weeks I'll be providing insight into what miniature golf tournaments are all about, tournament preparation, traveling to the course, pre-tournament practice and of course day of tournament thoughts.

To start our journey you should learn about me, your humble miniature golfer.  For those of you familiar with The Putting Penguin, you know that Mandy and I started our miniature golf reviews in 2001 and have grown from that first review into the world’s largest miniature golf course review website.  It was a scant two years later that we played in our first miniature golf tournament  - the Mini Greater Hartford Open at Blue Fox Walk in Simsbury, CT.  From there a love of competition was born.  While Mandy will play in tournaments from time to time, I represent The Putting Penguin more often in tournaments.  Most of what we play is local but we've both competed in a handful of United States Professional Miniature Golf Association (USPMGA) tournaments.

Playing in my first US Open in 2014

My first USPMGA U.S. Open was in 2004, just a year after I started competitively playing.  It was held in Myrtle Beach over three different courses that I had never played until the day before the tournament began. I was an inexperienced as both a player and on the courses and the results reflected that.  I finished in 25th.  I returned to the U.S. Open field when the tournament was held on one of my favorite courses, Dolphin Minigolf, and was able to boost my way up to 13th. Locations and other factors kept me away for 6 more years until triumphantly returning to the U.S. Open scene with a 12th place finish in 2014 at Bluegrass Minigolf, after a underwhelming day 1. My day 2 rounds were up there with the best players in the tournament.  This year, I travel to NC with the goal of increasing my personal best and hopefully cracking the top ten.

To date, I've played in 36 tournaments (both USPMGA and local) and had a great year in 2011 where I won 3 of them.  My highest finish in a USPMGA tournament is 5th. All this leads to a whopping career earnings of $1,710 (stay in school kids).  While most people still associate me primarily with The Putting Penguin (not a bad thing by any means and a fact I play up with my tournament clothing), I'd like to think that over the years I've earned some respect from the more hardcore players on tour as being a true professional miniature golfer.  My focus on the "game" of minigolf will always be greater than the "sport" of minigolf, so while I might never be among the world’s best, I'm happy that I’m at least within striking distance in most tournaments.

The important thing to remember as you read about my journey over the next 5 weeks is that you can do this too. The total cost to enter the U.S. Open is less than $150 (dues plus entry fees) and you can make a vacation out of the trip. We'll talk in future posts about the skills needed to play in a tournament but they are accessible to everyone, especially those who already have a love of golf. I'm not saying you’ll walk onto the greens and be able to putt past Matt McCaslin, Brad Lebo or Olivia Prokpova in your first tournament (or your 50th) but you can earn respectable finishes and be able to call yourself a professional miniature golfer.  What could be better than that?

Pat Sheridan

Co-Founder of The Putting Penguin