Putt putt for weirdos

We’ve covered some pretty weird and wonderful crazy golf courses over the years, but Smash Putt really takes things into a new dimension.

Described as the “miniature golf apocalypse”, it takes the form of a pop up nightclub in unused spaces around Seattle since 2009.

It’s variously been located in an old candy factory, a former Immigration and Naturalization Service building in the International District, and now a former Mexican restaurant.

But sadly this project is coming to an end:

According to Smash Putt co–founder Jeremy Franklin–Ross “Our mission is to make the world weirder. With Smash Putt I think we’ve fulfilled it.”

Smash Putt was designed a motely crew from woodworkers to software programmers, and combined hi and low tec.

You can shoot golf balls out of pneumatic cannons onto circular–saw blades and propane tanks.

There’s even a larger than version of the game Operation, where you have to extract golf balls from holes with giant tweezers.

Or you can try your hand at composing music by placing balls into a rotating turntable with divots, which is hooked up to drums and a guitar.

Franklin-Ross first had the idea for Smash Putt after a road trip in the early 2000s to Massachusetts, when he visited a friend who was part of a mini-golf league.

The rules of her club dictated that if a player saw certain putt-putt clichés (a dinosaur, a water feature), she had to get as close to it as possible and smoke pot.

“I don’t smoke pot,” Franklin–Ross said, “so, waiting for her to light up, I had a lot of time to think about the construct of miniature golf. As a child, I found miniature golf disappointing. There’s a windmill, there’s a dinosaur, but you can’t touch any of it! It was boring.”

So Franklin–Ross dreamed up a new idea, putt-putt for weirdos, and has been pursuing that dream since 2009. 

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