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Promoting Christianity With Mini-Golf

dot23

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Aug 21, 2001
Messages
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This is one of the craziest pages I've stumbled across in recent times and I'd like to share with the group: Golgotha Biblical Mini-Golf
Cave City, Kentucky

In today's franchised brand character-choked mini-golf industry, it's refreshing to see someone attempt a relatively unique theme. And what better brand recognition than God's own time-tested characters and stories, available for not a dime of trademark licensing?

Golgotha Fun Park is ideally situated -- an offbeat diversion near Mammoth Cave National Park, with appeal to both Christian family vacationers and the unconverted. According to an entrance sign, it is America's #1 Shaded Biblical Mini-Golf. Other bible-themed courses have been reported in Lexington, KY; Myrtle Beach, SC; and Nashville, TN.

But Golgotha is alive and well since it opened in 1992, perched atop a shady, pebbled Calvary hill on Highway 70, part of the Cave City tourism Mecca (hey...how come no one ever builds an Islamic Jihad Mini-Golf?).

Three white crosses loom near the parking lot and mark the final hole; to get there, determined players putt their way through the hazards and miracles of the Good Book. After renting a club and ball in the gift shop, eager Golgotha fans line up at hole #1, The Book of Genesis. The first nine holes are inspired by the Old Testament: Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Moses parting the Red Sea, Daniel and the Lion. A sign at each hole helpfully spells out the relevant Biblical passage.

Obstacles are standard mini-golf course tunnels, twists, and chutes. We're amused that the scenes are comprised of repurposed lawn ornaments and cement statuettes -- no priest-folk artist spent his life carving here. Jonah sits in the Whale's mouth, comfortable in shorts; a statue of St. Francis monitors porcelain animal pairs boarding the Ark. Old Testament stories make for better hazards, so the first nine holes are easy to identify without reading the signs.

The New Testament holes are sparsely decorated, looser, at least one featuring elves and men in lederhosen where an Apostle or leper might have done the trick. As the holes cut back and forth across the hill, the game accelerates. The end is in sight -- Golgotha, "The Place of Skulls," where Jesus was crucified. An uphill challenge past the crosses finishes at the Lord's ascension up to Heaven.

While in the gift shop returning your club and ball, look for the Bible Mini-golf T-shirt with a pair of skulls on the back. And there is life after Resurrection: Golgotha features a Go-Cart course and paintball skirmish zone.

[latest reports]September 2002: Reported closed and in a state of gradual deterioration. July 2001: Reports from visitors suggest Golgotha is up for sale. It has "inconsistent" hours for now, so don't plan your whole vacation around this place.
Check out the link so you can see the piccies - particularly the one of people putting amongst crucifixes. As the 'latest report' shows it may no longer be in operation, but boy, this shows some Chutzpah. It's amazing it lasted that long without being firebombed!! Or struck by lightening ;)
 
It's rather set me thinking of the crazy golf course in The Simpsons where they have the Lincoln monument opening and closing its legs.

Maybe they could have one where a large stone rolls back and forth in front of a cave?
 
The reason I updated this ancient thread was to provide a space for this much more recent odd news item - a mini-golf course installed in the Rochester Cathedral nave for the next month.
Tee at the cathedral: House of worship adds mini-golf course

Putts are joining prayers at Britain’s Rochester Cathedral, where a mini-golf course has been installed inside the medieval house of worship.

The course runs along the central nave and features a bridge-themed design. It’s intended to teach young people about engineering, and also has spiritual overtones.

The cathedral’s Rev. Rachel Phillips says it’s hoped “visitors will reflect on the bridges that need to be built in their own lives and in our world today.”

The course is open throughout August, though not at times when services are held.

Not everyone is thrilled with the addition to the cathedral 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of London, parts of which are almost 1,000 years old.

In Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph, religious commentator Tim Stanley called the golf course “an act of desecration.”
SOURCE: https://www.apnews.com/442ace1347f44867bffac3618184d3f8

Adventure Golf at the Cathedral
July 01, 2019

A bridge-themed adventure golf course in the Nave of Rochester Cathedral this August

Kent’s most unusual adventure golf course will be at Rochester Cathedral this summer. Created in partnership with the Rochester Bridge Trust, the Medieval Nave will be filled with a bridge-themed adventure golf course. The course has been designed to encourage young people to learn more about the engineering behind bridges.

An opportunity to learn while having fun

SOURCE: https://www.rochestercathedral.org/articles/2019/6/24/adventure-golf-at-the-cathedral
 
Update:

The Golgotha Bible Mini Golf course was purportedly closed and / or up for sale as early as 2001. Subsequent reports on Roadside America indicate it was eventually closed and fell into disrepair. The property had been sold and was being converted to other tourist uses as of 2011.

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/3342
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/517
'The Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to block access from your country'. Nice.
 
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