Compact Golf

In the wake of the golfing boom--now the biggest in the history of the sport--is a burgeoning, popular, profitable boomlet: compact golf.

Compact golf is several things. It is "pitch-and-putt," where the average hole is 50 yds.; "par-three" (also called "par-thirty" and "executive''), in which the average hole is 150 yds., with several par-four holes; and putting courses, also known as miniature golf.

Golfing in the Dark. The fastest-growing form is par-three golf. Six years ago, there were only some 100 courses in the

U.S.; today there are about 575, with new ones being added at the rate of 100 a year. The reasons for their popularity are not hard to find. Country clubs are expensive and crowded; municipal courses are jammed. Says Assistant Director Roy Holland of the National Golf Foundation: "Standard 18-hole courses are so crowded these days that it takes about five hours to go out and play a round of golf. You can play a nine-hole par-three course in an hour and a quarter. Housewives can rush over to a par-three after they send their kids to school and be back by noontime to feed them. They're great, too, for giving instruction, for beginners and older people. And they offer a tremendous amount of variety--a player can use every club in his bag."

Another factor in favor of compact courses is the skyrocketing cost of real estate. An 18-hole standard course takes 125-175 acres, but 18-hole par-three takes only 40 because of its smaller tees and greens and shortened fairways. This also enables compact courses to be built much closer to cities; some 200 of them are equipped with mercury-vapor lamps and are thronged far into the night.

Holes in One. Miniature golf, idiot's delight of the Depression years, is also coming back strong. In the 19303, Tom Thumb courses sprouted in everybody's vacant lot, set up for about $30 in cash, some scrap lumber and a can of paint. Today they tend to be elaborate and mass-produced, leased on a franchise basis.

One major mass-producer is Don Clayton, 37, of Fayetteville, N.C. An insurance mortgage broker nine years ago, he built his first course during an ulcer-enforced vacation, added a second within weeks, and took in around $13,000 during his first year of business. Clayton's Putt-Putt Golf Courses Inc. has more than 350 courses going in 36 states (plus Panama, Japan, Okinawa and Canada), and he expects to add 45 more this year. Cost per course is from $6,500 to $44,000, plus the standard $200 franchise fee and a straight 3% of the gross. His gross last year: $6,000,000.

Miniature golf is especially popular with teenagers, but many regular golfers are addicts. Clayton is planning a $100,000 National Open Tournament for putters in 1965. "It isn't a fad," explained a Putt-Putt executive last week. "We avoid putting in new traps and other gimmicks. What we're doing is building a golf course on which a golfer can score a hole in one on every hole."

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