The country's oldest mini golf course may soon see its final putt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Local News | Feb 12

The country’s oldest mini golf course may soon see its final putt

Matt Blitz


National Links Trust co-founder Mike McCartin plays through Mount Vernon at the East Potomac Park Miniature Golf Course.
Tyrone Turner / WAMU

Late last year, the Trump administration terminated the lease held by the nonprofit National Links Trust to manage D.C.’s three public golf courses. It also left the future of the country’s oldest continuously operating mini golf course in doubt.

The East Potomac Park mini golf course is nestled near Hains Point. Boats docked at the Wharf are visible from the first hole. Like a full-size golf course, the mini version has 18 holes. Instead of sand traps and water hazards, golfers have to navigate a metal loop-de-loop, a clown’s mouth and cutouts of D.C.-area landmarks, such as the U.S. Capitol and Mount Vernon.

Before the snow and ice froze the District, Mike McCartin, co-founder of the National Links Trust, showed off his skills on the historic mini golf course, putting up a loop-de-loop and getting the brightly colored ball within inches of the hole. ... “I’ve probably played [this course], I don’t know, 50 times or something like that,” he says. “And actually made a hole-in-one here, which I consider basically the highlight of my golf career… mini golf or non-mini golf.”

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“Probably the most fun thing was bringing back the obstacles that are within the course. There’s a very large loop-de-loop that was part of the original course, which had been lost here on the second hole,” McCartin says.


“I would call it like a cross between a marshmallow man and kind of like a clown’s mouth,” says Mike McCartin, trying to describe the distinctive obstacle on the 17th hole at the East Potomac Park Miniature Golf Course.
Tyrone Turner / WAMU

There’s also the creepy obstacle on the 17th hole. ... “I would call it like a cross between a marshmallow man and… a clown’s mouth,” McCartin says.

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[twodogsbarking]

1. and now he is coming for mini golf