By Sarah Fertsch
Staff Writer
Writer and Event Coordinator Steffen Klenk and I continued our quest to complete and review every mini golf course on the Ocean City Boardwalk. This past Thursday, we played three courses: OC Adventure Golf, Tee-Time Golf, and Congo Falls Lost City.
OC Adventure Golf
Our first stop was OC Adventure Golf. This course is owned and operated by the OC Waterpark, formerly Gillian’s Island Water Park.
The course winds through the waterpark and offers cool views of the slides and children’s splash zone.
We played in the evening, after the waterpark closed, but Steffen and I imagined how interesting our experience would have been if we had seen sliders climbing stairs and splashing around in inner tubes.
OC Adventure Golf unfortunately left much to be desired. Empty drink bottles, food containers, and even waterpark towels created unexpected obstacles along the greens.
Crispy autumn leaves made walking between holes slippery. Random puddles combined with dirt forced us to hop from green to green. The first part of the course is in a cavern with poor lighting; so bad that we couldn’t see the hole we were putting toward.
Some highlights included multiple waterfalls and playful lawn flamingos. The course wasn’t crowded so we could play through each hole quickly.
Each hole was pretty standard with no real obstacles, except for golf-course-style sand traps and stone pits. The course was simple enough that I got a couple holes-in-one.
Ultimately, for around $10 per person, this course isn’t worth the price. I would say that this course was one of the worst that we played.
Tee-Time Golf
Our second stop was Tee-Time Golf. With its colorful and larger-than-life animals and retro feel, Steffen and I expected that this course would be Goofy Golf’s twin. We didn’t expect that this course would be one of our favorites, but it certainly was.
When we entered the course (which only costs $5 per player), we were asked to leave our drinks outside, which shocked us in the moment, but when we saw how divinely clean the space was, we understood. We had never seen a Boardwalk property so clean. In fact, the course operator was vacuuming between customers.
Each hole had a different theme, and almost every hole had a moving component, such as the Flintstones’ prehistoric peddle car, challenging players to put the ball past the dangling feet.
Other holes included an old-fashioned biplane with a moving propeller, an octopus spinning its tentacles in front of a hole, and a “golf school” with an opening and closing door. Lucy the Elephant guards hole 2, and later in the course, golfers can play pinball by putting into a chute and watching the ball get struck by slow-moving levers and poppers.
Unlike Goofy Golf and OC Adventure Golf, each hole was mathematically sound, meaning that if you hit the ball into a specific slot, the tube through which your ball would travel would directly lead to a perfect hole-in-one.
The course was level and easily passed through, with yellow brick roads, guiding groups from hole to hole. Hole 19 gave golfers the opportunity to putt into the boot-shaped home of the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe and win a free game. And if you didn’t win, the ball would travel up a windmill into a tube above your head, looping back into the entry. It was awesome.
Lost City
For our third round, Steffen and I walked south down the Boardwalk back to Congo Falls, where we played their second course, Lost City.
Multiple signs warned parents that this course wasn’t kid-friendly and rated PG. The course would be entirely indoors and air-conditioned. I remembered playing this course when I was in middle school. My friends and I shrieked at all kinds of pop-scares and creepy decor.
We braced ourselves as we descended stairs toward the first hole. The space was large and tribal-themed. Huge trees masked pillars and pop-out bats or heads on stakes.
Compressed air would shoot out, making us jump with surprise. All in all, there were few scary elements, limited to a skeleton emerging from the bushes, shooting compressed air, another skeleton with illuminated eyes trapped underneath plexiglass, and a moving giant tribal head warning golfers to turn back.
Besides the spooky elements, the course had tribal designs, mummies hung from the ceiling, and waterfalls with bridges nearby. Each hole was pretty similar to the next, but most golfers were distracted by the pop scares.
Personally, I felt that the course could have been scarier, given the signage outside. The holes could have had more variety of obstacles and thrills. It was a pretty easy course and served as an excellent cover for rain or bad weather, especially if you parent teenagers.
The Results
After the night was over, Steffen and I debriefed our mini golf games.
Our favorite by far was Tee-Time, potentially beating out Seaport for our No. 1 pick. Seaport has great theming and really feels like our home, Ocean City, but Tee-Time is perfect for families, especially kids.
Lost City wasn’t very memorable, but was good enough for a night on the Boardwalk. OC Adventure Golf needs some restoration and with a little TLC, could be one of the top mini golf courses on the Boardwalk.
Stay tuned for next week’s edition of Mini Golf Review, where Steffen will write on our final three courses: Haunted Golf, Pirates of the Golden Galleon, and Congo Falls Solomon’s Mine.
For now, may you hit a hole-in-one wherever you choose to play!
