Miniature golf

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Miniature golf is a game in which players putt a golf ball through a series of short obstacle courses. As of 2026, there are no miniature golf courses within the city of Charlottesville. The Putt-Putt Golf Course on Rio Road in Albemarle County, founded by LF Wood, has operated since the 1960s.

A short-lived but intense miniature golf craze swept Charlottesville during the summer of 1930, part of a nationwide fad. At least four courses operated within the city limits during the peak months of June through August. City Council moved quickly to regulate them, and the Young Men's Business Club organized inter-city team competitions. By 1931 the craze had subsided.

1930s craze

Courses

Charlottesville Tom Thumb Golf Course

The first miniature golf course announced in Charlottesville was the Charlottesville Tom Thumb Golf Course, situated in the vacant lot on West Main Street opposite the Lewis and Clark monument. The Daily Progress reported on May 7, 1930 that work was beginning on the 18-hole course, which was operated "under the original Tom Thumb patents" and featured "trees, greens and hazards complete." The promoters advertised that "no two holes are alike" and that the course could be played "in every sort of garb from bathing suits to evening clothes—all day long and at night beneath the lights."[1]

A lost-and-found advertisement on May 27 sought a gold, 17-jewel watch lost on the Tom Thumb golf course.[2]

The course held weekly tournaments with prizes. At one such tournament concluded July 2, 18 ladies and eight men competed. Lyttleton Waddell won the grand prize, a floor lamp, and also took the ladies' weekly prize, a Spanish shawl. Brick Chisholm won the men's grand prize of $10 in merchandise and Harry A. Hawkins won the men's weekly prize of $5.[3] At the following week's tournament on July 8, F.O. Wygals won a Spanish shawl and Harry Hicks won the men's prize of $5.[4]

Little Farmington

Little Farmington was a miniature golf course on West Main Street, opposite the University Drive-It-Yourself Corporation car rental office at 1200 West Main Street. It opened on June 7, 1930 and had a par of 44.[5][6]

Little Farmington hosted the Young Men's Business Club team matches and awarded trophies for individual play. On July 5, Jill King won the ladies' Fourth of July trophy and "Froggy" Maupin won the men's. A midsummer tournament was announced for July 31, with separate trophies for YMBC members, ladies, and men, with qualifying rounds beginning July 5.[7]

University Course

An 18-hole sand and clay miniature golf course on Ivy Road, opposite Memorial Gymnasium, opened on June 16, 1930. Its opening advertisement noted it was "only a few minutes walk from car line" and "within corporate limits."[8]

Jack Jouett Golf Course

The Jack Jouett Golf Course was built in the yard of the old Swan Tavern on Court Square. It opened on August 4, 1930. The Daily Progress described it as "unique and beautiful," with "the most modern greens" and "the best approved lighting system." Its office was "of colonial cottage type in conformity with that of Jack Jouett's day," and it had a par of 45. Its promoters hoped the course would "add to the pleasure of the Monticello Hotel guests, as well as that of the whole community."[9]

Regulation

On June 3, 1930, City Council placed a $50 annual tax on miniature golf courses, which the Daily Progress noted "have sprung up within the city in the past few weeks," and set a nightly closing hour of midnight.[10]

The ordinances were published the following day. Section 288 of the City Code was amended to group miniature golf courses with billiard saloons, pool rooms, bowling alleys, and shooting galleries. While the latter establishments were required to close from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., miniature golf courses were given a later closing time of midnight to 7 a.m. No gambling devices of any kind were permitted.[11] A new Section 57½ of the License Tax Ordinance imposed a $50 tax on every license to operate a miniature or Tom Thumb golf course, with no pro rata reduction for partial-year operation.[12]

Young Men's Business Club competitions

The Young Men's Business Club (YMBC) organized miniature golf team competitions against other cities during the summer of 1930. Matches were played in a cumulative-score format, with each club fielding teams of ten to fourteen players.

The first match was held on June 26, 1930, at Little Farmington, against the Staunton YMBC. The Charlottesville team won decisively, with the low score turned in by H. A. Yancey, the city manager.[13][14]

On July 11, the club announced it would send a team to Staunton for a return match the following week.[15] The Waynesboro YMBC also accepted an invitation to play in Charlottesville on July 24.[16] That match, played at Little Farmington, resulted in a Waynesboro victory.[17]

On July 31, the Charlottesville team traveled to Waynesboro for a return match, where they were hosted at a dinner at Blue Ridge Terrace before the tournament.[18] Waynesboro won again.[19]

Charlottesville won the final documented match on August 14 at Little Farmington.[6]

Sunday play controversy

The question of whether miniature golf courses could legally operate on Sundays became a contested issue across Virginia and the nation during the summer of 1930.

On July 17, 1930, the Daily Progress reported that a jury in Roanoke had ruled that playing miniature golf on Sunday was not unlawful.[20]

In Charlottesville, a test case was brought on October 15, 1930, when W.H. Walking, the manager of a miniature golf course "uptown," was voluntarily arrested for permitting Sunday play. Police Justice J. Callan Brooks took the case under advisement.[21]

On October 21, Justice Brooks dismissed the charge, ruling that Sunday miniature golf constituted a "reasonable necessity" under Virginia's blue laws. Walking had been defended by City Attorney John S. Graves and Jesse B. Wilson—the latter also a member of the YMBC miniature golf team. Brooks gave his decision "only after studying for several days the opinions handed down by judges of the lower courts and supreme court of appeals in cases growing out of alleged violations of the so-called Blue Laws." He cited the Roanoke precedent, in which Judge John M. Hart of the hustings court had instructed the jury that "the purpose of the law in prohibiting work from being done on Sunday is to give the public a rest from its customary labor for the benefit of both the moral and physical nature of mankind, and not for the purpose of enforcing the beliefs or tenets of any religious creed or denomination." Brooks acknowledged that the question had "huge ramifications and a decision either way will have both adherents and opponents," but concluded that "any act committed on Sunday which in itself is a harmless relaxation is becoming to be construed as not violative of the spirit of the so-called Blue Laws."[22]

Not all Virginia courts agreed. In January 1931, Judge T. Gray Haddon of Richmond's police court ruled that operating a miniature golf course on Sunday was a violation of the blue laws, concluding that "the operation of a miniature golf course is not a necessity."[23]

Social commentary

The miniature golf craze drew mixed reactions. On July 7, 1930, the Daily Progress quipped: "The boy who refused to play croquet because it was a sissy game has grown up to spend his time putting on the miniature golf courses."[24] Three days later, the paper ran an Associated Press item from Jersey City under the headline "Miniature Golf Induces Profanity," reporting that Archdeacon J.A. McCleary of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church had successfully blocked a permit for a miniature golf course near his church on the grounds that the game induced profanity.[25]

Decline

By 1931, the miniature golf craze in Charlottesville had largely subsided. In May 1931, a classified advertisement offered a "cheap Tom-Thumb-Golf" course for sale, "located next to Johnson's, Main St., Charlottesville," touting that it had "had 22,000 players last summer" and was "good business for the summer." Replies were directed to a box in Danville, Virginia.[26] In later years, the Tom Thumb golf craze served as a byword for short-lived business fads. A 1934 column reprinted in the Daily Progress observed that "bartender schools are mushrooming in the manner of Tom Thumb golf courses."[27]

References

  1. ↑ Web. Will Establish Tom Thumb Golf, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-05-07, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 6.
  2. ↑ Web. Lost, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-05-27, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 11.
  3. ↑ Web. Golf Tourney Awards, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-07-02, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 10.
  4. ↑ Web. Golf Tourney Awards, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-07-08, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 10.
  5. ↑ Web. Little Farmington, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-06-07, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 1.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Web. Golfers Down Waynesboro, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-08-14, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 1.
  7. ↑ Web. Winners, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-07-05, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 1.
  8. ↑ Web. Opening Tonight, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-06-16, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 1.
  9. ↑ Web. Jack Jouett Golf Course, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-08-04, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 1.
  10. ↑ Web. City to Furnish Ry. with Water, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-06-03, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 1.
  11. ↑ Web. Section 288 of the City Code of 1909 Entitled Billiard Saloons, Pool Rooms, Etc. Amended, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-06-04, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 9.
  12. ↑ Web. Section 57½ Entitled Golf—Miniature or Tom Thumb, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-06-04, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 9.
  13. ↑ Web. Local Golfers Are Victorious, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-06-27, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 10.
  14. ↑ Web. Miniature Tournament, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-06-25, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 3.
  15. ↑ Web. YMBC Notes, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-07-11, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 6.
  16. ↑ Web. YMBC Invitation, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-07-24, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 12.
  17. ↑ Web. Valley Team Wins Golf Match, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-07-25, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 1.
  18. ↑ Web. Golfers Will Play Waynesboro Team, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-07-31, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 9.
  19. ↑ Web. Dinner Guests of Valley Club, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-08-02, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 10.
  20. ↑ Web. Miniature Golf O.K. on Sunday, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-07-17, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 1.
  21. ↑ Web. Police Court Cases, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-10-15, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 13.
  22. ↑ Web. Sabbath Golf on Miniature Links Declared Lawful, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-10-21, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 1.
  23. ↑ Web. Against Sunday Miniature Golf, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1931-01-24, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 1.
  24. ↑ Web. Police Court Cases, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-07-07, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 6.
  25. ↑ Web. Miniature Golf Induces Profanity, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1930-07-10, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 4.
  26. ↑ Web. For Sale, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1931-05-20, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 11.
  27. ↑ Web. New York Day by Day, Daily Progress Digitized Microfilm, Lindsay family, 1934-01-12, retrieved 2026-02-07. Print. page 4.
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