Los Angeles Magazine calls the Arroyo Seco miniature golf course "a living artifact that vibrates with the memories of a thousand bygone childhoods."
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I couldn't have put it better myself.
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My parents never took me to putt-putt—but my high school was adjacent to a city park that had a 9-hole regular golf course, so sometimes gym class involved golfing.
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I had a knack for it back then—as I have with archery and shooting—but until a couple of weekends ago, I hadn't golfed or mini-golfed in probably 15 years.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/*P1010487cropLO.jpg)
I haven't putted at all in the 10 years since I moved to California—so it was about time I take a swing at the 9 holes at Arroyo Seco, which has been entertaining families in the city of South Pasadena since 1955.
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According to the South Pasadena Foothill Review, Mrs. Lela C. Fisher (Nash) was granted a permit to construct such a miniature golf course way back in 1930—nearly a decade after the passing of her husband, insurance mogul Charles W. (or "C.W.") Fisher, at age 64.
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She was still living in the home they'd shared at 440 Mission Street in SoPas, which would've put the golf course essentially in her backyard.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/*P1010500lo.jpg)
No mention as to why it took a quarter-century to come to fruition—especially since, as historian John English told the Los Angeles Times, miniature golf courses were "all over" the LA area in the 1930s.
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The mini-golf course is just a fraction of the 48 acres of green space—just south/east of the Arroyo Seco Parkway (a.k.a the 110)—that constitute the entirety of the 18-hole Arroyo Seco Golf Course, also founded in 1955. Both the freeway and the golf course are named after the nearby "dry river," the Arroyo Seco.
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You're definitely in your own little world as you position yourself for a hole-in-one among the wishing well, barn, chapel, and more.
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And it's actually a pretty challenging course. As far as mini-golf goes, anyway.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/*P1010509cropLO.jpg)
There aren't any sand traps or water features—but it's definitely possible to get stuck along the way, either on an ant hill or a steep incline.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/*P1010512cropLO.jpg)
Although maybe not the most strategic choice for actually winning the game (which I didn't), I enjoyed chucking my hot pink golf ball into the front doorway of the log cabin...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1010510cropLO.jpg)
...which, for a second, felt like real golf, even though I had zero chance of sinking the ball on one try.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/*P1010519cropLO.jpg)
Besides, the cups were so shallow, too much oomph would make the balls bounce right out of them as quickly as they went in.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/*P1010514lo.jpg)
It didn't really matter how well or badly I did anyway. I don't need to be good at mini-golf for my pink castle dreams to come true.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/*P1010526lo.jpg)
But I do wish the windmill still had its blades.
circa 2018
The Arroyo Seco Golf Course is a holdout from the mid-20th century heyday of miniature golf—a rare mom-and-pop operation among other golf courses that have gotten gobbled up by amusement parks and family entertainment centers.
And it still feels ripped out of the pages of a storybook.
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I lived on South Pasadena for a decade and never even knew this existed.
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