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Big plans for minigolf

With the annual Johnny Walker Classic now relocated to China and the cessation of other international tournaments such as the BMW Open, the nation's once busy golfing calendar has been slashed to near zero in recent years. Golf may be the on decline, but if Tsai Teh-lung (蔡特龍) has his way, then the nation could soon become a major player in the world of ... minigolf.

Reportedly invented in Sweden in 1937, minigolf is governed by the World Minigolf Federation (WMF) and has been played at a semi-professional level since the inaugural European Championships were held in 1959. The WMF has 36 member nations and a total of 40,000 playing and paying members on its books worldwide.

The sport remains hugely popular in Sweden, but Germany has for many years been considered the global center of minigolf. The country is home to the world minigolf governing body and with more than 5,000 minigolf courses and 13,500 officially recognized fulltime minigolfers, Germany is now officially the most minigolf mad country in the world.

PHOTOS: GAVIN PHIPPS

Introduced six years ago to Taiwan by Tsai, who now heads the ROC (Taiwan) Minigolf Sport Association (TMA,中華民國迷你高爾夫球運動協會), minigolf is a minority sport in this country, but this didn't deter the TMA from hosting the Third Asian Minigolf Championship 2004 in October in an attempt to popularize the sport.

Established in 2000, the Asia Minigolf Championship is organized by the Asia Minigolf Sport Federation, which is based out of Chofu City, Tokyo and currently has five member nations -- Japan, India, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan. The handful of Taiwanese minigolfers who took to mini-fairways to represent their country are all students of the Taipei Physical Education College's (台北市立體育學院) golf faculty.

President of the German Minigolf Federation, Gerhard Zimmermann, led a special invitational German squad at the recent Asia Minigolf Championship in Taipei.

Held at the Dachia Ying Feng Sport Park (大佳迎風河濱公園), adjacent to Dachia Riverside Park (大佳河濱公園), the 2004 Asian Minigolf Championship attracted 37 participants representing teams from Taiwan, Japan and Singapore and a dozen members of invitational teams from Germany and Finland. A team from Pakistan was forced to withdraw at the last minute because of problems securing visas.

After four days of play the title of Asian Champions went to Japan, with Taiwan coming a close second and Singapore's two-man team clinching third place. A special invitational tournament was won by Germany. Media coverage may have been sparse and the crowds were more curious on-lookers than minigolfing buffs, but organizers still hailed Taiwan's hosting of its first international miningolf tournament as a huge success.

Team Taiwan tees off. With a squad of only 11 members, all of whom are students at the Taipei Physical Education College, the national squad came a respectable second in the Asian Minigolf Championship.

"It was the first time Taiwan has hosted a competition and we didn't expect a huge turnout. People did come to watch, though, and the sport did generate some interest," said Chen Chun-liang (陳浚良) of the Taiwan Minigolf Association.

To host the event, the association appropriated funds totaling NT$6 million from the National Council of Physical Fitness and the Taipei City Government's Sports Council to construct the country's first competition-standard minigolf courses.

"We have tried to popularize [minigolf], but, still, very few people play it. Courses are expensive to build so it was a great boost for us that despite financial difficulties we were able to build two courses," Tsai said. "By hosting the competition we believe that more people will learn about minigolf and become players."

The courses were both built in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the WMF and with the help of sporting goods suppliers, Gymco Sports Ltd (僑泰鑫健康事業股份有限公司) and German minigolf course manufacturers, DMV. The nation's first minigolf courses are, according to one German player, "a pleasure to play."

"We built two courses, one of which, the Eternit, is portable and made of steel and the other, the Betong is permanent and made of concrete." said Gymco's Sunny Chen. "Because we wanted the courses to be of the highest quality and meet international standards, it was a lengthy and costly process. The ground needed to be made playable with a leveling system and consultants had to be brought in to ensure the work was done properly."

Not to be confused with crazy or adventure golf, which are characterized by undulating greens, landscaping, obstacles and multi-level holes, minigolf holes feature only one or two square or triangular barriers and are built to specific guidelines.

Each hole has to have a run of at least 6.25m in length and 0.9m in width and the target circle, in which the hole sits, must measure approximately 1.4m in diameter. The courses may look easy in comparison to those of crazy golf, but, according to Gerhard Zimmermann, President of the German Minigolf Federation, a lot of skill is needed to conquer a well-constructed minigolf course.

"It's a matter of angles and knowing when and how much back spin to add to the shots. Players employ certain techniques and each hole posses its own unique problems," said Zimmermann. "It looks easy, but getting a hole-in-one is very difficult and on average players finish an 18-hole course with a score of 25."

Due to its fragility, the 18-hole NT$2.5 million prefabricated steel Eternit course has been disassembled and now sits in storage. According to Chen, the association was afraid to leave the course in place because they feared it would be the target of vandalism. Taiwan's only permanent international competition-standard minigolf course, the NT$3million concrete Betong course remains in place at the park.

"The concrete course is permanent and open to the public, but there are still no club and ball rental facilities. The land belongs to the city government so we can't establish our own rental store there," said Chen. "We're hoping that one will be set up shortly as it is a waste to have built Taipei's first minigolf course and just let it sit there unused."

While players can currently use the course free of charge there are no immediate plans to establish club and ball rental facilities. Talks between the TMA and the city government are ongoing, but it is hoped that the minigolf course in the Dachia Ying Feng Sport Park will be up and running by early next year.

"It might take some time to establish a permanent base for minigolf in Taiwan, but I'm confident that given time, minigolf will take off," said TMA member and minigolfer Kuo Wei-sheng (郭威聖). "It's a fun pastime, a great sport and as people in Taiwan like to do fun things I think that there's a lot of potential for minigolf in Taiwan."
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