Professional miniature-golf player Matt Male has already heard all the wisecracks about the windmills, pirate ships and waterfall hazards. So just save it.
Male knows the drollery comes with the territory, though, and he is a pretty good sport about it. Earning esteem — and money — as an elite player in a sport many people do not regard as a real sport is not an easy task.
“I guarantee that when they join us for a round, they will respect the skill involved in being able to do it consistently,” the 31-year-old Male said of the haters.
Photo: AP
Male is bright on the sport’s radar at the moment as the reigning champion of professional putting’s Master’s — the miniature golf version has been designated the Master’s, apostrophe “s,” to keep from running afoul of the folks who stage the venerable Masters golf tournament — a prestigious championship played every October on a North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, course with a 10m volcano in the center that shoots flames 3m into the air.
That triumph came with US$4,000 cash, an embossed crystal vase and a green wind breaker that is every bit as coveted by minigolf professionals as that green sport coat at Augusta.
“It was exhilarating,” said Male, who works as a copy editor for a bank in Columbus. “I knew I had the game to do it if everything went right.”
Coming off that win, Male was one of four US players selected to travel to Pristina, Kosovo, next month for a tournament against the best putters in the world. That field is likely to include Olivia Prokopova, who at the age of 21 is a celebrity in her native Czech Republic because of her prowess on the green carpet. Prokopova, who won the Master’s in 2012 and 2013, is known for traveling with a large boisterous entourage that includes her parents, a coach and a massage therapist.
“I do not think any of us at this level think of it as a hobby — we take it really seriously as a professional sport,” said Brad Lebo, a 55-year-old Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, dentist who has earned about US$145,000 putting professionally since 1991. “We like to think we’re the best at what we are doing in the world. Unfortunately, we are just in kind of a niche.”
Miniature golf has been played in the US for about 100 years, and has been played professionally since the 1950s. For the professionals, being prepared is every bit as important as being good. Most elite players travel to a tournament site and play the course all day, every day for a week or more, charting all the breaks and caroms on a notepad, trying to account for all possibilities and determine if it is better to go in through the “front door” — directly at the hole — or “back door” — a carom off the rail behind the hole.
Lebo went to suburban Allentown, Pennsylvania, this week to begin practicing on two courses at a venue called Putt U, where the next major tournament, the US Open, is to take place on May 14. In keeping with the sportsmanship that is traditional among professional putters, Lebo shared his findings with Prokopova, who also had arrived to start studying the courses.
“It is half billiards and half putting,” said Brian Katrek, a Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio channel personality, who has become a miniature-golf aficionado. “It is a special skill. There is a lot of geometry involved. Jordan Spieth can hit the ball where he aims it, but in miniature golf, you have to learn where to aim it.”
Male, soft-spoken and cerebral, started playing competitively as a teenager after seeing a Putt-Putt tournament on ESPN. He joined the professional ranks in 2014 and won his first “major” by emerging from a field of 48 and setting a course record through the 12 rounds of the Master’s last fall, beating back a run by longtime professional Matt McCaslin to win by a single stroke.
“You could cut the tension with a knife,” said Bob Detwiler, founder of the US Pro Mini Golf Association and owner of the Hawaiian Rumble course that has hosted the Master’s for the past 20 years. “It was something to watch.”
Male, one of the few professionals who use the long “broomstick” putter, is to have a target on his back next week at the US Open. He tied for 13th in the event last year, which was won by Lebo for the third time.
“I do not care what you are doing in life, it is hard to get to the pinnacle,” Lebo said.
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