An Afternoon at Golf N’ Stuff Norwalk

Do you ever have a place that you drive by all the time and think “one day I’m going to stop and check it out?” That’s the way I long felt about Golf N’ Stuff Norwalk. Whether I was rushing by on the 605 or stuck at a light on Firestone Blvd. I would marvel at all the bright colors and plan on visiting it in the future. Of course, it took quite awhile for me to finally do it but last week when I took my two buddies to the Columbia Memorial Space Center we decided to make a full day of it and headed for some mini golf.

When I was a kid I loved mini golfing and would hit the links from Anaheim to Riverside. But, it’s been a good decade or (gulp) two since I’ve last teed up. Luckily, my 8 and 5 year old pals are way into it and they happily agreed to accompany me for a round.

I don’t know how long Golf N’ Stuff has been around but it appears to have originated around the mid-century mark – my favorite era. It’s filled with classic structures and whimsical topiaries that just screen “atomic age.”

The course’s claim to fame is its appearance in the 1984 hit The Karate Kid – a movie I would watch incessantly growing up. In the 30+ years since, it’s remained popular and on the day of our visit it was filled with fun-loving families.

There are actually 4 different courses to chose from and, luckily, there’s a handy dandy guide at the entrance advising which attractions are on each one. The boys and I conferred and agreed we wanted to visit the haunted house so we chose course 3.

Once on the course we realized we made the right choice and loved all the different landmarks we came across from the tree house…

To the old west town…

to the aforementioned haunted house.

The boys especially loved reading all the funny tombstones.

After golfing my way around windmills, water traps and hills I realized one thing – I don’t love mini golf like I used to. Don’t get me wrong, I love everything about Golf N’ Stuff…except the actual golf. But that’s ok because I had a good time looking at all the classic buildings and watching the boys have a ball.

Of course, there’s much more than golfing at Golf N’ Stuff. There’s an arcade, a go kart track, a train and bumper boats. The boys loved the latter and I watched them having a blast navigating around the water and bumping other kids boats.

After passing by Golf N’ Stuff for so many years I finally stopped to check it out.  It’s a whimsical, mid-century wonderland and I love it.