News : Mini-Masters: Small courses; big challenges

Raccoons line the course at the Michael & Dowd furniture store.

VS band uniforms hang near the cup at the 4th Street Cleaners course.

Clingman's course includes trees and the sounds of the jungle.

The Farmers Savings Bank course honors local heroes and super heroes

Jeff, Tom and Cal dressed as super heroes for the Farmers Savings Bank course.

Autumn Craft plays the course she designed at Horizons.

The IMCA course

A small course at The Iron Shed challenges short putters.

Fans add wind to make the McDowell's course more challenging.

The long hallway of the Mossman & Mossman course.

The Windsor Manor course, in the library of the assisted living complex.

The ramp at the Viking Sewing course.

Cameron's customers may remember this course from previous years.

The Cheesehead Cheese Haus course.

The clothing theme at Henkle Creek.

There was a dog theme for the Jessy's Gems course.

The house contained the cup at Johnson Real Estate.

Wine bottles made the course at L Marie more of a challenge.

The RJ Ender computer course used an old tower.

The UICCU course combined golf and football.

Determined to beat my 2011 score (90), I set out on the 2012 version of the Mini-Masters.

On my first putt, I mostly missed the ball.

I started Thursday morning, at Ervin Motors, where the course uses foam balls instead of traditional golf balls. I skipped the putter over the top of the ball on the first try. My second shot cleared the water hazard and the rubber duckies, and bounced off the boxes and rolled in front of the truck, setting me up for a straight shot to the carpet. But my next putt rolled too far. I left with a 5.

On Friday, my luck and putting was equally horrendous.

I began at IMCA, where my first shot was too soft to get up the ramp. My next two shots were not so bad, but an unlucky bounce off the pin had me landing in "Fifth Place."

I scored 4's at 4th Street Cleaners, McDowell's and the Iron Shed, where the course is very short and should be easy for most putters. Not me. At 4th Street Cleaners, my first shot missed the green. Wide left. The next went wide right.

But things got better.

"The ball moves from left to right on this course," said Cal Rickels at Farmers Bank, where the theme is "Heroes." Photos of local "heroes," the Grand Marshals of the Party in the Park Parades, line the course leading toward the goal -- a small pink model of the Eiffel Tower.

I aimed left, and just missed, bouncing the ball off the right of the tower arch. It only took me two more shots.

I also scored a '3' at Clingmans, where Jon and his staff created a course with a jungle scene and even wild animal sounds.

So after playing 11 of the 23 holes, my score was 41. I finished at around 90.

My best course was a 2 at U.S. Bank, where my shot cleared the hazard, and bounced off the brick for an easy tap-in. The rest of the courses sadly comic failures.

I missed the ramp leading to the goalposts several times at UICCU. I did net a somewhat-acceptable 2 at RJ ender, where the course was a straigh shot through a hole in the back of a computer tower. I bounced too many off the wine bottles at L Marie and the half-circles at Cameron's Clothing. I had a miserable 6 at the long, straight course at Johnson Real Estate (and that was counting the "deduct 2 from your total" at the end.

I had shot a 4 at the straight, but hilly course at Windsor Manor. When I went back the second time with my kids on Saturday, I improved that to a 2, missing once before putting very briefly like a real golfer. But at Ervin, I ended up with a 4 the second time around, a slight improvement over the 5 from the day before.

I fared less miserably at Michael & Dowd, Jessy's Gems and Henkel Creek Mercantile, getting 3s. But I had too many bad bounces at the Cheesehead Cheese Haus.

I made a great first shot at the long hallway of the Mossman & Mossman course, where a sign announced that those getting a Hole in 1 had a chance to win up to $1500 (the prize for an ace was a gold coin and a lottery ticket). My shot cleared all the obstacles and bounced into the conference room, just two feet from the metal cup. I managed to cover that two feet in just four more shots for a five.

(Apologies to Dr. Christy and the staff at Vinton Chiropractic Center; I failed to notice what hours the course was open, and got there too late.)

So I lost. Again. I really stink at golf.

I can't wait to play again next year.