Mini-golf - sometimes called miniature golf - started because just over a century ago, golf was not considered suitable for women. People thought it was not right for a woman to be throwing her body into hitting a ball down a fairway. So, St Andrews in Scotland - one of the world's first golf courses was established there in 1754 - came up with the idea of setting up a putting course for women. The 18-hole course, known as the Himalayas, was probably the first miniature golf course in the world.
This was not mini-golf as we know it today, though. For a start, that first miniature course and others that followed it were much longer than mini-golf courses today. Most holes on a mini-golf course today are about 6-7 metres in length. The St Andrews course required driving a ball about 50-100 metres and it was played, like golf, on grass.
The innovation that was needed to bring about the mini-golf we play today was artificial grass, and that came about in the early1920s in the United States. Before long, it seemed everyone was playing this inexpensive game which before then was only accessible to the rich.
Oddly, despite the popularity of mainstream golf courses on the mainland - there are thousands of them countrywide - the Hello! Haigeng MiniGolf Park in Kunming is the only one of its kind over the border. That is, at least until June when the Anning Experimental Middle School mini-golf course is to be completed.