Fore the Love of Art: A review of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s annual nine-hole mini golf course inspired by famous art pieces

When you think about the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, you probably think about the paintings, sculptures or the giant shuttlecock statues in the lawn. Whatever you think of, it probably isn’t mini-golf.

The Nelson opened a nine-hole mini-golf course on April 5, with each hole inspired by different art pieces at the museum. The course is open on Fridays from 10 to 9 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until May 12.

I went to the Nelson-Atkins’ “Art Course” — as the museum calls it — on Saturday, April 6 around noon. One of the first things that caught my attention was that even on a Saturday afternoon, the course wasn’t crowded whatsoever. As someone who really doesn’t like being around a ton of people, this made the experience more enjoyable.

The first hole was just a straight shot through a cut-out gumball machine inspired by a painting called “Jawbreaker Machine” at the Nelson that you had to hit the ball through the painting. Judging from the first hole, it seemed like the whole course was going to be relatively easy, which is what I expected from a nine-hole mini-golf course at an art museum, but the next hole was not as simple as the first one.

The second hole took inspiration from a statue of a tree made from steel called “Ferment.” The hole appeared to be pretty easy, all you had to do was hit the ball up into the hollow trunk. Then the ball would travel down one of several ramps, which represented the branches of the trees. However, it was annoyingly difficult to hit the ball up the ramp with enough power to get it into one of the branches, which didn’t always spit the ball out in the best position. Still, while mildly aggravating, the hole was enjoyable.

The next holes were all fun and creative, but not crazy. The third hole had unique cut-outs of people playing croquet. At this point the course got a little repetitive because there were so many straight shots. The fourth hole, while extremely fun to look at with its bright colors, was basically just a straight shot to the hole. The next one was more like the second hole, except it had multiple orange ramps, instead of silver tubes. All of the holes were fun to play, but nothing stood out to me until the sixth hole.

My favorite part of the course had to be the sixth hole. Decorated with a colorful baseball diamond, the coolest part of the hole was that one of the people in your group would roll the ball down a tube to “pitch” the golf ball and the other person would hit the ball as it rolled down towards them. Once they hit it, the ball would fall down an opening and roll out near the hole. 

It was such a creative idea to have someone “pitch” the golf ball on a baseball themed hole, that I was sort of surprised that other mini-golf courses hadn’t done this before. I honestly hope that more mini-golf courses do this because it’s such a cool idea.

The last three holes were all entertaining, but much like some of the previous holes, none of them were anything special, nor were they as creative as the baseball one. The eighth hole specifically was very original, because it allowed for one player to pedal a bike and have the person hitting the ball try to hit it through the spinning bike wheel. While this wasn’t hard to do it was still a very creative idea, which for me, is more important than the course being challenging.

The last hole was the only one that left me disappointed. A hole was a small replica of the museum and you had to hit the ball up a ramp, over the building and into one of the iconic shuttlecocks, on the back lawn. I’m convinced that it’s impossible to actually do that, so the only actual option was to hit the ball around the building and into the hole.

The course is a fun, quiet way to spend half an hour or so on the weekend. If you’re really serious about mini-golf, then the course, which contains mostly straight shots, may not be for you. But if you’re just looking for something to do then I would definitely recommend the Art Course.