A Weekend Journey
into a Surreal Suburbia
The Putter’s Palace
Pearl, Miss.
Date: Sept. 29, 2019
Greens fee: $10 for 18 holes
I don’t know much about putt-putt. But I like my regulation-length golf courses fun, uncrowded, cheap, and a little rough around the edges. By that standard, I like the Putter’s Palace — enough, even, to go to Rankin County.
The Putter’s Palace is a 36-hole, indoor putt-putt facility in an old strip mall in Pearl, Mississippi — on the western edge of Rankin County, the unofficial capital of the Mississippi Republican Party. Rankin County is one of two suburban counties neighboring Hinds County (in which lies Jackson, the state capital), and has transformed over the past 70 years as a haven of white flight. In 1940, less than half (47 percent) of people living in Rankin County were white; by 1960, that percentage had grown to 63 percent; today, 76 percent of Rankin County is white.
Among Mississippi’s 82 counties, Rankin County’s sheer size and tenacious conservatism make it an electoral juggernaut for Republicans in statewide politics: in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Rankin County accounted for more than 7 percent of Mississippi’s total turnout; later that year, Rankin County went for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by a margin of 53 points.
For much of my life, Pearl was the redheaded stepchild of Rankin County: a little dirty, a little undeveloped, starkly contrasting with its more polished, retail-flush brothers, Flowood and Brandon. Around 20 years ago, though, major retail development came to Pearl; a few years later, so did a minor league baseball team. Its moment of attention on an Interstate 20 drive-by is no longer an eyesore.
But get off the Interstate and wander around Pearl for long, and the two-decades-old refurbishment is revealed to have passed by many parts of the city. The Putter’s Palace is in one such area: an old, dilapidated strip mall adjoining Highway 80, the aorta of the county’s traffic flow (the Putter’s Palace itself is located in an old bowling alley). The parking lot looks like it’s been through an earthquake, and unless the Bounce Palace (an inflatable “playground” under the same roof as the Putter’s Palace) is hosting a birthday party, it’s not unusual for the parking lot to be empty.
Clarity demands recognizing a distinction of which I was unaware before The Golfer’s Journal No. 4 — there’s a difference between putt-putt and miniature golf: supposedly, miniature golf is less gimmicky (and, if we’re being really clear, “Putt-Putt” is a brand name of a specific type of golf offshoot). I suppose that makes the Putter’s Palace a putt-putt place (it would be hard to get much more gimmicky than putting under Humpty Dumpty), but I doubt ownership has ever considered the distinction.
The two 18-hole courses are tied together by Mississippi-themed pictures (that appear to have been produced by a conventional desktop printer) and obstacles: a mail-order cutout of Elvis Presley here, a hand-painted, plywood depiction of the Muppets there (creator Jim Henson hailed from the Mississippi Delta). Of the two courses, I prefer the one on the south side of the property (farther into the building’s interior): its holes are a little quirkier, and the sports imagery hits closer to home. But both courses deliver a wholesome acid trip.
The homemade, unlicensed quality of the place hits you in the face. I’m not a trademarks lawyer, but commandeering images owned by Disney and NCAA-affiliated institutions is bold in any setting. But commandeering them for a handmade putt-putt course in a strip mall? Hats off.
If aliens landed on Earth and the first thing they saw was the Putter’s Palace, what would they think? Landing on a conventional golf course wouldn’t confuse them, I think; they’d be able to figure out the basic purpose of the place in short order. But to the uninitiated, a bizarrely adorned putt-putt course — which, ironically, is golf in its simplest form— seems less intuitive. “Why did the humans obstruct their game with a doghouse? Where is the dog? Why is this ceramic bear holding a fishing pole? And where are the fish?”
I’m not a child psychologist, nor am I much of a golfer. But I’m told by people who are smarter than me that the best way to introduce a child to golf is simply to let them have fun: don’t worry about technique, don’t worry about playing 18 holes, just let then have fun. If you’re hitting a golf ball toward a target and you’re having fun, then you’re playing golf. The Putter’s Palace is fun, and it’s an easy way to kill an hour on a weekday afternoon. No parent could ask for more.
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