Miniature golf, more commonly known as “minigolf,” is a sport parallel to golf but played on courses made of diverse types of materials, appropriately defined according to the standard codes of the international federation (Wmf, World Minigolf Federation).

Minigolf was born in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century with the name “miniature golf,” an evident descendant of golf. The first courses were strictly grass (called garden golf). Subsequently, the grass was substituted with various materials: cement, asbestos cement, composite materials or wood covered with carpet. Between the 1920’s and 1930’s, minigolf started to expand. It spread among people of all social classes to such a point that miniature golf, by its simple fun, became a true mass phenomenon: movie stars and jet-setting celebrities helped the spreading so much, that my the mid 1930’s there were over 30 thousand courses in the United States. At the end of the 1930’s, at Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga Tennessee, the first minigolf tournament took place (National Tom Thumb Open Miniature Golf Tournament) in which 200 athletes participated.

In Europe the spreading of miniature golf followed, mimicking what happened in North America. The first courses arose in Great Britain around 1920. In 1926 courses derived from those in America appeared in Germany and Sweden. In 1937 the first European Federation of Miniature Golf was born in Sweden. In 1951, Swiss architect Paul Bongni designed and patented an 18 hole course in cement, which from then on, would be universally defined with the term minigolf.

The first course according to Bongni’s design was completed in Locarno, about ten meters from the shores of Lake Maggiore. Today the course in Locarno is still found in the same place; though necessary improvements have been made over the years, it has remained faithful to its “original version” of over 50 years ago. The style of Bongni’s course gained popularity and spread throughout Italy, Switzerland and Germany in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In Scandinavia the production of another type of course was developed- a course made in wood and covered in fabric, which today is used as one of the three specialities of the game recognized by the Wmf. At a competitive level, miniature golf developed rapidly in the centre-northern European countries starting from the 1950’s.

Europe is the continent with the most tradition and most participants; the countries at the forefront for tradition and number of enrolled members are Germany, Sweden and Austria followed by Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Holland, Portugal, Luxembourg, France and Great Britain.

Italy, with right, can consider itself among one of the nations that can boast of an important sport tradition, though the number of card- carrying athletes does not exceed over a thousand. In our country over 2,300 courses exist, found in all the regions from Sicily to Trentino Alto Adige. Presently in Italy there are 39 Sport Societies affiliated with the Italian Federation of Miniature Golf (Federazione Italiana Golf su Pista- Figsp).

Like in golf, the minigolf course is made up of 18 holes (or pitch), however the pitches are made with diverse materials and differing sizes (length and width); a pitch can vary from 6.5 meters to 18 meters in length.

The goal is the same as that of golf: to hit the ball in the hole with as few strokes as possible, using the same “putter” that is used in golf.

Minigolf or miniature golf, call it what you may, is a sporting discipline practiced on all the continents, however in the most well-established sport traditions are in Europe. In Italy more than 12 million people play minigolf, fundamentally at the recreational level, especially in the spring and summer months. At the recreational level the players in the United States are the masters, a country where minigolf has an enormous spreading, which is tightly linked with the business of the “family entertainment system” connected with amusement parks.

The competitive industry is still not widespread and it’s practiced on courses which have precise specifications and are subdivided into three “specialities,” according to the typology of the material which makes up the pitch and its dimensions.

Specialty 1– a course made up of 18 holes in metal (edges which border the pitch and prevent the ball from escaping) and cement (the pitches for the ball and obstacles) up to 12.5 meters in length and 1.2 meters in width with coded and standardized obstacles.

Speciality 2 - a course made up of 18 holes in metal (external frames of support and edges) and asbestos cement (the pitches for the ball and obstacles) up to 6.5 meters in length and 0.9 meters in width.

Filz Speciality- a course made up of 18 holes in wood (edges which border the green and prevent the ball from escaping and pitches for the ball) with a unique synthetic carpet that covers the pitch. At its origin (in the 1920’s and 1930’s) it was made of felt, from which the name “filz” was derived.

The principal competitive manifestations (the Nation Cup and the World Championship) are obligatorily contested on two courses that must belong to one of the above mentioned specialities.