Busy February Recap
While it’s not traditionally a month where one expects any mini golf activity, February is our busiest month for point-scoring opportunities for the first half of 2024.
Our first in-person event of February was held indoors in Minnesota at Golf Zone’s Big Bear Mini Putt and was hosted by A Couple of Putts. The 3rd Coziest Mini Golf Open saw the largest turnout in the event. They had 7 women competitors and 10 of the 34 putters were 16 years old or younger.
In the pro division, Tom Loftus won from start to finish with a 3-round total of 88. After finishing in the final position of the Coziest Open in 2023, Kameron Haselius set the course record with a final round of 27 and jumped up to 2nd place to get his first podium for an AMA event. Mick Cullen played solid all day and only fell to 3rd due to Kameron’s outstanding play. Bryan Akers from The Putter’s League Atlanta made his Coziest Open debut with a top 5 finish.
Mark Giannini ran away with the amateur division top spot with a pro-level 2-round score of 65. Matt Tellander won a two-hole playoff against Kathleen Malone for 2nd place. Full recap
Tom (1st), Mick (2nd), Kameron (3rd), Anthony (aces-only round playoff winner)
O-Street Mini Golf’s 9th Annual Winter Classic took place at Manchester Family Golf Center in Manchester, NJ on Feb. 24 with 15 warmly dressed putters. After the first round, the defending champion and 2023 Top 10 player Griffin Weiss was tied with his brother Landon (last year’s O-Street Open Champion) with 41’s. Griffin’s second round was a bit rocky with two 4s, but then recovered with back-to-back holes in one and a strong finish of 40. Landon was staying close behind, but needed a hole-in-one on Hole 18 to tied his brother....and got it! Griffin and Landon went into a three-hole playoff and were still tied after two holes.
On the third hole (Hole 14), Griffin set himself up for an easy two and Landon unfortunately, couldn’t match it. Griffin Weiss won the Battle of the Brothers and defended his title. Keeping it in the family, 3rd place was taken by Landon and Griffin’s father, Ed Weiss. This was Ed’s first podium showing in an AMA event and affirming them as the family to beat in the AMA. Full recap
Left to Right: Ed, Griffin & Landon Weiss
Face of Walkabout dominance in the AMA
Our first Walkabout Mini Golf virtual event of 2024 paired Journey to the Center of the Earth (Easy) and Atlantis (Hard). Both courses have lots of tricky holes where hole-in-ones are hard to come by. Jorge Rimblas, who uses the clam shell face in the game, won his 3rd AMA Walkabout event in a row with a combined -35. Jorge tied Matt Roalstad for most hole-in-ones with 6 and tied Mick Cullen for the best score on the Atlantis (hard) course with a -14. Mick Cullen was only 2 strokes behind with a -33. Shawn Brown narrowly lands in 3rd with an impressive -22 on the easy course. Congrats again to Jorge! He’s the AMA player to beat on Walkabout right now. 🏆🏆🏆
Our next event is our only competitive event in March and April and the good thing is that it is free to all who want to compete as long as you have a Putt18 mat, Facebook account, and ability to live stream your rounds.
The 1st 2024 AMA Putt18 Mat tournament is ongoing and will be played Sunday, March 17 (12:01am) through Saturday, March 23 (11:59pm central US time).
All competitors will stream 4 rounds live in the AMA Events Facebook Group. Details
The updated 2024 points scoring document explains how many points are scored in every division (blue, white, red, virtual) and describes how points are awarded in a variety of scenarios including tie-breakers. AMA co-founders Tom & Pat discussed the finer points of the updated scoring rubric in the most recent episode of the Puttcast.
