A Putt-Putt Postcard from South Africa

We recently visited York and attended the International Postcard Expo held at the racecourse to see what miniature golf postcards we could find. We found a bumper crop.

We picked up 31 minigolf postcards for our collection at the York CardExpo

The very first postcard we bought at the fair was from Brian Lund of Reflections of a Bygone Age who had saved a great old Putt-Putt card from South Africa for me.

The reverse of the card is stamped from 'Putt-Putt Southdale', a suburb of Johannesburg, and doubles as a FREE game card!

Putt-Putt is the only patented game of miniature golf and began in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1954. In the 1960's Putt-Putt franchises began opening outside of the US, in locations such as the one on the postcard, as well as Australia and Japan. You can read the Putt-Putt story on the Putt-Putt Fun Centres website.

Update 22/04/15: My expert minigolf contact in South Africa PJ Goedhals has been doing some research on the location of the Putt-Putt course shown on the postcard and he tells me that course is not in Johannesburg as I had thought based on the words 'Putt-Putt Southdale' stamped on the reverse.

The location on the front of the card is actually the Putt-Putt miniature golf course at Three Anchor Bay in Moullie Point/Sea Point in Cape Town - PJ's local course! Great to hear that it's still standing. I can't find a website for the course, but it has got a Google+ page.

Looking at the card again it makes sense that one standard postcard/advertising card was produced for marketing purposes and then distributed to all of the Putt-Putt courses in South Africa. So the Southdale location stamped on the reverse of the card is in Johannesburg, but the image is of the course in Cape Town. Many thanks to PJ and his Putt-Putt contacts for the info.

There are currently Putt-Putt courses in a number of US states as well as a competition circuit operated by the Professional Putters Association.

The PPA website has an archive of Putt-Putt World Magazine - a great resource and an interesting read indeed.

Check out MiniatureGolfer.com for details of minigolf courses in South Africa.

Links:
- York International Postcard Expo
- Reflections of a Bygone Age
- Picture Postcard Monthly Magazine
- Putt-Putt Fun Centres
- Professional Putters Association

Related blog posts:
- Postcard
- Postcards