Défi mini-putt

Défi mini-putt (Mini-putt Challenge) was a weekly show in the early 1990s on the Quebec cable sports network, Réseau des sports (RDS). It was the first professional miniature golf tournament to be regularly broadcast in Quebec.

Although the format of the show varied over the years, the typical set-up for the 60-minute show was the following: four competitors would play 18 holes of miniature golf on one of the courses of the "Mini-Putt" miniature golf franchise. It was a skins game. The first 6 holes were worth $50, the second 6 were worth $100, while the final 6 holes were worth $150. At the end of the season was a championship knockout tournament, in which the player with the highest score after each hole was eliminated.

Each course had exactly the same design, and every hole was a par 2. The Mini-Putt franchise used a minimalist design, featuring only hills, bunkers, and a few obstacles. This contrasts with the exotic, windmill-laden layouts of most miniature golf courses in the eastern United States and Canada.

The 18 holes of the "Mini" course were:

The show appeared on TVQ and was called L'HEURE DU MINI-PUTT (Mini-Putt Hour). In 1989, RDS was born and the show was renewed up to 1998.

During this period, Mini-putt celebrities were very popular. Some of the stars of the show were Jocelyn Noël, who had great consistency in the regular season but sometimes struggled in the knockout tournaments (most notably in 1992 when he struck a totem pole on the first hole, aka "les totems" and was eliminated), as well as the legendary Carl Carmoni best known for his mastery of the green and his Pepsi addiction, Sylvain Cazes and Gilles Buissières & wife Lucie, also Ron Poliseno ''LE GRAND REQUIN BLANC''. Another famous "double" couple was Suzanne and husband André Buist. Later seasons of the show featured teams of two, as well as an upgrade to the Mini-Putt franchise's more difficult course, the "Maxi-Putt".

The biggest star of the show, however, was the very enthusiastic show announcer Serge Vleminckx. His exuberant shouts of "Birdie!" for a hole in one, "la normale!" for two strokes, and "le bogey!" for three strokes, helped attract a cult following for the show.

However, by the end of the 1990s, the Mini-Putt chain began to falter, and the owners refused to continue and pay for the show. In a meeting of the FRANCHISERS, when they decided to stop the TV show, Marcel Rocheleau, the owner of Mini-Putt Louiseville, said. ''This will be the end and we will pick-up the bones'' Ron Poliseno, owner of Mini-Putt St-Eustache and Fabreville, along with 10 other owners, took a gamble and went back on TV for another 2 years. At that time there was still 51 FRANCHISES, but as of 2001, they found out that the TV was the reason of success. Then they started to fold up one by one. Today, 3 original MINI-PUTT are still operating, but they all have to rely on a second product - Ice Cream, Fast Food or Driving Range

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Wikipedia