He Made A Miniature Golf Course In His Barn

He Made A Miniature Golf Course In His Barn AG WORLD Ag World 21-2-19 You won't find another miniature golf course like the one set up by Jake Schneider, Elgin, Iowa, who constructed a 7-hole miniature golf course in the loft of his 36 by 76-ft. barn. The course offers players the chance to look at some of Schneider's favorite farming antiques while golfing. There's also a picnic table so people can golf and then have lunch. The 73-year-old farmer spent a summer building the course. He had never played miniature golf so he visited commercial courses to get ideas. The only thing he bought for the course was green outdoor carpeting - everything else was made out of stuff that he already had around the farm. Each hole has a 15-ft. long, 4-ft. wide car-pet strip with a disc blade "hole" on top of it. Schneider had a local blacksmith heat each blade and form a ridge on it to make it more difficult to get the ball into the hole. One hole requires hiting the ball through a steel loop that Schneider made out of an old hog waterer. Two neighbor kids are the only players who ever got a hole in one on that hole. His friend Harvey Paulson built a small red barn that you hit the ball through on the first hole, and Jack Adrian, another friend, built a castle that's on the third hole. The wood for both structures came from an old house that Schneider tore down. On one hole the player has to hit the ball between several big field rocks lined up in a row. Schneider plans to add one more hole that will require hitting the ball up a ramp and into an old toilet bowl. Surrounding the course are antiques, including the last horse-drawn wagon built in Elgin, a sleigh that belonged to his wife's parents, and Schneider's version of a horseless carriage - a buggy rigged with a motor, steering wheel, and headlights. Many of the parts for that buggy came from his father's 1917 Cadillac. Several antique tools hang on the wall, including a three-tined hay fork and a hand meter for bucket gas. There are also some items on the wall that Schneider put up just for fun, including wooden cutouts of cows and bears.. Area church groups and some 4-H groups have been out to play and last year Schneider's barn was featured in a county tour of barns with about 80 people from around the state coming to visit. He lets people golf for free but says it could be a good sideline business. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jake Schneider, 18625 Acorn Road, Elgin, Iowa 52141 (ph 319 426-5246).

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