The origin story has been told more than Batman’s — OK, maybe not that much — but it’s worth repeating here.
Seventy years ago in Fayetteville, Don Clayton was an insurance salesman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and his doctor advised him to take some time off. In that brief sabbatical, Don designed what would become the first putt-putt course, and with the help of his father, built the first “Putt-Putt” course on Bragg Boulevard in Fayetteville. The franchise, eventually named Putt-Putt Golf and Games, eventually expanded to hundreds of locations across the country.
The company has changed significantly since 1954. Now, Putt-Putt Fun Center features more than golf, with additional attractions ranging from go-karts and laser tag to traditional arcade games. And Don, who passed away in 1996, continues to leave his fingerprints on the family entertainment industry to this day.
In today’s vernacular, “putt-putt” and “mini-golf” are used interchangeably. They’re both similar: a simplified version of “real” golf where you use only a putter from tee to the hole. Set aside are the drivers and irons and bunkers — players are draped right onto the green with the goal of getting the ball into the cup in as few strokes as possible.
But make no mistake: what Don Clayton created was not mini-golf. “Putt-Putt” is the trademarked name of what has become synonymous with the game itself, while “putt-putt” is what Don Clayton created. Prior to the creation of putt-putt, miniature golf featured putting around obstacles such as rotating windmills and cartoonish plastic statues of animals, with luck just as much, if not more important, than skill in wielding a putter.
Don wanted something different — something, according to a longtime friend, more competitive.
“Each hole is designed to make a hole-in-one,” said Joe Aboid, the commissioner of the Professional Putters Association (PPA), the professional putt-putt tour founded by Don in 1959. “They have standard rails, bump boards as we call them. They are aluminum rails to give a consistency of kick and consistency of bounce. In miniature golf most of the time it’s brick and concrete.”
Putt-Putt courses, he says, reward real skill; the best PPA players indeed have the ability to ace, or get a hole-in-one, on any or all of the 18 holes during each round.
“He enjoyed the competitive aspect of the game,” said Joe, who was 5 years old when he first met Don. “He didn’t think miniature golf was competitive enough.”
Joe’s father owned five Putt-Putt courses under the Golf and Games banner, and Joe, he said, “grew up in the business of putt-putt.” Joe later owned his own course in Lynchburg, Virginia, when he sold a few years ago.
Bill Kirby Jr., a longtime Fayetteville journalist and columnist for CityView, played his first round of putt-putt at age 11 at the Raeford Road location in 1961. That was the first of, by his estimation, around 75,000 rounds of putt-putt, a game he grew quickly attached to.
“I was at the course every summer, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and [practiced] every day,” Bill said. “I picked up trash and swept the carpets to be able to play.”
Donna Clayton Lloyd, Don’s daughter, was very involved in the running of the Putt-Putt business until the family sold the company in 2004.
“It is hard to put into words,” Donna said when asked what putt-putt and the business means to her. “I sell real estate, and I have clients who come here from cities who have putt-putts. People always have a putt-putt story. They remember it from playing and working and relationships and jobs. The stories have been so vast.”
Michael Knight, now the general manager of the Fayetteville location of Putt-Putt Fun Center, said he played on the Bragg Boulevard course growing up and now wants to create memories similar to those he had as a child.
“When I went as a kid, it’s always been a family-friendly environment,” Michael said. “Knowing we have a safe space to come here, and I’m responsible for that, it makes you feel good. Just to create an opportunity for families to have core memories like I did is rewarding in itself.”
Bill’s introduction to Don came formally when the PPA’s Parade of Champions, a syndicated television broadcast featuring top tournament winners from the previous year, came through Fayetteville’s Raeford Road location in 1962. Since then, Bill has established himself as one of the top PPA players of all time, earning admission to the association’s Hall of Fame in 1994 and winning the PPA National Championship in 1995. He continues to play on the tour to this day, serving as the director of the PPA’s Southern Tour and a member of the PPA Executive Committee.
“I was a dreamer, from the first time I met the National Champions, competing on the PPA Parade of Champions,” Bill said. “My dream was to one day be a PPA National Champion. I just worked hard in practicing, knew how to manage a course. I never stopped dreaming.”
Joe says Don longed for playing the game to provide someone a living, or for a game to be played for a million dollars. Neither of those things have happened (yet), but Don created more than that.
Putt-putt, according to Donna, became a conduit for so much more.
“It was his natural instinct to connect people and to encourage people to play together, and it was oftentimes some competitive edge,” Donna says. “He was always forward-thinking and he watched for the kinds of changes in the world around us that would create competition for people’s time and attention.”
Putt-Putt facilities would later hold more than just courses, expanding to include more attractions and fun experiences. That is where you will find Putt-Putt today: in the Putt-Putt Fun Centers. There are currently 28 locations in 12 states.
David Callahan, a Fayetteville native, started working with Putt-Putt in 2000 and eventually bought the company in 2004. He said that the company has a place in the family entertainment market alongside attractions like trampoline parks and game rooms.
“There’s a lot of history in putt-putt,” said David, Putt-Putt Fun Center’s CEO. “We just happen to think we have a niche that can survive another decade or two. You have so many players enter the market now. We just think we’ve got a boutique niche. We’re focused on a larger building, more indoor attractions, but we’ll never leave the putt-putt golf.”
While the entertainment offerings have expanded, the priority remains — as it did at its founding — establishing a family-friendly environment where people can feel safe.
“It is a unique personal experience in a really fun, wholesome environment,” said Teresa Greco, Putt-Putt Fun Center’s COO. “It’s very safe, it’s clean, it’s friendly. We have such a variety of indoor and outdoor attractions. It’s really a place where you can let loose, let go, have really great family or friend memories, and carry on that tradition that we all have and impart that to the next generation.”
What should not be lost in all this is that Fayetteville made this happen.
“Don loved Fayetteville,” Joe says. “He had enough money to move anywhere he wanted to move to. He could go any place he wanted to go. He never left it.”
And in Fayetteville, Putt-Putt is “just a part of the community,” Bill adds.
“Generations of families and kids grew up here playing the game,” Bill says. “And countless kids and teenagers worked at the Putt-Putts here that were located on Old Fort Bragg Road, Raeford Road, Bragg Boulevard, and Owen Drive. You can’t go anywhere in the country without someone saying they played Putt-Putt somewhere.”
Donna probably saw this more than anyone, especially in her father.
“He was so passionate about Fayetteville,” she says of Don. “I don’t think you’ll ever find a human being who lived in this city who had more vision and more passion for Fayetteville than my dad.”
Don Clayton is a Fayetteville icon, a historical figure, remembered fondly not just for his creation, but his entrepreneurial spirit and his lasting impact on both Fayetteville and this game many cherish.
Read CityView Magazine’s “Fall in Fayetteville” September 2024 e-edition here.