Hole #8 - Skee Ride

On this hole, you launch your ball up a ramp and onto what looks like a stripped down skee ball board.  Assuming you don't somehow miss the board completely, your ball will end up in one of three holes. 

If you get it in the small hole on top, your ball will roll straight towards the hole, giving you a good chance at a hole-in-one. 

The second, middle hole, in the fattest area of the board, will put your ball on the green, but away from the hole.  This is the "safe" way to play the hole, although you'll have a putt with an awkward stance between the fence and a bush when you get to the green. 

If you miss both of these holes you'll wind up in the "Uh-Oh" hole which dumps your ball sideways onto a narrow fairway quite a ways from the green.

This is a true "risk reward" hole where you can go for the small, top hole and the hole-in-one but, if you miss it, you'll likely wind up in the low hole and probably be making a bogey (or worse, if you get unlucky).  Playing it to the middle of the board is the easier tee shot but is no guaranty of par.

Hole #8 Tee	Hole #8 - The "skee ball" board.

Hole #8 - Where the ball goes after the board.	Hole #8 - Fairway up to the green.

#8 Green

Hole Development

This hole is based on the classic mini-golf concept of hitting a ball into the clown's nose or mouth and having it roll out the other side to the green.  In this hole, however, instead of a clown, you're hitting your ball into what is supposed to be part of a skee ball board.

I always liked skee ball as a kid--even though I never really collected enough tickets to get any decent prizes.  My brother actually put the idea of a skee ball-based mini-golf hole in my head and I decided I really wanted to create a hole that was somehow based that old arcade game.  It seemed a natural to have it be a "double hole" where you hit it into a hole or holes in one place and it winds up somewhere near the actual hole.

This hole pretty much came out as designed, however, the design did not properly consider the effects of gravity.  Specifically, the top or "hole-in-one" hole often delivered the ball to the green with too much speed to produce holes-in-one.  Conversely, the middle hole wasn't high enough for the ball to roll all the way to the green consistently.

My solution to the high speed problem was to add a flap to the end of the gutter where the ball comes out.  The flap not only slows the ball down but also helps keep debris from getting into the gutter. 

Still not content with the frequency of holes in one, I added some subtle ridges in the green to help direct the ball towards the hole.

For the middle hole, I propped up the gutter a bit at its start, where it connects to the board.  The ball still doesn't roll out very far--and occasionally gets stuck part way through--but I actually like the fact you won't wind up with a really easy second putt.

My third gravity problem was that balls could get stuck without falling into the board's bottom hole (the "uh-oh" hole), mainly due to poor carpentry on my part.  My fix was to add a small, thin triangular piece of wood covered with carpet to prevent balls from getting stuck in the right angle where the boards above the lowest hole meet.

How It Was Built

The skee ball board is just plywood with holes drilled in it and book shelves (provided, again, by my brother) for the borders.  The rings that you hit your ball into are pieces of landscaping border left over from the loop hole.  The board is held up by plywood arms connected to the back of the ramp with hinges.  The board is also bolted to the fence it rests against with corner braces.  As the board is at the edge of our property and, technically, in a utility easement, I do fear that someday the gas company or maybe AT&T will make me move it.

The ramp that you hit your ball up to get to the skee ball board is actually my old mail box that I dismantled and bent into shape (after I replaced it with a new mailbox).  I also glued carpet to the ramp and braced it with a couple vertical pieces of wood.

To connect the skee ball board to the green, I used a metal gutter downspout that I got at Home Depot (and cut in half).  The downspouts are connected to the holes in the board with flexible, plastic (cheap) downspout connectors I found on Amazon.  Everything is held together with screws, corner braces and a little bit of duct tape.   On the green, the "hole-in-one" gutter is logically held in place with an ever-handy downspout strap.

The flap at the end of the top downspout is a piece of a plastic landscape border covered with carpet and screwed into the top of the downspout.

The hardest part of getting this hole finished was getting the "hole-in-one" downspout connected to the board, threaded through the hibiscus bush and lined up with the hole.  To increase the chances of holes-in-one, two pairs of Banzai chopsticks were placed under the carpet creating a channel to help steer the ball towards the hole (note this would be the fourth appearance of the chopsticks on this course).

Alongside the tee you stand on two more rugs approved for “yard use” (i.e. they were expendable) by my wife.  The left-handers rug is actually a kitchen rug with a rooster on it—it is meant to subtly goad golfers to not be a “chicken” and to go for the top hole.  

The tee and fairway, as well as the "lower" fairway, are the usual plywood connected with mending plates.  The ramp is screwed into the end of the fairway board.

The green is yet another one built on top of a pallet.