Putz-n-Glo Indoor Black Light Miniature Golf
Rapid City, South Dakota
Just before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. Then you whisk up a dark corridor towards an unnatural light. What the experts don't make clear is that your last moments may be awash in day-glow colors and larded with pop icons -- just like at Putz-n-Glo.
The death-by-retro-tunnel effect is nicely (if unintentionally) achieved at this black light miniature golf attraction. No one expires at Putz-N-Glo -- they're having too much fun.
Black light mini-golfs abound in vacationland, yet we appreciated the effort that went into this 18-hole indoor course, conveniently located along the main tourism corridor to Mount Rushmore. Golfers navigate through black corridors and galleries decorated with radiant ephemera of the 1950s on into the 1990s accompanied by the music of those eras. Even if those decades are older than you, it's cloyingly familiar.
The carpet glows with a confetti pattern, one too many radioactive New Year's Eves. Customers are encouraged to wear their most black light-activated threads, or they can purchase Tie Dye T's that shimmer on the gift shop racks. The cafe features '50s soda shoppe stools and tables.
Golfers enter through Putz-n-Glo's glowing Rock N' Roll jukebox arch. There are visual nods to Elvis, drag racing, and advice to "Burn Rubber."
Wedged between a giant go-go boot and a mural of disco dancing John Travolta, Hole 11 presents a VW love bug as an obstacle, with a silhouette backdrop of Charlie's Angels in action.
The nineties are more confusing. An astral Stargate near an Egyptian pyramid seems to spit out anime characters and a dude on a skateboard. Homer Simpson looks over his shoulder in panic as Pac Man flies in to gobble a Rubik's Cube.
Near the end we noticed on a wall that the artist credited for all of the imagery was "Jody Barrilleaux (Art Attack)."
In the summer, the adjacent Miner's Maze, same owners, is open. The theme is "The Lost Treasure of Burnt Ranch," and visitors search the open-topped walled maze for gold "in a race against the clock."