Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I don't play any course that doesn't have a windmill on it, but some folks do.

Edwin Watts Golf is more or less at the bottom of the hill going down Harbison from Saint Andrews Road, almost at the intersection with Bower, and they are currently in the process of selling to the bare walls.

(Hat tip to commenter John Barrs)

While I was stuck in traffic Wednesday afternoon on Two Notch at I-77, I noticed that Golf Headquarters, in the old Galaxy World building, is gone, or has been bought out.

The signs for Edwin Watts Golf are still quite temporary looking, and I'm pretty sure I drove that stretch in daylight quite recently, so I'm calling early this month as the changeover date. It continues to amaze me how much commercial activity is centered around the most boring game in the world -- (with apologies to my college roommate..)

UPDATE 7 January 2013: Fix street address from 7813 to 7814. Add pictures.

Golf Etc. at The Village at Sandhill, just south of Panera is gone now, and is already almost another mattress store. I actually had a picture of this place as Golf Etc., but appear to have deleted it in a fit of absence of mind.

I have to admit that I personally find golf (at least the kind without windmills and dinosaurs) much more soporific than mattresses anyway.

1108 Knox Abbott Drive does not seem to exist anymore. I believe that this SCB&T at the corner of Knox Abbott and 11th Street is the successor location, but I could be a bit off on exactly where the demolished Putt-Putt center was.

The last listing for Putt-Putt Golf & Games was in the Feb 1985 phonebook, so apparently they closed down sometime in 1985, just about the time I was leaving town for my 20 or so years of sojourning elsewhere. I can vaguely recall seeing the place, but I never got around to visiting it -- In my mind, minature golf was something you did at Bell Camp or the beach, and I had enough, or more than enough, video games closer to the University or closer to home to keep me busy.

Putt-Putt had a number of locations in Columbia for years, including Percival Road, Devine Street and Saint Andews Road. Those all closed and then, some years later, one on Sparkleberry opened, but didn't last long at all.

UPDATE 7 Nov 2010 -- OK, there seems to be a general consensus that the picture above is the wrong location for the former Putt-Putt. Some say it was about where Kenny's is:

Others say as far up as Preciscion Tune:

When I posted on Hola Mexico a few days ago, commenter Ken noted that before being a restaurant, the place had been a minature golf establishment.

I don't remember that at all, but sure enough, behind the restaurant you can still see the concrete remnants of the greens. Judging from the playset over to the right which seems better maintained than the rest, I'm guessing that perhaps the course property is now used by the Christian school which shares the strip with the old Hola and the Jamacian restaurant. If so, it's kind of a shame the old greens are gone. It would be really cool to be able to say "My school's playground is a Putt-Putt course!" (And it would be extra super cool if it was one of the ones with the windmills and dinosaurs..)

(Hat tip to commenter Ken).

Well it seems I always get around to taking pictures of Putt-Putt locations too late. This location on Clemson Road only lasted a few years, and was completely torn up before I got around to going out there.

If I recall correctly, they had a go-kart track which was out in the area with the fire-extinguishers on the light poles. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the actual "building" part of the "fun center" might still be standing. There is a building in the back of the area which now seems to be a welding school, but the shape of the back of it makes me think it might have been designed for a lot of in-and-out traffic to the golf course and race track.

It looks like we are to get another Interstate hotel here, which is kind of a shame, as Columbia has lots of hotels, but at this point, no minature golf courses. Or am I wrong about that? Come to think about it, the only actual working "Putt Putt" brand course I can think of is this one at the base of Atlantic Avenue in Fernandina Beach:

UPDATE 25 June 2010: Added full street address to post title. The place was actualy officially on Sparkleberry Lane, not Clemson Road as I had thought.

UPDATE 19 March 2013: Well, for whatever reason, the Wingate Inn never happened, and now, 5 years later, the parcel is still for sale:

UPDATE 9 August 2017 -- It looks like this parcel has finally, for real this time, been sold to be the new home for nearby Frank's Carwash:

UPDATE 10 August 2018 -- Now the site of the new location for Frank's Car Wash: