4th annual Putt-Putt Clash a hole-in-one for BI

Where can you play “Mad Max”-style pinball, race to catch a ferry, and explore the depths of the ocean, all in one afternoon? Try mini-golf.

Bainbridge Island’s fourth annual Putt-Putt Clash, a homegrown mini-golf event featuring creative holes built by locals competing for a cash prize, saw about 250 attendees at the event July 26.

It was the Clash’s first year at its new home, Coppertop Park, which was a marked improvement from last year, said event organizer Bryce Moulton. For one, the grass made for a more pleasant putt-putt experience than gravel, and the commotion drew in curious onlookers from the nearby businesses, like the brewery and climbing gym.

Moulton puts on the event by himself, including coordination, advertising and communicating with builders, which is the hardest part, he explained. He also provides all the golf balls and putters — including miniature ones for younger players, which he designed himself out of plywood back in 2021 for the first Putt Putt Clash.

Sourcing putters was the first year’s biggest challenge, Moulton explained. He initially tried to find used putters on eBay, but he couldn’t find any that were for mini-golf, and they were all very expensive, he said. Online fast-fashion retailer Alibaba sold putters in packs of 50, “but I thought, ‘That’s lame, I don’t want to do that,’” Moulton said.

“I had the idea to cut them out of plywood. I remember thinking, ‘This might be a horrible idea that might not work,’ but honestly, they’ve been one of the highlights for me. They just really represent the spirit of the event, where it’s like, it just has to function, and it’s okay if it’s a little scrappy,” said Moulton.

Out of 100 putters, fewer than 5 have broken, he added.

Putters tested out 10 different homemade holes and voted on their favorites to award first, second and third place prizes of $500, $200 and $100, respectively. There was more theme overlap this year than in previous years, but no two holes were identical: two builds had a marine theme, but one focused on tidepools and one on ocean creatures.

“Those were both really good — one with some fun faux rocks and plushy starfish and anemones, the other one had some cool paper-mache wildlife, a shark and an octopus and some fish,” said Moulton. The shark hole won third place.

First place went to an interactive hole that looked like it had risen from an apocalypse. The team built a “distressed-looking” but fully functioning pinball machine out of scrap metal and wood, complete with added graffiti. Players putted up a ramp, just like a pinball chute, and then would pull on spring-loaded wooden flippers to bat the ball around the hole.

“It was awesome — that was definitely the one that kids could not stop playing. It was really lo-fi, but it worked really well. It was just like, nails, rubber bands, and cool salvaged things like old rusty gears as obstacles. It felt very like, if you went into a bar in ‘Mad Max,’ they would have this pinball machine,” said Moulton. “I kept wondering if [it] was going to make it, because the kids were so hard on it, they would just full-body-weight yank on the cord that flipped the flippers over and over again. But man, it made it, it held up all the way.”

Second place had a thematic first: a Bainbridge Island-themed hole where players race down Highway 305 from the Agate Pass Bridge to catch the ferry at Eagle Harbor.

“I’m actually surprised that it took ‘til the fourth year to get a Bainbridge-themed hole,” said Moulton.

Karey Roe, owner of Heart and Soul Art Studio in Winslow, built the hole with her two kids and a number of student campers, using supplies available at the art studio. Frog Rock, Pia the Troll, pickleball courts, a farmstand, a forest, a water tower, a beach with a leaping orca, evidence of the high school senior “Paint Night,” the Tacoma vessel and a roundabout full of flamingos all made an appearance.

“We were pretty proud of Pia, it was the biggest group effort, someone new took over each day. We definitely could have kept going with all the Bainbridge character, but we had fun with all the little details like the senior class road paint, a shopping cart filled with bananas, of course the roundabout flamingos and the latest talk of the town, road closure!” said Roe. “My son, Bodhi, took charge of the ferry boat and kept whipping up creations like the traffic light and the ‘dream’ water tower, so each piece was filled with creativity and it was just so exciting to watch it come to life.”

One business owner became a big fan of the Clash —Stacey Wadkins of Sweet Dahlia Bakery.

“It was an awesome event — it was almost like an interactive art project, but it was so much fun,” Wadkins said. “I was so glad that I played. I could tell that it was an event that people had done over and over again, because some people had brought their own putters, and there were people there from all ages. It would be great to continue to do it [at Coppertop Park].”

Wadkins had never encountered Putt Putt Clash before, but she instantly recognized it as an artistic outlet. She played a quick 10-hole round with a colleague, and by the time the two were done, “the creative juices were flowing,” she said, and she is considering building her own hole next year — bakery-themed, of course.

“It’s such a unique idea. You don’t know the range of what people were entering, so when you’ve not done it, you don’t know what to expect,” said Wadkins. “It was really interesting to see different people’s takes on it … I think the ideas are endless. It was really well done, and I hope that next year they do it with more people. It was definitely quirky, unique Bainbridge — but it had that artistic flair.”