18 Mini-Golf Art Holes You Won’t Find at Walker On the Green

18 Mini-Golf Art Holes You Won’t Find at Walker On the Green


The Kris Martin hole. You’re informed that your ball has been buried somewhere on the Walker’s grounds.

The Matthew Barney hole. You must sink your ball into a hole in the middle of a plasticized-Vaseline surface between two noise-rock bands. If you succeed, it represents the descent of your testes and you are a man. If you fail, you are Björk and your body will be ritually sliced into segments.

The Yoko Ono hole. Your putter is made of hollow glass.

The Claes Oldenburg hole. Your ball is a giant beanbag with divots.

The Abraham Cruzvillegas hole. Found pieces of carpet are tacked to a wooden frame. You must putt the ball over the carpet while your parents, on video, talk about their hippie days.

The Edward Hopper drawing hole. Play the hole several times, then change a couple of major elements and play it for real. An art historian observes that some of your preliminary strokes were tellingly similar to the strokes used to paint Nighthawks.

The On Kawara hole. Your score is the day of the month.

The Sol LeWitt hole. You must construct the hole yourself according to a precise set of instructions.

The Sturdevant hole. An exact replica of the 12th hole at Moose Mountain Adventure Golf.

The Marina Abramovic hole. Two naked people stand on either side of the fairway, and you have to putt between them.

The Takashi Murakami hole. A boutique in the middle of the hole sells high-priced Louis Vuitton golfwear autographed by Takashi Murakami, the pro golfer.

The Christian Marclay hole. The astroturf and obstacles are collectively defined as a “score” that you must “play” with your putter and ball. Other than that, it’s just a normal mini-golf hole.

The Guillermo Kuitca hole. The fairway is shaped like the floor plan of the apartment where Kuitca grew up. The hole is located approximately where his parents’ bed would have been.

The Frank Gehry hole. There are bigger ones in L.A. and Spain, but the one in Minneapolis is better.

The Cindy Sherman hole. The artist clothes herself in astroturf, puts a cup in her open mouth, and lies very still.

The Jeff Koons hole. There are a thousand copies of it, but you can’t afford to play any of them.

The Damien Hirst hole. You have to play it suspended in formaldehyde, but if you start to fall apart, the artist will replace you at cost.

The Henry Darger hole. You putt your ball into a basement, where it won’t be found until after your death, at which time you’ll be hailed as a mini-golfing genius.

Jay Gabler


Walker on the Green is open May 22-September 1.