Every fall since 1997, the nation’s top putters have descended on North Myrtle Beach for the ProMiniGolf Master’s (this year, October 8–12). Action centers on the Hawaiian Rumble course, eighteen holes that lead players through tropical foliage and around a towering faux volcano that growls and shoots out flames every twenty minutes. The cash purse stands at a cool $25,000.
Gary Hester is the reigning two-time winner. He and his putter dominate, competing in more than a dozen regional and national tournaments a year. The North Carolina native also plays on the U.S. National team and in international tournaments. In this brief conversation (hey, he’s gotta get back to the course), Hester describes the high stakes of the mini game.
When you say “professional mini golf,” some people laugh. What do you tell them?
Trust me, I’ve heard it. If they think it’s a joke, just Google me. I’m on Spectrum News. I’ve got YouTubes, I’ve got Instagram videos. I’m known all over the world, which is astounding to me.
Are pro golfers good mini golfers? I understand the LPGA’s Paula Creamer and PGA player Rickie Fowler have competed in tournament play.
They couldn’t beat us. Paula and Rickie stayed close, but we could tell during the match they never had a chance. You just cannot—I don’t care how good you are, I don’t care who you are—you’re not going to show up on any mini golf course without a substantial amount of preparation and practice and beat any of our pros. Not our top guys. You just can’t do it.
When did you start playing?
I started as a kid. They built an Arnold Palmer franchise mini golf course in my hometown of High Point, North Carolina. My dad took me over. They were holding tournaments. He won the first city championship, and then I won the next four. Now, I’m sixty-eight. That’s the oldest person by a longshot to win the Master’s.
It’s not necessarily a young person’s game?
The last six years I probably played the best I’ve played in my life. I’ve qualified each year for the U.S. national team for the World Masters of Minigolf. I played in the Czech Republic in 2018, in Sweden in 2019…and Austria last year. To represent the U.S., that was one of my biggest thrills. They treated us like it was an Olympic event. Last February I won the World Putting League, the first ever worldwide live-streamed putting event that you could have legal gambling on. To win that one that was pretty big, and then later in the year, almost like bookends, I won the U.S. Master’s.
Can you make a living playing miniature golf?
It’s not really an occupation. It’s a full-time hobby. But honestly, I’ve made decent money the last few years. More than $21,000.
I hear the final round of last year’s Master’s was a nail-biter. What happened?
I had come close to winning in the Master’s multiple times, including back-to-back seconds. And there’s one guy that’s really hard to beat, Joey Graybeal. It came down to the last round. It was me and him again. But this time I had a four-stroke lead. He pulled it within two after eleven holes. I could hear rumblings in the gallery, “Oh no, Gary’s going to let it slip.” But I made [holes] 15, 16, and 17 and pulled the lead out to four, and that’s where it stayed. I beat him by four.
Do you ever play just for fun?
I really cannot. I don’t care what course I’m playing. I’m looking at tackling that course or tackling that hole. So it’s become, I don’t want to say a job for me, but it kind of is. I enjoy it at a different level. I enjoy attacking the courses and learning them and beating them.
