Putting Green's big city cousin opens

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM - While construction on the Putting Green is just beginning, its big-city cousin at the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Big Back Yard, opens to the public this weekend.

Both are miniature golf courses designed in part by schoolchildren around an environmental theme.

While the Putting Green deals more with human interaction with the environment, The Big Back Yard's exhibits are designed to educate people about the principals behind landscape evolution, river dynamics and biodiversity.

Since two of the Big Back Yard's holes are based upon designs from New Ulm school children, a group representing the Putting Green was on hand Thursday as the museum had a party on the Big Back Yard course to recognize its sponsors and partners.

"We saw the course," reported Dr. Laurel Gamm, executive director of Putting Green, Inc. "We thought it was cool, but theirs is a little different."

Gamm said a group from the Putting Green approached the Science Museum with the concept of having an environmentally-themed mini golf park. The groups worked together to share and develop their ideas.

The Big Back Yard features a 30,000-square foot, nine-hole miniature golf course, a science house that is heated, cooled and powered by sunlight, interactive exhibits and a 17,000-square foot maze, according to the museum's website.

The two holes that deal with agricultural drainage and pollution - specifically the ninth hole and the fifth hole - are based on Putting Green ideas, she said. There's also a sign at the end of the Science Museum's course with a picture of some of the Putting Green kids that asks "Ready for another round?".

The difference between the Big Back Yard and the Putting Green, explained Gamm, is that the Big Back Yard deals more with basic science, while the Putting Green focuses more on human interaction with natural resources.

Gamm said construction on the Putting Green's holes is expected to start in a few weeks.

The Big Back Yard's grand opening is 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul.