Oceans 18 reinvents mini golf.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Under black lighting that makes everyone’s teeth look like they just went through an extreme whitening process, I get the first hint of the day that I might be a bit undergunned.

“I used to play miniature golf all the time as a kid,” my friend Dr. Wong says as we prepare to take on the new Oceans 18 Black Light Miniature Golf Course in Pacific Grove.

While most traditional mini golf courses are outside and feature classic obstacles like spinning windmills, Oceans 18 is an altogether different fish. This new addition to the American Tin Cannery, which opened on May 5, features holes with reclining sea otters, spinning starfish and dangling squid all eerily illuminated by black lights.

It takes my eyes a bit to adjust to the glowing orange and yellow obstacles on the course. Or at least that’s my alibi after failing to sink three consecutive short putts on the first hole.

The game becomes more painful from there. Dr. Wong manages to sink a hole in one on a fairway adorned with a reef and a porpoise. I keep sending my ball into the same impediment.

At the 18th—after holes that included a gaping white shark and a giant clam—Dr. Wong informs me that I have a total score of 60, while he recorded a 48.

“The high score doesn’t win,” Dr. Wong says.

As I hang my head in shame, Jerry Flores is having a great day. Today, it’s his ninth birthday, and he’s having a party here with 14 of his friends. Flores sets me straight on why this new mini golf course is such a neat place.

“It’s cool because it’s like you are underwater,” he says.

OCEANS 18, which is located in Suite 304 of the American Tin Cannery in Pacific Grove, is open noon to 10pm Monday through Thursday, until 11pm Friday and Saturday and noon to 8pm on Sundays. $8.50/adults; $7.50/children under 11, military and seniors; $4/children under 5. 643-9215.