Smash Putt

Expect dive-​style dim lighting and awkward use of space. LOVED IT. To give you a bit of context, I am all about any creative new spin on an already really silly activity.
Tips from me:
Bring cash. Cash-​only bar is expected but left us only buying one beer a piece ($ 4).

I don’t understand why people rate this place high. The whole idea seems cool in theory but it screams half baked and lazy. There is no order to it and no one seems to care to take score which makes it all kinda pointless other than hitting balls. a few of the holes weren’t even working and we had to ask them to fix it. Due to no order of holes the lines are ridiculously long. The shooting the balls at random pieces of junk I just don’t get. For the price this is a massive rip off and my whole party walked out feeling extremely annoyed wishing we never came. Seriously after reading the reviews either i’m the last sane person alive or it’s just something that appeals to passive seattle hipsters…

Love it. I bought my tickets for early in the day and did not regret it! The place wasn’t yet crowded and we didn’t have long to wait for anything.
So if you haven’t read other reviews about it, here’s what Smash Putt is: mini-​golf elevated to art. Plus drinking. In mini-​golf your goal is to put a ball in a hole by hitting it as few times as possible.
The rules are a little different with Smash Putt. Sometimes you use a pneumatic gun to hit targets with your ball. Sometimes you can push a button to change the shape of the course. Sometimes your ball gets mangled by the course itself.
My favorite was «Mission Impossi-​hole» where you had to shimmy through a smoky room full of lasers without tripping the alarms. My least favorite was the first hole, a difficult moving course with a nearly impossible par.
All in all, it’s a pretty good time.

Beer: check.
Golf ball air guns: check.
Terrible hand-​eye coordination: check.
Seriously, I’m godawful at mini golf. If you want to spend a million years on one course while I try and try and try again to get my ball to go anywhere near a hole, let’s hit the green. Beer did not particularly improve my aim, and I may have gotten so fed up with my incompetence that I cheated a few times, and I may have lost by a singularly wide margin, but man, Smash Putt is fun. Highlight? The Mission Impossihole: a laser-​combed course with a truly annoying alarm when any of the laserbeams are broken with a body part. Curiously enough I aced this one under par — I guess I have a future as a cat burglar, or as someone who putts while also army crawling/​laying on the ground. If you hear of any openings in either of those fields please keep me posted! Regardless, $ 10 for a Sunday 1pm slot was a cheap price for two hours of HAVING A BLAST. Totally worth it. Unless you’re one of the people who had to put up with my incompetence, in which case sorry but also NOT REALLY.

Smash Putt is a GREAT time if you’re looking for something unique to do with a group of friends who drink. This is not a competitive sport by any means. It is also not serious so don’t worry about bringing your own putter. I’m pretty sure that would work to your disadvantage actually becuase I will be the one to push the button and switch the hole to the opposite corner on you!
Yes it will be crowded, a little disorderly and smell a bit stale. Remember that you are in a warehouse at a temporary installment with cheap drinks and chilling with other frunk (fun drunk) people so let loose and have a good time!
Beware of flying golfballs.

So much fun. It is putt putt for grownups who are still kids at heart.

This is such a great concept!
We put together a group of 9 people and set our tee-​time for 10pm on a Saturday night. When we arrived it was definitely a full house.
We navigated our way into the putt putt area and were surprised to see that we were shoulder to shoulder with about 500 other people. It is set up in a relatively small area (it’s big but not for the intended use) and you’ll be packed in like a sardine.
The course is a fun take on mini-​golf and after spending $ 25 a ticket, we expected more. We waited much more than we played. Luckily we were a big group and we had lots of fun just enjoying each other’s company. I guess we could have done that anywhere though.
If they can get a better system for spacing out tee-​times and the course, it’ll be a hit!

Okay I guess.
I see that many other reviewers took copious notes about the whole experience. I’ll bet they have 2 hours of video and hundreds of photos on their iphones too. This isn’t how I do fun. I had one hand for my putter and another for a beer.
Anyway, I’m not sure what I didn’t like about this. Was it that most of the artholes were broken? Was it that they were in no particular order and everyone was retarded drunk and bothering me?
PUT THE BALLS IN THE ARTHOLE!
Smash Putt is a good idea in concept and that’s about it. They play the «ITS ART, ART HAS NO RULES» card a little too often. The only thing that was cool here was shooting golfballs through a pneumatic cannon and even this was pretty bunk as they couldn’t even provide much to shoot them at to go pa-​twaaanng.
My only advice to you if you’re set on coming to this, an event which was clearly better in the past than it is now, is arrive completely smashed and stumble through the events totally blotto.

This was a blast! A fun and irreverent way to spend a weekend afternoon. It doesn’t matter how good you are at putt putt, or golf to have fun here. All the games are all kitschy and fun, some more than others (scratch-​and-​sniff?) and some very challenging like number 1 with the obstacles coming up and down on an irregular interval.
Try the bloody Mary’s, they do a good job with the limited bar they have, well at least they’re strong and have pickled veggies in them.

Smash Putt was fun but felt a little gimmicky. I didn’t understand the point of a couple of the holes, like #12 which just drills a hole into your ball for some reason. Is this some sort of deep metaphor? We spend all our lives trying to putt balls into holes. Perhaps we should be putting holes into balls instead? I just don’t know. My favorite part was using the ball guns to just make a lot of noise.
The whole thing was extremely casual, the scores just kind of tied everything together. I met some cool folks playing Nintendo on the living room course, but eventually the girlfriend of one of the guys I was playing with wanted to get him off the couch and turned off the system when we were on level 5 of Mario!
Drinks are cash only and $ 8 a shot so I did not get smashed at Smash Putt. I would have liked the music to have been louder too, or at least more speakers set up in the back areas.

This extreme mini golf madness is only around once a year so go while you have the chance! They are open Friday through Sunday.
I have been three times and they have added two new holes each time (probably getting rid of a hole or two to make room for the new ones)
The bar is CASH ONLY! There is an ATM if you forget cash though. They have 2 beers on tap and a full liquor bar. Prices were reasonable $ 4 for a beer $ 7 for the featured cocktail.
This is 21+ only except for the family days (there are only two of them!)
This year the highlights were:
Mission Impossi– hole — lasers and a fog machine. If you broke the lasers path it would alarm and cost you a stroke (but who’s really counting?)
Golf ball shooting range — you get to shoot about ten golf balls towards metal objects and make a ton of noise!
The last hole — They destroy your ball! (you can then take it home as a souvenir but you won’t be able to play golf with it very well…

The marching band was the best part, although I am pretty sure it was more show than talent. I like the concept of extreme putt putt but I think there was a lot more hype than delivery. The courses were humorous but not much more difficult than regular putt putt. Best course in my book was the mission impossible one. It’s always fun to try and avoid lasers but I really think it could have been a bigger course. I got a par 2 on that one — first putt, then belly crawl to the other side and ended it with the second putt. The space was rather small and there were so many people I left feeling like I was wearing someone else’s BO. Cash Bar only, just something to be aware of so you don’t have to pay a $ 4 ATM fee. If it hadn’t been for the people I was with I would not have had as much fun as I did, so if I were rating my experience on how cool my friends are it would be a 5 star review. I was underwhelmed, not challenged, and I guess I would have preferred fresh air to dank people.
Edit: I was just reminded that I forgot to mention… THE BEER WAS WARM!

Smash Putt is an interesting experience.

Smashputt is DEFINITELY and SHOULD be part of a quintessential Portlandia/​Seattlesque hipster world. I am so glad I found out about this via the Stranger or Seattle Weekly as our waitress from dinner prior to us going to Smashputt said it was only here for a certain amount of time kind of like a traveling art exhibit/​circus.
Finding it was difficult as we weren’t very familiar with the SODO district. we almost were going to go to Club X next door! as the door entrance to the space had no signs of any sort other than the fluorescent loom of the space available sign above that had smashputt coming soon added to it.
Once you arrive, you walk up some stairs and check in at the table… TIP: RSVP as it says on the website that it does sell out. luckily we were able to still get tix but it was for the late late admission.
Once in, it definitely has a super divey feel to it and it’s one big open space with all the mini golf «art exhibits» dispersed. The bar was right there upon entering so OBVIOUSLY we got our drink on first and then it was off to play golf.
BTW, there’s «VIP/​party» rooms you can reserve and we quickly checked them out and they were from my view just «MEH»…granted it was late in the night but they were a bit gross and dirty… hey if you’re with a group and need a chill space, then sure but i don’t think it’s worth the price.
Other reviews have it spot on… here’s a list of the course:
1) Moving Terrain, Par 3
2) Wrong Hole, Par 5
3) Mission Impossib-​hole, Par 3
4) Foosball, Par 4
5) Stank Hole, Par 3
6) Loopty, Par 2
7) Driving Range, Par 2
8) Infinity, Par ?
9) Tool Run, Par 2
10) Log Jammin’ Par 5
11) Ball maze Par 1
12) Deconstruction Zone Par 2 (TIP: do LAST)
13) Living Room Par 3
14) Skeebawl Par 3
15) Cold War Hole Par 2
My only negatives: It felt like a miniature golf course in that some of them there were groups of people and you had to wait in line… also some of the holes were either broken or malfunctioning so didn’t get to fully appreciate them ie the laser one as the smoke machine I think broke that night so you couldnt even see the lasers
And a positive to end, it was cool to randomly see a weird marching band come out and play like it was Mardi Gras up in there…
Don’t expect high quality entertainment… this is more divey über hipster chill so despite the negs, it was still a nice alternative way to spend a Friday night.

Super cool idea. Awesome Art. Gratuitous marching band. Stiff $ 4 well-​drinks. Interesting holes… Not good if you actually appreciate the competitive sport of miniature golf.
You’ll be spending a lot of time waiting in a queue, looking around. You can even play original Nintendo on one of the holes. It’s a cash only thing, but they have an ATM. I would really suggest going with a group of friends.
I would not suggest (though you can) getting über competitive. The holes aren’t designed to be challenging. You will always be rushed. The greens aren’t in great shape either.
If you like the «idea» of mini-​golf but want to get drunk, and loud and aren’t competitive — Smash Putt is up your fairway.

Upon entering Smash Putt, I found myself sitting ring side to a Marching Band performing lively music — talk about getting pumped up for some mini-​putt destruction! I am not sure if that band is a regular performance, but I must say, I was very pleased listening to that band.
Never been mini-​golfing before, so this is an enlightening experience for me; the added bonus of having alcohol makes this experience more fun! I had a wonderful time looking at all of the courses — I think my favorite is the Mission Impossihole — the joys of having Laser Alarms impeding my efforts of stroking the ball is a nice challenge.
I must say that the amount of creativity and engineering that went into designing these courses is something to admire — I would’ve enjoyed building these courses myself. There are course where the terrain is capable of shifting in altitude, or escape harm from rotary power tools (drills, saws, routers) or the aforementioned avoiding the Laser Trip Alarms.
Anyway, it’s worth checking out and is a great way of adding a couple of hours of evening fun!

I’m only sorry that I somehow didn’t give this a 5 star review last year! We had so much fun. I left with postcards to hand out to friends.
They’re on their last week of their current run. If you are looking for something fun, entertaining, a little recreational — and you are over 21 — this is a don’t miss event.
I still can’t decide which one is my favorite hole this year. I know that the inverted foosball table was one of the more difficult and the scratch and sniff hole had everyone laughing and groaning. I miss the turntable hole from the prior year (the most difficult and also my favorite), but there are great new ingenious holes made by some incredibly artistic twisted people.
If you can, chat up the people who run it. Several of the people who made the holes are on site and entertaining.

So I am a huge fan of mini-​golf and beer. So this was a no-​brainier for me.
All the holes were interesting and a lot of fun, if not a little bit difficult, or purposefully impossible (I’m looking at you infinity hole). I think my favorite was the Scratch-​n-​Sniff, if only because I was awesome and got a hole in one. The catapult was a lot of fun, but also super hard.
The bar was stocked full, and I enjoyed a tasty Pale Ale from Elliot Bay, that I was quite impressed with all the local artists and everyone else who put in a lot of work to create such a fun and interesting course. I think it’s a great idea. I would definitely do it again next year!
My only complaint would be the # of people. But then again, I’ve never been a fan of waiting in line.

$ 15 for creative mini golf with drinks, art, and well… possible death! You’d pay that much or more for mini golf that is full of screaming kids and broken windmills — so why not support local artists and get a little tipsy while you swing your clubs and hope not to hit someone in the face?
Smash Putt 2012 took place in a big ol’industrial building in Sodo this year. I admit the open-​ness of the court was weird, but it worked for tipsy stumbling between holes. The drinks were cheap, strong, and served to you by fairly chipper folks. I was pleased with all my libations.
The art was great! Not all of it was my bag, but it was cool to see so much support for local artists and there were several pieces I would have enjoyed owning.
The course itself was full of fun and challenging holes (though that could have been the booze). A scratch-​n-​sniff course, catapult, and lets not forget the shooting range. That was probably the funnest, but who doesn’t like shooting golf balls at saw blades and baby grand pianos?

I like mini golf. I like funky art. I like stiff drinks. I like fun, friendly, rad people. And I love a great time.
I’m thankful I was able to celebrate my birthWEEK with 20 of my closest friends at SmashPutt at the SoDo Fairways!
We reserved the Red Room, one of their two VIP rooms. It was clean, beautifully decorated… complete with mannequin pieces (random), plush couches, flowers, music, and complementary champagne.
They had a little bar in the corner (proceeds went to support a really good charity, the name has slipped my mind), and getting drinks was super easy (FYI: cash ONLY bar with an ATM at the entrance). We were able to bring in our own goodies (the bf made almost 50 cupcakes from scratch and some of my friends brought vegan & GF cupcakes, as well as yummy treats)!
The staff was fabulous — from the cute girl at the check-​in table to Ken, the manager, who took care of every single need we had! Ken went above and beyond what I expected — he surprised me with a bottle of champagne, brought in a table for all our yummy goodies (without me having to ask), he would come by the room (and even found me on «the course») to see if we needed anything often throughout the night, and he even let us stay in the Red Room well over our reservation time!
The empty warehouse was transformed into the most rad-​tastic mini golf course, each hole was unique and you could tell the artist responsible for creating it worked very hard on it! Some of our favorites included Skeeball, Foosball, The Living Room, Scratch & Sniff, and The Wrong Hole. Each of my friends had such a great time! Everyone kept saying, «This is so cool», «omg this is so much fun», «this place rocks!» Even days after, people are STILL talking about how much fun SmashPutt was!
My only knock on this place — the women’s restroom! Beware ladies, as soon as you open the door to enter the restroom there is a huge step down that you def do not expect! There is absolutely NO signage warning you of it! I saw several women eat it! Not cool!
All in all, it was a fabulous night! I highly recommend checking it out while it’s in town! This particular tour is here through the end of February! If you miss this tour, don’t fret — they’ll be back to transform another empty Seattle space next year!