Miniature Golf

Army Sgt. Jerrod Fields, who lost his left leg to a roadside explosion in Baghdad in 2005, believes the trick to life is turning a temporary inconvenience into a permanent improvement. With his prosthetic limb, the 26-year-old Fields has done that. He has become a champion sprinter and hopes to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. On Tuesday, he was trying to learn yet another new skill: golf.

Family amusement park pioneer William L. Rameson has formed a new company, Palace Entertainment, that will operate a chain of 15 miniature golf and arcade-based parks and be headquartered in Orange County. Rameson, who started the Camelot and Castle amusement park chains and later sold his interest in them, has acquired seven Camelot parks and seven Huish Family Fun Centers--all in California--and the Grand Prix Race-O-Rama park in Dania, Fla.

Until recently, the only time most Monroe High School students spent on the greens was amid the windmills and fairy castles of the local miniature golf course. But construction of a $12,000 driving range and putting green at the North Hills school has exposed students to the joys of the links--and given many a chip shot at success.

I love miniature golf. I am not ashamed. The tackier and more gimmicky the course, the better as far as I am concerned. Bring on the windmills, castles and laughing mechanical clowns who seem to mock my attempts to be the Tiger Woods of mini-golf. Most of my friends do not understand, so I went in search of digital friends--the kind you find on the Internet's World Wide Web.

Families are going to have a tough time beating the coming weeks' heat and smog without forsaking all forms of outdoor fun. For some families the answer might be nighttime summer golf--even if they have kids as young as 5 or 6. From Van Nuys to Ventura, Sepulveda Basin to Simi Valley, folks of all ages are showing up in droves at cool, illuminated driving ranges and 9-hole and miniature golf courses. "When it's warm, we're busy.

Families are going to have a tough time beating the coming weeks' heat and smog without forsaking most forms of outdoor fun. For some families, the answer might be nighttime golf--even if they have kids as young as 5 or 6. From Van Nuys to Ventura, Sepulveda Basin to Simi Valley, folks of all ages are showing up in droves at cool, illuminated driving ranges, nine-hole and miniature golf courses. "When it's warm, we're busy.

Lacey Chabert, who plays Claudia, the youngest daughter in Fox's "Party of Five," turned 13 in September. The vivacious actress spends hours at the studio in Culver City--studying scripts, rehearsing, filming and going to school--all on the lot. Question: Don't you get antsy when you're at the studio for so long? Answer: Some people think, "Wow, how do you get any activity sitting on a set all day?" But I mean, I do so much stuff here. * Q: Then let's straighten everybody out right now.

The course may have been miniature, but the fun at the first ARC Industries Miniature Golf Tournament Saturday morning at Golf N' Stuff in Ventura was larger than life. For more than two hours, clients and supporters of the Camarillo-based nonprofit organization, which provides independent living and job skills for developmentally disabled adults, chased that elusive hole in one. Two people found it.

Golf N' Stuff will be the site of a miniature golf classic Oct. 26 in Ventura to benefit ARC Industries of Ventura County. ARC Industries has been providing job training and residential services to people with mental and physical disabilities for more than 40 years. Through the ARC Miniature Golf Classic, the organization hopes to raise money to continue its programs, which serve more than 700 men and women.

Players at Sherman Oaks Castle Park will pay 50 cents more for a round of miniature golf beginning June 5, the city Recreation and Parks Commission decided this week, but senior citizens 65 and older will pay the same $5 adult rate as before. The new rates of $5.50 for an adult round and $4.50 for a child's round of golf put the Castle Park fees more in the range of other Southland miniature golf courses, said Jim Andervich, the recreation and parks assistant general manager for the Valley.