By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Nightlife Blogger
Two words kept coming to mind when I was experiencing Holey Moley golf for the first time: happily confused. You can also add in there dazzled, dazed and incredibly impressed.
This is because, not knowing quite what to expect, I was overwhelmed by the choices of things to do and the whole place in general. I was at the press preview for the Irivine Spectrum location (others are in Austin, Denver, Houston, San Antonio, San Francisco and Santa Monica) and hundreds of people were there. PubClubette Ashley and I walked into a room and were greeted by two girls with champagne flutes in thier dresses, and then a scene that was both fun and confusing was happening all around us.
Confusing because what was before us included a bar, a hotel hotel concierge desk (yep!; keep reading) a cozy lounge with a faux fireplace and a room to the right that is the hightlight of the place, a 27-hole putt-putt (or minature golf, if you prefer) golf course. The friendly staff was there to direct us and we started at the concierge desk which provided us with a “room” at something called the Hijinx Hotel. As we would later discover it was not an actual hotel, but a series of rooms with interactive games. Ashley excelled at them while I mostly stood around in a kind of a daze trying to piece together the whole thing. Your tasks are scored and we did terrible, of course, and other people there “competed” in groups.
Fortunately, the staff was everywhere, smiling and helping to guide us around. I needed this mental hand holding because everywhere around us there was a buzz of activity and I was wondering where to go and what to do next.
We did make it into the putt-putt area. But first, we had to go to a counter to get a tee time, just like in real golf. Except this was not like any putt-putt course I had ever experienced (mainly playing with the family on those themed courses that seem to be at every beach town in Florida). At Holey Moley, there was fun music playing that made me want to dance, people walking around handing me cocktails – keep in mind this was a preview event so on other days you have go to the bar – in a dark, club-like setting with holes that were unlike any either of us had ever seen. Rock ‘n roll putt-putt golf! The first hole was a make up of Vincent Van Gogh’s bedroom, another had King Kong looking over the green, one was a Flinstownes theme and on a couple you had to put your ball in a maze. Each hole had instructions that were often more comical than informative; my favorite was “basically avoid everything.”
And yes, there was also a place to put your drink at each hole, which showed me excellent advance planning. And those drinks; one comes in a bathtub and large group cocktails are served in a golf bag and what looks like half of a disco ball.
So you see, with so much going on and so much to do at Holey Moley, it’s easy to understand why I was happily confused. We spent three hours there and could easily have made it four. Plus, there’s a speakeasy with live music in the “hotel” which you enter by going into a photo booth and while we didn’t see it (maybe it wasn’t ready that night), karaoke. Frankly, I’m kind of glad we didn’t go into a karaoke rooom because PubClubette Ashley loves to sing and we would have been in there until they (politely, no doubt) would have showed us to the door because they were closing.
Here is a link to the Holey Moley website.
Kevin Wilkerson is an award-winning journalist who publishes PubClub.com. He is an lover of putt-putt golf and coversd bars and nightlife around the world. This story was written by a human with no assistance from AI or ChatGTP.
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