Talk:Putt-Putt Fun Center

Locations

I can't find sources to confirm the list of countries where they have locations. An obituary for the founder claimed locations in Australia and Indonesia, but I'm having trouble confirming this - and there was a claim of Lebanon, which I can't find any evidence for. Does anyone have more details? EPAstor (talk) 01:11, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

I just checked their website. Of the 29 course locations, 28 are mostly back East. The only one west of the Mississippi River is in California.

I think something about that needs to be mentioned in the article.

Plus, they may have expanded in 1990s, but all Putt-Putts in Arizona had closed and shut down by the mid to late 1980s. 2600:8800:204:C400:2089:13FA:A3F1:5870 (talk) 18:37, 9 October 2022 (UTC)

Untitled

I organized and added history, im still new so tell me if I did anything wrong, since there is certianly room to expand. Ageofe 16:43, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

It seems to me that the company has shrunk quite a bit. that might belong in the history. There used to be half a dozen in the Indianapolis area. Now, according to their website, there are none.--Scottandrewhutchins (talk) 22:53, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Letter to Mojang

Apparently, Putt-Putt LLC has sent a cease and desist letter to Mojang, over some Putt Putt Craft custom maps some minecraft users made. A tweet from Notch showing copies of the letter can be seen [[1]] here.

Comparisons

I tagged the Comparison section as unsourced. Although a quick glance shows most of it to be true, we need a source to make that definitive. Railsofsteel (talk) 23:55, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

Requested move 11 October 2020

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

No consensus to move. BD2412 T 23:45, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

Putt-Putt Fun Center → Putt-Putt, LLC – Putt-Putt, LLC or Putt-Putt Golf Courses of America, Inc., are the names of the company selling "Putt-Putt" franchises. "Putt-Putt Fun Center" is a brand name for the Putt-Putt family entertainment centers, but only since 2010. Previously, the brand was "Putt-Putt Golf". This article should be about the whole business topic, not just the recent rebranding of some (most?) franchises. IveGoneAway (talk) 03:12, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

• Oppose - I don't think having the company name is suitable. Shouldn't the article be about the game "Putt-Putt", not just the company/franchises? As such I'd have thought a better name was "Putt-Putt" or "Putt-Putt golf". Currently Putt-Putt is a disambiguation page but maybe this is the primary topic. Putt-putt golf currently redirects to Miniature golf but it seems (from the article here) that it is distinctive from most miniature golf. Nigej (talk) 08:34, 11 October 2020 (UTC)
  • The Brand is the company name, only the franchises can advertise themselves as "Putt-Putt". I don't think the intent of this page was to cover the generic "putt-putt" vernacular (see my earlier post to day below). One might think it could cover the game rules of "Putt-Putt", but they may be relevant to only to Par 2 courses, which are uncommon as the franchise (and vanishingly rare outside the franchise, I would have to think), but the PPA plays only on the franchise courses. IveGoneAway (talk) 15:38, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

• Oppose - seems clear it is the brand/concept/game is the subject of the article and that is what make this notable, not the company. There maybe a better title (per commonname), but I just don't see the company name as the answer. _wjemather^{please leave a message...} 08:44, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your responses, and I understand how you think that the article is about the branded game rather than the company that owns the branded business concept. "Putt-Putt" is the trademark of Putt-Putt, LLC, the hole designs are copyrighted by Putt-Putt, LLC. I am pretty sure that Putt-Putt, LLC doesn't own Par 2 mini golf game, but but what Putt-Putt, LLC, owns is the design components for a Par 2 course that can call itself Putt-Putt Golf. Notable Putt-Putt Golf existed as IP since the 1950s, while Putt-Putt Fun Centers are just the most recent chapter in the story.

I am OK with renaming to Putt-Putt [sans LLC] if you only want the page to be about the brand. I am about to go take some pictures. The brand has pulled out of Kansas AFAIK, but the equipment still is present.

If the page is really about the game, then acknowledge that the Fun Center is not the Par 2 game, the Fun Center is a collection of branded games, one of which is a Putt-Putt Golf Course.

IveGoneAway (talk) 20:51, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

Follow up: So, the location had all familiar Putt-Putt Golf Par 2 hole designs, the welcome sign still had the 1970s font, but all Putt-Putt branding had been removed. Pictures to come. [ 3 over par ] IveGoneAway (talk) 23:07, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

A single "Putt-Putt" article could cover everything, like McDonald's.

The question now is whether the term Putt-Putt is sufficiently generic (ie like Miniature golf or Crazy golf, in my part of the world) that the current page should stay the same - with Putt-Putt Fun Center moving to (say) Putt-Putt golf, or whether Putt-Putt Fun Center should go Putt-Putt and Putt-Putt to Putt-Putt (disambiguation). The Putt-Putt (series) gets way more hits than Putt-Putt Fun Center (https://pageviews.toolforge.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&redirects=0&start=2019-10-12&end=2020-10-11&pages=Putt-Putt_Fun_Center%7CPutt-Putt_(series) ) but I'm not sure that's a determining factor here. Nigej (talk) 08:37, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

I caught a bit yesterday that "Putt-Putt" is the Kleenex of mini golf (as in the United States, Facial tissue is usually called "kleenex". I see in the Kleenex page a section Kleenex trademark with the statement "In the USA, the Kleenex name has become—in common usage but not in law—genericized [etc]", I could see a similar section added to Putt-Putt, and include the lawsuit(s) and impact on courses that dropped the franchise or new courses that recycled the equipment. However, the generic use of "Putt-Putt", though real, may be regional and may be dated (citation definitely needed).

Given what you say about the hits, I wouldn't renamed it to Putt-Putt, and I never thought of doing that anyway after what I saw in the disambi. This page could be left at Putt-Putt Fun Center, or changed to something broader Putt-Putt (brand), Putt-Putt Golf (possibly a really good choice IMO), Putt-Putt (miniature golf), Putt-Putt (game), Putt-Putt (franchise), Putt-Putt (business), whatever, I figured you guys could have a better sense of this, which is why I posted. IveGoneAway (talk) 15:55, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

Personally I'm leaning towards Putt-Putt with a hat note like that at Velcro, pointing to Miniature golf and the disamb page. Perhaps also worth noting that I don't think there are any golf editors currently with any great interest in miniature golf. @Wjemather: Any suggestions? Nigej (talk) 11:37, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

It seems that "Putt-Putt Fun Center" is not the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC for "Putt-Putt" , and none of the others stand out sufficiently, so the disambiguation page should probably stay as it is. "Miniature golf" seems to be the PTOPIC for "Putt-Putt Golf", and what most people would be looking for. As such, I'd probably stick with the how everything is currently, as the best option available, with an additional redirect hatnote (for Putt-Putt Golf) at Miniature golf. _wjemather^{please leave a message...} 12:07, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

Maybe I need to consider NPOV. In the 70's, in Kansas, along I-70, that I knew of, there were franchised Putt-Putt Golf Courses in Colby, Hays, Salina, Junction City, Manhattan (2 locations), Topeka, (Lawrence was and is too snooty for Miniature Golf, let alone the working class Putt-Putt (FWIW, EMAW)), and Kansas City. All of these have been demolished except for the de-branded one in Topeka, even though there are now at least as many non-branded miniature golf locations in existence among the same cities. I must now consider a merge of this page with Miniature golf. There are now only less than 200 branded Putt-Putts (never more than 300-400?), while there are thousands of other miniature golf courses in the States. Even so, IIUC, the Putt-Putt brand is the reason miniature golf courses are called "putt-putts" in the vernacular. IveGoneAway (talk) 14:46, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.