The newly opened Saybrook Point Miniature Golf, nestled between Dock & Dine Restaurant, Saybrook Point Inn & Spa, and Fort Saybrook Monument Park, has a number of unique miniature replicas of town and community landmarks.
I took a visit there on a recent Friday evening and it was one of the most beautiful courses I’ve been to.
The course is located at the Saybrook Point Park where the Connecticut River meets Long Island Sound.
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Signs marking the holes are light blue, like the water, with a white lighthouse on each paying tribute to the town’s two lighthouses – the 1886 Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse (also known as the Outer Light) and the 1803 Lynde Point Lighthouse (also known as the Inner Light).
The first hole features a few rocks and is named “Super Sandy”, which was the storm that destroyed the original mini-golf course here in October 2012.
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According to The Day, Old Saybrook Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation Ray Allen and Police Chief Michael Spera worked with MGC Developers to incorporate local themes.
The second hole, named ‘stonehenge’, is reminiscent of Guilford’s Stonehedge Replica in Guilford.
A model of the town’s classic 1956 Ford Galaxy police cruiser with a red light at the top is featured at hole three. As people walk by, the light flashes. At night, headlights and backlights also illuminate.
A hairpin turn at hole four remind golfers of the sharp turn from the I-95 exit 68 off-ramp to Route 1.
The docks, paying homage to the town’s boating industry, are at hole five.
Hole six entitled “drop off” reminds visitors of the large drop off between the land and the water along the South Cove Causeway.
Hole seven is labeled “The Moguls”, which could be interpreted to refer to the small mounds at this hole and the historical, cultural, educational (Yale's founding town), and financial wealth of the Old Saybrook community.
A miniature historic one-room schoolhouse, at hole eight, has a rope that rings a bell. Schoolhouse Road is a tribute to this era of education.
The waterfall at hole 9 looks like the dam near Ingham Hill Road.
Here, the water flows into a miniature Connecticut River.
A roundabout, at hole 10, reminds locals of Killingworth’s roundabout at the junction of Routes 80 and 81.
Three stockade buildings representing historic Fort Saybrook, the first military fortification in Connecticut, are at hole 11.
Hole 12 features a sand trap reminding visitors of the sandy Harvey’s Beach.
A miniature historic town hall at hole 13, features detailed windows, doors, and a red facade. It’s gray pillars and steps are a scaled down version of the former town hall which has been transformed into the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center. The miniature’s slate roof bares some resemblance to the present-day town hall.
Hole 14, labeled “The Bridge”, pays homage to the town’s two major bridges, the Baldwin Bridge and the Amtrak Old Saybrook-Old Lyme Bridge.
A model bright red Old Saybrook Fire Department rescue boat shoots water into a miniature Long Island Sound at hole 15.
When I saw Hole 16 entitled “In Between”, it reminds boaters of the Between the Bridges Marina.
A 12-foot model of the Outer Light lighthouse, a familiar town icon and on Connecticut Save the Sound license plates, stands right next to the pond with the rescue boat at hole 17.
The final hole, hole 18, is a replica of the Old Saybrook High School gymnasium with their mascot and team name, the Old Saybrook Rams.
The course has a concession area alongside picnic tables.
There is a replica pillory, used for punishment by public humiliation at Fort Saybrook, which has holes for a head and wrists.
As a former Pictorial Gazette reporter covering Old Saybrook for two years, the three models I enjoyed the most were the lighthouse, rescue boat, and police cruiser.
