O-Street Mini Golf league takes on city’s courses in a fun but competitive way
OCEAN CITY — They study the courses assiduously, look carefully at the lay of the artificial greens and confer with the other golfers. Their faces reveal the intensity as they line up their putts. The body language that follows the club-strike tries to will the ball into the strategically placed holes.
The members of the O-Street Mini Golf league reveal themselves as serious competitors, including some professional mini-golfers, but there is a laid-back vibe and cordiality as they laugh and joke between the holes on their 10-week summer tour around Ocean City’s mini-golf courses.
To the outsider, it can look a little silly as well, given these golfers aren’t navigating the British Open or the Masters, but they are serious as they line up shots — the kind of shots that go into a big shark’s mouth and come out the other end.
Aaron Kaminski of Ocean City is “El Presidente” of the O-Street Mini Golf league. He and his friends grew up on the Ocean City Boardwalk, spoiled by the number of miniature golf courses in such close proximity. It was “dare” golf then, with the loser having to do something embarrassing.
Thirteen years ago, that evolved into a true league. Some of the golfers have played nationally and a few internationally, some being featured on the ABC miniature golf show “Holey Moley.”
Kaminski was in Europe for a tournament with golfers from a dozen or so countries represented.
“It was a cool experience,” he said. “We have our league and you can kind of work your way to different levels.”
Why not regular golf?
“I have a horrible slice,” Kaminski explained, smiling. “My tee shot goes into the trees every time, but you get me on the green and I’m good.
“It’s competitive, but at the same time anyone can do it. All you have to do is practice. You don’t have to be the strongest person, the tallest, the shortest, whatever. Just come out, have some fun and be competitive,” he said.
The summer Ocean City league doesn’t play for financial gain across the 10 games at the different courses in the resort.
“We’re not playing for any money. We’ve had people consistently come out over the last decade to just play, compete and have fun.”
The level of the game among the players keeps elevating. Winning gets tougher when some players can hit 10 holes-in-one on the 18-hole course and come in with scores as low at 30, 29 and 28.
“I challenge anyone who comes down to the shore. If you live local, you have to come out and play. If you think you’re good, well, let’s see if you are,” he said.
The O-Street league averages about 20 to 25 people for each match, with four or five often competing for the top spot and the overall points. Others are there more for fun.
David Biggy, a journalist from Long Beach Island, started “Can You Beat Biggy?” for a column at the Sandpaper newspaper in LBI. He challenges anyone in the world to mini-golf over the 12 weeks of summer and writes about it for the newspaper.
Kaminski was the first person to challenge him and told him about the league.
Biggy said he’s still trying to figure out why he likes mini-golf so much, but acknowledges it’s fun. He enjoys the Ocean City league because of the different people who play.
“It’s not like you’re trying to just beat the tar out of people; it’s mini-golf. But it’s competitive enough where we’re challenging for points, we’re challenging for league standings and we’re challenging for a trophy at the end of the season,” he said. “Why not make it fun and competitive? For me, it’s about the community of it.”
“We’re just a bunch of friendly people from all walks of life,” he said. Biggy is among the golfers in the O-Street league who also play in professional tournaments as well across the country.
“We’ve played against people from all over Europe,” he said. “We play in some pretty high-level tournaments around the country. We play against some of the best putters in the world in some cases.”
“In the United States, we kind of take mini-golf for granted. In some countries in Europe and in Australia, they take it very seriously. If you’re going to play at that level, you get hooked,” Biggy said.
Dave Torroni of Avalon said he always played mini-golf with his family and saw Kaminski had a tournament with prize money.
“We’re like, ‘Let’s try it; we’re pretty good,’” he said. “And then we went. We weren’t that good.”
Torroni said through that, they learned about the O-Street Mini Golf league’s 10-week summer league.
“Now I always joke around that mini-golf stopped being fun the day I met these guys because it got serious,” Torroni said, smiling.
He noted his favorite course is the Sandcastle Putt Club, where they were golfing a few weeks ago at the corner of 34th Street and Asbury Avenue.
“I won my second championship here,” he said. “We have a members championship every year and I didn’t win that tournament, but I gained enough points to win the overall cup. It’s just my type of course. It suits my style of play very well.”
(There’s a picture of Torroni, the 2025 champion, smiling and holding the tournament cash and the trophy on the league’s website at o-streetminigolf.com.)
The players don’t just grab putters and balls from the bin at the golf courses. Their putters and golf balls look a lot more professional than the ones the tourists are using.
“I’d say we all have our own equipment and special golf balls. If you want to be in the top of the top, you practice a lot,” Torroni said. His wife plays as well; they have fun together.
Joe DiPrima comes south from Asbury Park every week to play. (Another player drives in from Staten Island weekly.)
“It’s a fun little competitive sport and when you’re not good at any real pro sports, you find something like this,” DiPrima said. “It’s definitely fun. I mean, when you’re in the heat of the moment and you’re trying to get the win, it might look a lot more serious than it needs to be, but we have a good community. It’s a lot of cool people too. I made some friends throughout the years.”
From the outside, the Sandcastle Putt Club looks like a novelty and kid-friendly, but according to Kaminski, “there are some brutal deadly breaks here.” That showed as some of the golfers hit their holes in one and others missed the mark.
One hole, Kaminski’s ball ended up stuck behind a barrier where balls don’t normally go. The members had a five-minute rules discussion on how to proceed and if an extra stroke would be required. Again, it was serious but light-hearted as they joked with one another.
When Kaminski’s not golfing here or in other parts of the country or abroad, he works in entertainment in Atlantic City. “I love traveling and just running this every summer.”
Attesting to the international interest in the sport, last year he and his wife were in Japan. He contacted a Japanese golfer he follows on YouTube and who follows him. He told her they were going to be in Tokyo and asked if she wanted to play. She said sure, if they didn’t mind an hour travel north of the city. They did not mind the trip.
“We met her club, we got to play. It’s ridiculous that we’ve met so many people throughout the world from mini-golf,” he said.
Back locally, he said, the O-Street league’s 10-week competition doesn’t have any money on the line.
“People are coming to just have a good time, which is awesome,” he said, but for those who want to take it further, there are big tournaments with cash prizes out there.
One in Nashville, he said, has a $27,000 purse and the Masters in Myrtle Beach, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, has a $20,000 first prize.
This Ocean City season is wrapping up — game nine is 7 p.m. July 19 at Medieval Fantasy Golf at 1336 Boardwalk and game 10 is 7 p.m. July 26 at Haunted Golf at 824 Boardwalk. Then there will be the Members Championship at noon Aug. 2 at Serene Custard & Miniature Golf in Vineland.
Local tournament
with cash prizes
There is an upcoming tournament with a $2,000 purse – the O-Street Mini Golf Open at 11 a.m. Aug. 9 at Tee Time mini-golf at 624 Boardwalk. There is a $50 registration fee for two games. (First place wins $500!)
All players must subscribe to the free O-Street Mini Golf YouTube page and show proof when registered for the tournament.
There will be medals for first, second and third plus trophies in the Women’s Division and Youth Division (14 and over).
Register online at o-streetminigolf.com. There are 75 spots available with no same-day registration.
To learn more about the league and its events, go to the website or email ostreetminigolf@gmail.com.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
