Taken from Mental Floss magazine:

"While you're no doubt familiar with today's freeway-adjacent, miniature golf montrosities, you should know they're nothing like their predecessors. In the early 20th centruy, "garden golf" was introduced by professional golfers looking for a way to replicated the sport on a smaller scale. In other words, they played on real grass with real putters.

"Later, the game added artificial turf, a few bumpers here and there, and volia! Suddenly, putter-wielding Americans everywhere had mini-golf fever. In the 1920s, roughly 30,000 miniature courses opened, with 150 rooftop courses cropping up in New York City alone. But when the Depression hit, expensive upkeep spelled trouble for the sport.

"To survive, entrepreneurs resorted to building what were known as "Rinkiedink" courses. Far from the games swank beginnings, these 'greens' were populated with ingeniously inexpensive obstacles such as old tires, wagon wheels, rusty stove pipes, and rain gutters. (Ed. Note: We're talking to you, Jerrytown!)

"Amazingly, the cheapo approach paid off. Today, some 50,000 mini-golf courses later, children (Ed. Note: or dudes in their mid-20's) continue to relish in the only birthday-party locale alternative to McDonald's, bowling alleys, and skating rinks."

So the question remains: who else wants in on the Heavy Soul Garden Golf & Cigar Club located on a rooftop downtown Omaha?