Mini golf isn’t something you do for the money. In 2014, Olivia Prokopova won the sport’s triple crown for both genders: the United States Open, the Masters, and the world championships. For this remarkable feat, she earned very little. (Top prize at the U.S. Open: $3,500.) But even if it’s not a professional income, it is a major time commitment, as most days she practiced for eight to 12 hours.
This dedication is not uncommon among the elites of the game. Matt Male won the 2015 Masters and is every bit the fanatic Prokopova is. He started playing golf at age eight and realized he loved putting above all else, to the point he switched to mini golf so he could do it exclusively. His game is based on repetition, as he’ll “diagnose” how to handle a particular hole at a course for an upcoming tournament, then practice it with his long putter (much like the two-time winner of the PGA’s version of the Masters, Bernhard Langer) hour after hour after hour.
Watch the video below to see Male in action and take a peek into what occurs at one of mini golf’s “majors.”
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