If you are looking for someplace to go for your child’s first miniature golf experience, you can’t go wrong at Treasure Island miniature golf at Pohick Bay Regional Park. The kids loved the cute pirate theme, but what will really float your boat is that the self-contained miniature golf area is not near any busy roadways, is shady, and has good visibility across the entire play area.
The fees are $3 per person, and you rent your equipment at the tiny campground store. (Take the turn for the Pirate’s Cove spray park off the main entry road, and keep going until you see the camp store.) This is a bit far from the play area, and your best bet here is to have another adult in the car to leave the kids with, or meet up with friends and let the kids play while one adult goes to the camp store to rent the equipment. The mechanism that “eats” the ball at the end of play was disabled when we were there, and our group was the only one present, so, rather than insist the kids take turns and progress through the holes in order, we told them to spread out and each pick a hole. With one or two kids per hole, there was plenty of no-waiting fun and they played in whatever order pleased them.
To make sure their first miniature golf experience was a success, we went over the “rules” ahead of time.
- No high swings.
- The head of the club stays below your knees.
- No swinging when your friends are too close.
- No wild swings.
The penalty for any infraction: No more club for you. You will have to play with only your hands. We didn’t have to confiscate anyone’s club during game play, and our group had players ranging from 2-5 years old.
There is plenty of parking in the attached lot, which is shared with the picnic area and the disc golf course. On weekends this might get busy, but on a Monday morning in July it was deserted when we arrived at 11:00. We saw a few people over the course of the day, but there was no danger of losing a kid in a crowd on a weekday here.
Restrooms were a bit of a drawback. The nearest ones are by the campground store or at the marina. Definitely make sure to take everyone for a potty stop before you start play. We (wrongly) assumed there must be at least a port-a-john nearby, and I put off looking for it until I had to “go.” That was a mistake, as when I finally pulled up in front of the campground restroom, it was closed for cleaning. I didn’t get to a toilet until I’d gotten into the driver’s seat three times. So even if you don’t make a stop before you play, scope out the locations before you park and you’ll be in much better shape than I was! The distance from running water means you will definitely want to pack plenty of drinks, especially if it’s a hot day. There is a beverage machine located at the course ($1.75/bottle) but you won’t be sorry if you pack a cooler and keep it in the trunk.
At a mere $3 per player for more or less unlimited play, we really felt like we got our money’s worth at this 18 hole miniature golf course. We will definitely go back, and we hope you’ll join us!
