Driving down the Parkway in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, you will pass several miniature golf courses. In fact, it will be hard to leave town without wanting to try at least one of the great variety. Professor Hacker’s Lost Treasure Golf takes participants on an expedition to find lost treasure. Two courses allow you to follow the Professor on his original search for gold, and his later expedition on a search for diamonds on the fictitious Fogclift Islands. We played the diamond course.
Instead of playing miniature golf through miniature settings with things flashing and beeping at you, this is a serene golf course. You will golf through huge volcanoes, inside pyramids, and next to mountains and waterfalls. The colors of the golf course are all browns and green. The golf greens that you golf on are all colored grass green. The surrounding scenery is light brown stone and wood. Even the music playing is something that you might find at a spa.
The main waterfall at the end of the course (and what you see from the road) has a huge dinosaur skeleton laying in the lagoon. An alligator is chasing an explorer who is trying to climb up the waterfall. You can see that his boat went over the waterfall and crashed.
A large explorerer’s plane sits atop the course above the registration desk. After you get your club and ball, you can ride up to the start of the course on a small train that resembles miners’ carts. If you choose not to wait for the train, you can walk up a set of stairs beside the huge, smoking volcano. A creek runs past the holes for much of the course. As you go from hole to hole you will cross wooden bridges and be surrounded by streams and waterfalls. You will see dinosaur footprints, old gunpowder barrels and a cart full of gold. The concept is that the Germans were searching for the gold to help fund their needs during World War I and now Professor Hacker is looking for any abandoned gold.
This golf course is fun for everyone and wasn’t built with just children in mind. The serene atmosphere helps tone things down since miniature golf courses in Pigeon Forge are always crowded with families having fun.