For many people, minigolf is as much a part of summer as ice cream and a day at the pool. Yet fewer know that Switzerland played a key role in the history of the sport.
In 1954, landscape gardener Paul Bongni opened the world’s first standardised minigolf course in Ascona, canton Ticino. With his norms for holes and obstacles, he laid the foundations for the modern version of minigolf we know today. It belongs to a family of disciplines that also includes miniature golf, cobigolf, star golf and felt golf. From Ticino, the game spread across the globe.
It may come as a surprise that Switzerland became the “motherland of minigolf”. But the combination of precision, standardisation and ingenuity proved to be a winning formula.
Read more about the sport in our article:
More
More
Swiss oddities
How Switzerland became the ‘motherland of minigolf’
This content was published on
Jul 18, 2026
Why was minigolf standardised in Switzerland, and how did it then conquer the country?
Read more: How Switzerland became the ‘motherland of minigolf’
Articles in this story