Golf Lessons: Stats Students Handicap Congo Falls

Mark Benevento designed the Solomon's Mine miniature golf course at Congo Falls on the Ocean City Boardwalk to play progressively harder.

Benevento, president of Greate Bay Country Club and co-owner of five miniature golf courses in Ocean City, Sea Isle City and Avalon, said the first holes are easier and boost a little confidence, before the challenge sets in for the later holes.

On Monday at Ocean City High School, Ed Ritti's probability and statistics class presented Benevento with a report that confirmed just that: the toughest holes are last.

Ritti used Ocean City High School's unique location to offer his students a hands-on lesson in statistics on May 8. His class walked five blocks down the Boardwalk to play 36 holes and document their scores and the dimensions and characteristics of the holes. 

The 35 students who participated in the project spent another five days analyzing the data in class. Samples of the final report they presented to Benevento on Monday are attached to this story as PDFs.

One of the anomalies in the straight-line progression of difficulty is Hole No. 8, according to the findings. The 21-foot hole (10.5 feet in width) has a small ramp behind the cup to deflect a ball going beyond it.

"There are no elevation changes in the green, but there are two areas where the ball could go farther away from the hole," according to the report.

The report offers a report on mean and median scores at Congo Falls similar to the course handicap system that rates holes at golf courses.

For Benevento, it's a complex look at the simple allure of mini-golf, a pastime that attracts parents and children, young couples on a first date and even young couples returning for marriage proposals.

The hardest hole, he knows, is the final "win-a-free-game" hole, but he said on Monday that he's happy to see people succeed there — because nobody plays mini-golf alone.