Oldest Surviving Goofy Golf
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Although linked to the Goofy Golf that was later built by Lee Koplin in Panama City Beach, this Goofy Golf was designed and built by James W. "Jimmy" Hayes. It opened in October 1958. Hayes' son-in-law, Robert Fleskes, who owned a bowling alley in Mississippi, took over the business in the early 1970s and lived on the property in a trailer with his family. He ran it until early 2011, when he sold it to a long-time employee with the understanding that nothing about it would be changed.
Calamity struck in 2003 when Goofy Golf's 23-foot-tall green cement dinosaur "Hammy" collapsed. He lay in pieces in a boatyard for five years until a local developer spearheaded Hammy's successful repair and return, just in time for Goofy Golf's 50th birthday in 2008. The developer had grown up playing at Goofy Golf, and wanted future generations to have the same experience that he did.