Haunted Golf Brings 'Disney-Like' Fun to Ocean City Boardwalk

The newest attraction on the Ocean City Boardwalk brings 21st-century technology to a time-honored Boardwalk pursuit: miniature golf.

— on the 800 block of the Boardwalk — opened on July 4. The 18-hole course features 15 animatronic characters that help create a 45-minute "Disney-like" experience filled with with ghosts, ghouls and surprises.

The attraction is the latest venture for Mark Benevento, a local entrepreneur who is also a co-owner of Greate Bay Country Club in Somers Point.

Benevento and partner Pat Croce (seasonal Ocean City resident and former 76ers owner) own and operate three Pirate Island miniature golf courses in Ocean City, Sea Isle City and Avalon. And Benevento owns mini-golf in Ocean City.

“I wanted to come up with something different and timeless," Benevento said. "We have tropical and pirates ,and I came up to this concept and fell in love with it.”

Haunted Golf is among three new "haunted" attractions for the Ocean City Boardwalk this summer. The , offering visitors a live version of a video shooter game and also featuring animatronics. A haunted house dark ride will open later this summer at .

Haunted Golf is located across from the between Eighth and Ninth streets on the Boardwalk. The course starts in a hotel lobby where guests can see Bones and Buff, a skeleton and a buffalo, speaking to each other, singing and moving to music played throughout the course.

After getting a ball and club, guests enter a hotel lobby to visit Victoria and Adam’s haunted wedding reception where they can see a party guest hanging off a chandelier. At the second hole, guests can see into the ballroom of the hotel, where the wedding party has just begun to get spooky.

The next holes of the course are entertained by floating ghosts, a piano played by a ghoul and a fireplace mantle salvaged from a closed mental institution.

Guests are led into the Trophy Room/Library. The walls are lined with books and the heads of many animals hang from the ceiling. Mark the Moose, named after Benevento’s son, and Rose the Rhino have an interactive, joking conversation while guests wait for the next room.

In the Bridal Suite, the skeleton Victoria and Adam sit on the wall, while the room has been clearly turned sideways. Rose the Rhino has crashed through the wall and periodically with release “flatulence” smelling of roses. The skeletons were created by a local, Eric Prince.

To end the course, guests go into the boiler room, where breakers flash and pop, a left-behind party guest, Harry, hangs from a pipe, and a boiler door is from a real facility from Augusta, Ga. Benevento explained that the breaker box flashes when it pops, and within the first hour of opening, a guest pulled the fire alarm.

The course is set on 5,000 square feet and is air-conditioned. It includes more than 15 animatronics, and is filled with tons of surprises.

Benevento used inspiration from a convention in St. Louis to plan the course, while people like Harry Kent have made the course possible. Kent is represented in the course as hanging Harry. The name Victoria is from Benevento’s daughter, while other animatronics have similar special meanings.

“This is America’s Greatest Family Resort, so of course we have families and kids," Benevento said. "It’s like a ‘Disney haunt’ as we call it. It’s not really scary, but it’s fun. What we really do is sell memories and smiles.”

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HAUNTED GOLF

Address: 824 Boardwalk

Hours: 8 a.m. to midnight

Phone: 609-391-7777

Price: $6.95 before 6 p.m., $7.95 otherwise.

Website: Developing at hauntedgolf.com

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