HIGH POINT — Every Thursday evening, some of the region’s best putters gather at the High Point Putt-Putt on North Main Street to test their skills against one another in a weekly tournament.
This week, several of them — including a High Point woman, a High Point native now living elsewhere, and a couple of hotshot teenagers — are headed to Sweden to compete at the World Adventure Golf Masters, an elite international competition that draws putters from all over the world.
“This is our Olympics for mini golf,” says Vanette Block of High Point, who won a gold medal in her age division at the event in 2018. “There’s no money involved. You’re playing for medals. You’re playing for your country.”
Block, 57, has also won silver and bronze medals at the competition, but she has battled breast cancer twice since that 2018 win and considers herself fortunate just to be able to continue competing. She’s in remission now but still hasn’t regained her former energy level, so she’s not sure how she’ll fare at this year’s event.
Nonetheless, she’s excited for some of the other Team USA members who play at the High Point Putt-Putt — her boyfriend, Rick Baird, a team captain, who once shot an 18 (that’s an ace on every hole), and talented teens Chase Ferguson and Graham Sigmon, the first youths ever to represent Team USA at the World Adventure Golf Masters. Baird lives in Landis, while Chase and Graham live in Asheboro and Madison, respectively.
Overall, seven of Team USA’s 13 putters playing in Sweden hail from North Carolina — a fitting honor for the Tar Heel State, which gave the United States its first miniature golf course (Pinehurst, 1916) and its first officially licensed Putt-Putt course (Fayetteville, 1954).
One of those seven North Carolinians — and a previous U.S. Master’s champion — is Gary Hester, who lives in Calabash now but is a High Point native and grew up playing here.
Block, who practices massage therapy in High Point, relishes the opportunity to compete in Sweden, but frankly, she seems more excited for Chase and Graham than for herself. The two teens have been competing at the High Point tournaments for several years and have endeared themselves to their fellow putters. Block sees them as the sons she never had.
“I love ’em both,” she says. “I’ve never had kids of my own, but I’ve watched these two grow up from being knee-high to being as tall as me.”
That’s all well and good, but Chase is only 15, and Graham is only 16. Can they hang with their older, more experienced competitors?
Well, let’s just say they’ve got an ace — um, lots of aces — up their sleeves.
“Both are incredibly talented players, and they have a great chance of becoming a world champion someday,” she says. “They’re that good. They’ve been beating pro fields in the state events. They’re both just incredibly, incredibly talented. We haven’t seen U.S. talent like these two in probably 20 years.”
In Sweden, the two teens will compete in the youth division against about half a dozen other boys in their age group, but they’ll also represent Team USA in the open teams competition.
“It’s a huge, big deal,” Chase says of the upcoming tourney, which will be played June 13-15 in Askim, Sweden. “Me and Graham got invited to play on Team USA — we’re the first American juniors to play in this event.”
Chase, a rising 10th-grader, began playing miniature golf competitively when he was 7 years old. It wasn’t long before he started winning tournaments, first in the novice division and then in the open division. He doesn’t win every time out, but his competitors know he’s consistently going to be near the top of the leaderboard.
The same is true of Graham, a rising 11th-grader. He began playing when he was about 3, and he won his first tournament at age 6. He’s won 12 tournaments this year, two of them majors — one on the Southern Putting Tour and one on the Virginia Putting Tour.
Chase and Graham have high hopes for the tournament in Sweden, but they know the Swedes have a lot of talent, not to mention the advantage of playing on their home course.
“That can really come into play — they probably practice there every single day,” Chase says. “But we’ll get over there and get in a couple days of practice, and hopefully we’ll have a shot at it.”
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