To provide families with a
safe, clean, wholesome entertainment venue
where they can have an enjoyable experience
for a reasonable cost in their own community.
No magic.
No mystery.
Just a love for the game and the dream of one day owning his own Putt-Putt Golf & Games franchise in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.
“I loved to play Putt-Putt Golf in high school and college, and I wanted to be in business for myself,” says Aubrey A. Smith Jr., born in 1941 in Memphis, who for more than 55 years has established himself as one of the most respected and revered owners in franchise history along with the likes of Don Clayton, the franchise founder, circa 1954; Wilbur Hildebrand, Ken Smith, Jocko Diveley, Phil Aboid, Howard Loy, and Todd Lecka. “So why not go into the Putt-Putt Golf business,” mused Smith.
With his mother’s confidence, a $13,000 loan, and hopes of her own that a son would be all he could be, Smith purchased the 36-hole Putt-Putt Golf Course at the corner of Poplar and Perkins streets in Memphis on October 1, 1963 from the late R.D. Buie. He rebuilt the installation across the way a year later.
It was the genesis.
“In June, 1966, I opened a second location at 5484 Summer Avenue with an 18-hole Putt-Putt Golf Course and driving range,” Smith says.
Today it is an entertainment mecca in Memphis, with three 18-hole Putt-Putt Golf courses, go-karts, batting cages, bumper boats, arcade games, picnic areas, and, of course, the sheltered golf driving range, replete with a pro shop.
Ever humble, Aubrey Smith will tell you he could not have done it alone.
“In the early 1970s, I partnered with Todd Lecka,” Smith says about the brother-in-law of the founder of Putt-Putt and the company’s former president. “I have to say that though I had been in the business for 8 years, Todd Lecka taught me how to do it right.”
He’ll forever be grateful to Todd Lecka.
“He was just always interested in giving his customers a first-class operation,” Lecka says. “And he hired and trained good employees. And the PPA, APA, and JPA were such a large part of our organization, and the PPA still is to this day. He was very aware of that and very supportive. We just had a rewarding and joyful relationship.”
And the Professional Putters Association, the Amateur Putters Association, and the Junior Putters of America forever will be grateful to Aubrey Smith, who hosted PPA/APA National Championships in 1991 and 2011 along with other major PPA/APA/JPA tour events to include 5 JPA National Championship teams that produced PPA standouts such as brothers David, Danny, and Matt McCaslin, the 2012 PA National Champion.
“This Putt-Putt Golf & Games Family Park is my legacy,” says Smith, enshrined as the 50th member into the executive category of the Professional Putters Association Hall of Fame on April 22, 2016, in ceremonies at the $15,000 PPA National Match Play Championship in Memphis, Tennessee. “And this PPA Hall of Fame award is like a recognition for half a century of developing this business to the best of my ability,” Smith said of his 2016 PPA Hall of Fame Inductee ceremony.
