You’ve never seen a mini-golf course like The Oasis Ranch, a marvel of landscape design.
It’s the kind of place that seems as though it could only exist in a faraway land, an oasis garden built by hand—each stone placed just so, each seed planted one by one, each gentle stream carved with care through the soil to allow water to flow gently through the ripe vegetation. Look closely in those waters, and you’ll see golden koi fish swimming in the current, their fins glinting like coins of sunshine. Plants you’ve never seen before bloom and curl their vines, merging in strange formations.
The notion that this expansive, lush, and intricately constructed place was created by one man is astounding. To learn that such a place exists in Seneca, South Carolina—and not in some mountain monastery or Far East sanctuary–is equally dumbfounding. But most surprising of all is the purpose of this artistic display of natural beauty and human ingenuity: it’s an 18-hole mini-golf course.
“I always wanted to create my own dream garden, with the idea that the public could come and see,” says John Woodruff, owner, operator, and creator of The Oasis Ranch. “I think it was actually my mom who had looked at a mini-golf course and said we should build something like that for our area to enjoy, and that kind of put a spark in my head.”
As a veteran of the landscaping construction business, Woodruff has decades of experience in creating intricate natural displays for his clients, but he’d long dreamed of working without the restraints of a client—of crafting something that was truly and utterly for him, of creating his own “happy place” where his creativity could truly flourish.
As he approached retirement, the idea to combine that dream with a business like a mini-golf course seemed oddly perfect.
Garden and Mini-Golf at Oasis Ranch
“If you have a sport idea in there, people are going to come and play mini-golf even if they don’t enjoy the garden,” Woodruff says. “But if you don’t really enjoy mini-golf, you’ll still enjoy being there because of its beauty.”
Imagine the gardens at Biltmore Estate. Now imagine there are mini-golf holes punctuating the plantings, with little kids laughing, young couples on dates, and old-timers puttering about with no need to keep quiet. That’s essentially what Woodruff has created here in the Upstate with his garden oasis.
Come during the day, and The Oasis Ranch is like a Garden of Eden, bright and welcoming and verdant. At night, it becomes something else entirely: a misty dreamscape of soft lighting, bubbling brooks, undulating slopes, and star-lit ponds, all punctuated by the ping of putters hitting golf balls down the smooth grass, amidst the whisper of crickets and the fluttering of moths.
“Nature decides what we have here, in many ways,” Woodruff says. “It’s always changing and evolving. We had a really hot, dry summer, and so some plants decide they like living here and some don’t. Design comes first . . . and then the physical engineering of it comes in, but you always have to deal with what nature itself allows. It’s all one big artistic ball of wax. You play with it, but fantasy doesn’t always stand up to reality. It all has to work together.”
Over the course of six years of labor, what was once an overgrown field of kudzu and yellowing grass is now one of the most beautiful displays of landscape design to be found anywhere in the South.
It’s also a welcoming venue for groups or parties. In addition to mini-golf, modern golf simulators with giant video screens give patrons the ability to test out their drives on simulated courses like Pebble Beach in California. Outdoor patios can be rented for birthday parties, right beside the Blue Bell shop offering milkshakes and ice cream.
But for Woodruff, it’s all about creating an ecosystem: pairing plants with plants, trees with trees, water with water, and—in this case—ice cream with mini-golf.
“When I was a kid, I used to play in the creek and build dams and bridges and just watch the aspect of water shifting and falling,” says Woodruff. “It’s a living thing, with water and plants and all, and I guess I’ve done the same thing here. Like I said, this is my happy place.”
The Oasis Ranch
170 Hackberry Ln., Seneca. Open Tues.–Thurs., 9a.m.–9p.m.; Fri.–Sat., 9a.m.–10p.m.; Sun. 11a.m.–9p.m.
