Mini Golf Masters

It’s time to tee up another week of LEGO®️ Masters USA with episode 8 of Season 3. This week’s installment was Mini Golf Masters. And just as the name suggests, our teams got to play some mini golf. Or, more accurately, our teams had to build a mini golf hole for Will Arnett to play on. With no elimination last week, we still had 7 teams in the running. A double save doesn’t happen too often. But I’m happy it did as I didn’t want either team to go home. But people gotsta go home eventually, so this week we said goodbye to a team. Let’s recap this round o’ golf and see wha’ ha’ happened.

Previous Episodes:

A Birdie Told Me

Mini Golf Masters was the series’ first interactive challenge. On top of making a clever visual design, the teams needed in incorporate that oh-so nerve racking element of movement into the course. Any type of movement was on the table, electronic or otherwise. Another requirement was playability. Will was going to play the course and the team with the most fun/successful course would win the challenge. Each team gave a par rating to their course in the hopes of Will meeting that or getting better. I’m not sure how they calculated that. Or really what weight Will getting par or better had towards the final scoring. In the end I think it had more to do with functionality than anything else. More on that soon.

Classic Elements

When you imagine a mini golf course, there’s plenty of classic elements that come to mind. We saw plenty of them this episode. From the hills to the ramps and curves, to the water wheel and the miniaturized buildings. Each team crafted a fun theme with some of them being quite quirky. I don’t think i’ve ever played a mini golf course that had a cooking theme. Get the ball to reveal a cake? Too funny. But how did no one make the obvious? WHERE’S THE WINDMILL?? Missed opportunity people.

Safe to Putt Again

The Mini Golf Masters saw 3 teams with successful builds that landed them in the safe zone. Brandon & Greg created a fairly elaborate course with a bit too many elements. That first ramp took a few tries. Their ‘Construction Zone’ did function well overall and Will got a par 5. The moving crane and dump truck looked awesome! Emily & Liam’s ‘Squirreling Around’ had some fun movements and character builds. They also redeemed themselves with their power functions after last week’s hiccup. Their first gate was a small stumble but Will finished with another par 5. And I need to give a little mention to those awesome picket fences. Really nicely done there.

Rounding out the middle 3 were the Stephens with their ‘Classic Castle’ course based on the nostalgic LEGO®️ theme. I really loved the look of this one. They made two fantastic structures that were totally on point design wise. They judges were impressed with the way they made it look over-scaled but recognizable. It would absolutely be something you would see in any number of golf courses. Will even managed par with just 2 strokes. I’m somewhat surprised they didn’t place in the top 2. Great week for the Canadian firefighters.

On The Green

The Top 2 this week were Canadian siblings Dave & Emily and doctors Austin & Justin. Our Canuck team kept their build ‘The Gnome’s Wheelhouse’ very clean and simple. Their starting ramp functioned well and the curved wall and water wheel each did exactly what they needed to. Will got par with just 2 shots. He was really close to making it a possible hole-in-one had the ball gone just a scooch further into that water wheel. Another great week for one of the Canadian teams.

This week’s winners were Austin & Justin with their very charming ‘A Piece of Cake’ course. Thematically, this was the most original build. Knock the ball into the beater and have it go past the oven to reveal a cake surprise? That’s pretty cute. The food elements added the right amount of decorative fun too. Will’s name on the cake was, ya know, an easy choice haha. All that combined with Will’s hole-in-one on the course brought them the top spot and their first win of the season.

In The Rough

The Mini Golf Masters got the better of two more teams this week. Sadly neither of them were strangers to the bottom 2. Once again we found Nick & Stacey in danger of going home for the second week in a row. It was tough to see them struggle so much. Their ‘Game of Cat and Mouse’ build was very ambitious. It had a lot of moving parts that really ate up their time during construction. And it was also just massive. So much so that they had to get help moving it to the green and it barely even fit (and also broke a bit). They ran out of time which meant their character builds were mostly unfinished and they didn’t get to test it thoroughly. In the end however, they lucked out with well executed mechanics and Will’s par 2 score. They squeaked by on this one.

That means Ethan & Dom with their ‘Jungle Temple Adventure’ build landed in the bottom spot. It was a tough week for these two, especially coming off their big win last week. Their build looked great though, and it was a really fun, dynamic model. The conveyor belt had an initial struggle, but eventually worked like a charm. As Amy said, it added some tension having to watch it travel up the side. Their biggest hurdle was on their second function. It just didn’t work and actually broke. Losing that key part of the course before the hole was a critical fail. With a par 4 score, it was sadly the end of the competition for this young team.

Final Thoughts

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Nick & Stacey. They’re definitely in my top picks and I hope this is the last we’ll see of them in the bottom 2. And I gotta say I feel pretty bad for Ethan & Dom. I don’t think they got to really integrate into the cast this year having come into the competition the way the did. And why did the producers introduce them like that? It’s kind of baffling. And does anyone else think they got a bit of a raw deal with their editing? Like they were set up to be, well not villains per se, but whatever the LEGO®️ equivalent is. They’re definitely talented builders and I hope they continue with their success. Enjoy those 90,000 bricks!

• Canadians are 50% of the remaining teams! REPRESENT 🍁🍁🍁
• I’m not sure why, but I could watch Will Arnett drive around in a golf cart all day
• Do you think Austin & Justin are tired of wearing scrubs non-stop? (prob not…)
• Brandon & Greg built a working dump truck. Baller
• Every mini golf course should come with a cake at the end. That’s incentive
• “Hey Liam, I think Will just stole your mom.” 😬
• #bricksb4chicks is hilarious. But don’t run with that Dom. It’s not flattering
• The golden brick goes unused. Again. At this point we need a Squid Games level of intrigue for me to care about this thing
• Stephen doing the fireman carry on Will is a bold strategy
• And yes. I giggled every time they said ‘hole’. #sorrynotsorry

OVERALL SCORE: 7.5 / 10

I enjoyed this week’s episode. It was good, but not great. There wasn’t quite the level of drama as last week. And the final builds just didn’t make as much wow. But that wasn’t the key objective of course. Overall, a fun time. Did you enjoy the golf courses? What build would you like to play? And what did you think of this wild outcome? Drop some comments and let me know all the hot takes. Thanks for reading and until next time, keep on brickin’. 🧱

-Frank

LEGO® Masters USA airs Wednesdays at 9:00 PM ET/PT on FOX in the US, and on CTV, CTV.CA and the CTV app in Canada. Follow our full coverage here.

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