Those elaborate and wacky miniature golf courses, with windmills and giant clown heads and dinosaurs that you’d direct your shots at, are largely a thing of the past.

But the idea of the game — putting along a course with obstacles — lives on in mini-golf and putt-putt.

“Miniature golf has changed dramatically,” says Danielle Maloni, spokesman for the US ProMiniGolf Association. “Windmills and animals are considered adventure golf or crazy golf in today’s mini-golf world.”

Four-time MiniGolf U.S. Open champion Matt McCaslin tells a story about the 2008 Open, held in Boothbay, Maine. A local had read a New York Times article about the tournament and came out, figuring he’d be able to make some quick money.

“The guy showed up the day of the tournament, ‘Hey, it’s mini-golf,’” McCaslin recalls. “I beat him by 100 strokes. Hey, it is mini-golf, but you have to know what you’re doing.”

How does a person improve his game? We went to two experts — McCaslin and Jay Klapper. McCaslin, from Raleigh, N.C., has won the Open four times and about 30 tournaments total. Klapper, who lives in a suburb of Atlanta, has been a pro for nearly 40 years and is a four-time player of the year. Both are members of the U.S. Mini Golf Hall of Fame.

Here are their thoughts on upping your game.

nFast track to aces and deuces: Klapper says speed is the key to a good score.

“People think you just have to hit the ball straight. That’s important, but you have to have the right speed because you have to get close to the hole,” he says.

He says that for putt-putt, the idea is to shoot for a hole-in-one. In 2011, a Richmond, Va., golfer shot a perfect score, an 18 for 18 holes. But two is also a great goal.

“(Mini-golf) is more about deuces,” Klapper says.

n Putting to perfection: Getting your speed under control is important, and McCaslin says that’s best accomplished through practice.

“No matter what you do the more you practice the more you’ll help your game,” McCaslin says. “Some people may have a better knack of getting the speed down. That’s the stuff you can’t teach. You learn by practicing.”

nObserve: Even before you take your shots, watch other golfers and judge the speed of the surface.

“Experience is definitely good; that helps,” McCaslin says. “You can watch people if it’s a hole you’ve never played. See what speed people are using and go from there.”