[Nimrothiel]

Whoa, this is getting really complicated. How about this idea based off of "Mario Golf":

1. There are only the Nine members of the Fellowship to choose from at the start.

2. You can unlock five secret characters after completing certain requirements. Saruman, Faramir, the Witchking of Angmar, Tom Bombadil, and Glorfindel (or Denethor; fireball, yeah!)

3. There would be three different courses to choose from: Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King.

4. Each course will have the usual eighteen holes, plus a secret hole. This may correspond with the secret characters. (eg. Beating the "Barrow-Wight" hole unlocks Tom Bombadil, but you can only use him in regular play if you beat the FotR course as well.)

5. The characters will be able to change clubs; which can be represented as their weapons. (eg. Saruman and Gandalf can use their staffs as driving clubs; Gimli can use his axe as a chipping club or a putter.)

6. All three courses must be beaten in order to unlock an ultimate character for good or evil depending on which character you use to beat the game with. (eg. Beat the game with the Witchking and you unlock Sauron; beat it with Gandalf and you unlock one of the Valar.) This character will be nearly impossible to beat unless its equally powerful counterpart is used against it.

Well, that's the basic groundwork; I realize that I strayed from the mini-golf idea, but I thought I'd give this a shot.:P