What do you do to complement a four-story outdoor Aerial Adventure Tower with 110 unique elements ranging from an easy sky-bound walk to full-fledged daredevil obstacles? For Ryze Adventure Park in Maryland Heights, Missouri (a north suburb of St. Louis), the answer was to have Adventure Golf & Sports (AGS) design and install an 18-hole ADA compliant Modular Advantage miniature golf course!
“There’s just so many things about miniature golf that we love and it fits what we do,” said Greg Hoffman, owner of Ryze Adventure Park. “We’re here to help people build relationships and enjoy each other’s company outside in a safe environment. Miniature golf also creates a ‘look.’ The golf course is pretty and it creates kind of a barrier around the tower and sets it off. It worked out in so many ways… Customer reaction has been great!”
Having previously owned an indoor FEC (Family Entertainment Center) for 11 years that included a miniature golf course, Hoffman said, “We found out that, other than laser tag, it was our number two attraction consistently over the years. And it was such a good attraction because when families came, it was something they could all do together. We had laser tag, but most parents didn’t want to play laser tag with a bunch of kids. Miniature golf was a nice thing where multi-generation families could have fun together. It’s relational. It’s relaxing. It’s competitive.”
“There’s two thoughts, you know, some people just think they’re coming to a miniature golf course for the fantasy of looking at all the cool stuff and landscaping and carrying a putter around is just an excuse to wander around and look at everything. And then there’s the other school of thought that it’s a game and should be challenging and fun and it requires skill and strategy. So we fit more into that ‘challenging game’ school of thinking,” he added.
Hoffman’s process of selecting a design / build miniature golf company began at the annual IAAPA trade show.
“…When I talked with AGS, I said ‘Hey, I want kind of a PopStroke concept but I don’t need to spend millions of dollars on it. It doesn’t need to use a million square feet of turf because that gets expensive. So we kind of did a hybrid between a traditional mini-golf course and what PopStroke is without the palm trees.”
Unlike concrete-built courses, AGS uses flexible, permeable, patented panels with their Modular Advantage system to create the look and feel of concrete without the disadvantages of concrete.
According to Hoffman, the Adventure Golf & Sports miniature golf design also includes many contours and breaks. “There was some natural fall to our property so some of the holes play down a gentle slope and several of them play uphill. But even for the holes that were built on flat ground, AGS created contour with the way they laid the base of the holes.”
“The contour and the breaks in our course right now are really deceiving. Some of the breaks you can’t even see. The nice thing about that is people play the course repeatedly. There’s always a challenge. They can always get better at playing this course, unlike some courses where you can obviously see what you need to do. But here there is some sneaky stuff that people can’t see and they really enjoy it. We have a hole that has a hidden break and I can take 15 balls and hit balls at that cup and I have yet to figure it out. It drives me nuts!”
“I don’t think I could have built a better course for the money than I did with AGS,” said Hoffman. “They listen to the customer and build a course that’s closest to the customer’s desires within their budget as I think anybody possible could… They may not be the right answer for every potential client but they’re certainly worthy of anybody talking with them.”
Adventure Golf & Sports (AGS) is a company providing design and installation of fun, interactive, cost-effective entertainment attractions like Miniature Golf, Pickleball, Shuffleboard, Bocce Ball, Croquet & other recreational courts, as well as 360GOLF (gamified high-tech mini-golf that can be operated as an arcade redemption style game or as mini-golf). Besides traditional concrete-poured permanent installations, AGS has long term experience installing interlocking panel system versions, like the Modular Advantage Mini Golf system and Bunkers & Bumps for a variety of outdoor applications, such as retail centers, family entertainment centers, amusement parks, hotels, and resorts, as well as on rooftops and cruise ship decks.
For more information about custom-designed miniature golf courses from AGS as well as pre-made portable systems that can be used in a variety of situations, email [email protected], call (231) 922-8166, or visit www.AGSGolfandSports.com.