Miniature Golf Courses Part of Great Wolf Resorts Success
(Traverse City, Michigan) Adventure Golf & Sports (AGS – formerly Adventure Golf Services) recently installed a “Howl in One” miniature golf course in the Great Wolf Lodge that opened in Scottsdale, Arizona last fall, and will be installing another in a Great Wolf Lodge whose location and opening date are yet to be announced. As a preferred Great Wolf Resorts vendor, AGS courses have been an added retail attraction to the company’s signature indoor water parks for the last several years. According to Torri Peterman, Corporate Director, Construction Procurement and Supply Chain for Great Wolf Resorts, although not all Great Wolf Lodges include miniature golf, “many do and the ones I’ve sourced over the last three years do have a miniature golf course associated with the resort. It goes underneath a ropes course so we’re maximizing that volume of space.”
“Great Wolf Resorts has done a tremendous job creating an all-in-one family vacation place with dining, shopping and multiple attractions,” says Scott Lundmark, President of Adventure Golf & Sports. “Miniature golf is a family-friendly activity appealing to all ages, so it’s been a good fit with their mission ‘to bring joy to families.’”
According to Mike Arnold, AGS Vice President Technical Design & Installation, the 9-hole courses installed for Great Wolf Resorts are ADA compliant, but the topography can vary up to 12 inches depending on the overall course size, which can vary from 1,200 – 2,500 square feet. Courses are assembled using an AGS modular system with patented panels. Arnold says the modular system provides significant flexibility to adjust to specific space requirements.
Peterman says “We’ve used a lot of the same north woods themed animals on the courses, so you see a squirrel, you see bears, you see chipmunks; however the layout of the holes might be slightly different just depending on what we need to work around in the particular area that’s been assigned to be the mini golf course location.
“As much as possible, we’d like to copy and paste over things that are working well, but we do need to keep in mind there might be ten to twenty percent re-design work that’s required to fit a location.
“We think Adventure Golf has good quality. They’ve brought a good design aesthetic from the animals and the north woods theme. We’ve also had a good working relationship with them in turning around revisions to those courses and being able to modify them, not only before you get on site, but we’ve had a few times where we’ve had some conflicts on site with the design of the ropes course and the mini golf, and we’ve been able to work around those conflicts with the AGS team.”
The most recent Great Wolf Lodges opened in Gurnee, Illinois; LaGrange, Georgia; Bloomington, Minnesota; and Scottsdale, Arizona all include a miniature golf course.
“(Mini Golf) is popular with guests,” says Peterman, “and we foresee using it going forward. If we’re doing a ropes course, we’ll very likely have that married with a mini golf course underneath it…And we’re happy with the speed of service we’re receiving from Adventure Golf.”
Great Wolf Resorts, Inc. is North America’s largest family of indoor water park resorts, and through its subsidiaries and affiliates, owns and operates family resorts under the Great Wolf Lodge brand. They will have 18 locations across North America this year with plans for more. Future domestic sites includes Perryville, Maryland, where the water park resort is slated to open in 2022. Internationally, the company is considering a proposed location in Bicester, UK.
Adventure Golf & Sports is an international design/build company offering the widest line of miniature golf products and services in the world. It also provides numerous complementary products:
- Multi-use game court systems for bocce ball, croquet, lawn bowling, shuffleboard, bean bag toss, and other activities
- Pickleball and paddle tennis courts
- Golf practice centers, ranging from single golf hitting bays to courts for multiple players
- Putting greens for indoors and outdoors, either permanent or portable
For more information about custom designed miniature golf course that can be installed indoors, outdoors or on rooftops, email info@adventureandfun.com, call (231) 922-8166 or visit www.AGSGolfandSports.com.