TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — “Adventure Golf & Sports (AGS) has now combined a popular beer pong game into two, fun, mini-golf putting games; one for venues who desire a pong beer party event and another for children and families who can enjoy the same fun putting concept without the beer,” says Scott Lundmark president and CEO of AGS.
According to AGS, the first installation they did for pong mini golf was a custom six-hole beer pong game, not the traditional ten-hole beer pong game, at The River Club Glen Arbor, a food, alcohol, and mini golf entertainment complex in Glen Arbor Michigan. The River Club includes an AGS Bumpers and Bumps™ mini golf course, which is a known attractor for higher per capita spending on golf, gifts, food and beverage.
The success and fun of the pong mini golf game at the River Club also gave AGS the impetus to also invent a portable PongBoardMiniGolf™ game that could be played with or without beer by adults or families in hotels, movie entertainment complexes, resorts and cruise ships. According to the AGS design team, the board is a patented panel system, assembled into a
3’ 9¾”wide by 19’ ¾” long platform which includes six-hole cups. The hole cups are ½” deep so a ball can come to rest in the cup or go in and out of the cup and into a different hole cup, and they each are color coded for use in the pongboard scoring rack.
The scoring is the same as the custom pong mini golf game they created at River Club Glen Arbor where the first team to putt mini golf balls into all 6 cups wins. Players track the scoring by sliding a mini golf ball on the rack from one end to the other. The balls have six colors to match the hole cups. When all balls are slid to one side, the game is ended.
As in other games, such as bean bag toss. the players can switch teams or stay with the same team to try to beat their opponents in a second round.
“Mike Sheldon, the owner of River Club Glen Arbor had created a covered outdoor seating and entertainment area over an AGS paneled green space which houses the pong mini golf game we installed for them with six-hole cups at each end,” says Lundmark. To play, one team at each end must putt into one of six regulation golf hole cups while other teams cheer them on and wait for their turn. When a putt is made in one hole cup, that cup is removed and turned upside down, requiring the losing team to have a drink. This continues until all the cups on one side are turned over representing the winning team.
Removing the cups, which are installed snugly below the putting turf surface, required a creative and easy method to retrieve the cups. AGS design teams fabricated a hole cup remover which is mounted on the end of a golf shaft with a putter grip on the other end. When the hole cup is turned over and slid into place, a computer cut piece of putting turf mounted on the other end restores the area to a seamless turf playing surface.
“This pong mini golf game concept exceeded my expectations,” commented River Club Glen Arbor owner Mike Sheldon.
While AGS can custom install pong mini golf games employing the hole cup remover for turf restoration, AGS believes the portable PongBoardMiniGolf™ game they created will reach a wider number of players seeking some friendly competition.
