Thoughts on Putting Courses
By Paul Jansen, Architect and President of Pelz Player Greens
The putting course, ProPutt, adjoining Timberwolf Golf Course recently had its grand opening and was very well received by the locals in Sudbury, Canada,
The putting course is a new model in the world of golf, one that blends the accessibility and fun of mini-golf with the challenge and strategy of a championship course, and has seen nothing but success internationally. We have worked in Australia, Asia, Canada, and America on these projects, each one as refined as the next.
From a design perspective, I personally love designing them, as I get to design and full-length golf course with all its hazards, dog legs, undulations, and contours, then just press the scale button to 10% of a 7,200 yard course. This is one of the most spectacular parts of the putting course, and the people who play them see it.
Players of our putting courses have told me that they see the same aspects of strategy, width and angles, and risk-reward in a “fairway” that’s 100ft long and 6ft wide as they do on a fairway that’s 500 yards long and 60 yards wide. That to me is a revelation.
And while the golfer golfers are seeing and hitting the same shots as they do on the course, developing their mental approach, fine-tuning their perspective on how to play a hole, the beginners are having the time of their life because all they look at is a mini-putt on steroids. What they’re actually learning though is how to play the game. When a new golfer picks up the putter they start to see the shots they need to hit to best execute any given hole, they’re developing the strategy, the mental approach, the perspective that they need when they take it to the big course.
With a putting course, you’re effectively creating golfers, and some of the clubs we’ve associated them with have already seen a huge uptick in junior membership rates. Those juniors then become full fledged members one day. So not only is it a cool entertainment addition to any facility, but you’re simultaneously filling the future membership funnel. Now that’s a business idea.
All in all, I see a lot of future in the putting course, and theres nothing I recommend more than taking the kids or the significant other out to one of our builds, you might just have a new playing partner on your hands.
