The economics of mini golf: Industry revenues are estimated at over $2 billion annually

“That’s the smarter thing to do. I’m going to do the dumb thing, and I’m committing to it,” YouTube mini-golf star Brooks Holt declared on the 15th hole of the Bear Rock Junction mini-golf course in New Tripoli, Pennsylvania.

His co-host, opponent, and long-term girlfriend, Elisha Helton, had laid up a shot on that hole to avoid the water hazard. Holt aimed instead for the back of the hole, fired, and somehow avoided landing the ball in the drink.

Helton battled back, almost sinking a long putt, her specialty. They both made threes and that hole and finished the course with the mini-golf equivalent of a photo finish: Holt had 48 strokes to Helton’s winning 47.

Holt, 30, is the former drummer for the Christian rock band We as Human. He appears to have fallen into mini-golf adventuring as a second career, and a decent one at that. His YouTube channel has over 350,000 subscribers who are alerted of the daily content, with over 1,800 videos in the archive.

Holt and Helton spend about nine months a year traveling, living out of Airbnb, and shooting videos of themselves playing mini-golf courses all over the United States. The videos are best described as fun and wholesome. Holt and Helton banter but rarely bicker. They have running jokes. They’re both southern, but Helton’s accent and diction have more South in it. She often exclaims, “Dang flabbit!” when she misses a shot.

The two do their camera work, trading it back and forth between shots, though they hire an editor to cut the videos. In addition to YouTube revenues, Holt and Helton have a few sponsorships, as well as “Hole In One Club” monthly Patreon supporters, and some merchandising, including “Dang flabbit!” T-shirts. All in all, it appears to be a tidy business as well as a daily look at the economic ecosystem of mini golf in America.

Putting for gold

The number of mini-golf courses is always fluctuating, but the near-term trend looks promising, with industry revenues estimated at over $2 billion annually. Major investment is being put into larger chains of mini golf courses. There’s also some star power in the game. Golf great Tiger Woods is a co-owner of the PopStroke chain, for instance.

The National Golf Foundation views this all as a positive development for the larger sport of golf. Eighteen million people in the U.S. played mini golf an average of four times in 2021, it reported on its website. That was against about 25 million “on-course golfers” that year. Moreover, there was significant overlap between the two groups of golfers and some evidence that mini golf is part of golf’s sales funnel.

“One in three of those mini-golfers, about 6 million, were also traditional, on-course golfers,” the National Golf Foundation found. “Participants skew younger (avg. 34 years) and almost half (45%) are female — demographics many would love to see in the traditional game.”

Surveys also found a boost in enthusiasm among mini-golfers. Approximately 4% of nongolfers “claim to be ‘very interested’ in the traditional game,” the NGF found. Among mini-golfers, 16% were very interested: “So, mini-golf contributes in a meaningful way to golf’s latent demand pool by raising awareness and interest in a fun, non-threatening way.”

The NGF also noted both clustering and differentiation in the mini-golf business. It dubbed a section of South Carolina’s Kings Highway the “Mini-Golf Capital of the World” with at least 20 facilities along the drive.

“Here you’ll see the stereotypical pirate ships and windmills that defined the category until not too long ago,” the NGF reported. “But the landscape is changing. Today we have places like Puttery, Puttshack, and PopStroke that are aimed squarely at Millennials and anyone else who wants to eat, drink, and be merry in a golf-themed environment.”

Remade in America

Mini golf was created in America and had always been characterized by experimentation and the unexpected, John Margolies noted in his history, Miniature Golf. Its first boom decade was the 1920s.

For instance, partners Drake Delanoy and John Ledbetter built the first outdoor mini-golf course in 1926 “on the roof of a skyscraper in the financial district” in New York City to tempt “overwrought brokers eager to unwind” to come to play at lunchtime. They eventually expanded the business to 150 rooftop courses before the stock market crash tanked their mini-golf hopes as well.

Though the sport was meant to produce in miniature the larger golfing experience, mini-golf designers early on went their own way. The 18 holes of golf were usually echoed but the grass was replaced with synthetic surfaces early on to make courses more versatile and easy to maintain.

Golf was known for its sand traps and water hazards. These were joined by a dizzying array of other obstacles. Windmills, castles, and fake creatures both made play harder and beckoned lookie-loos to pick up a club and try their luck.

Holt and Helton capture on their travels how the game continues to innovate and evolve. High-tech courses have incorporated video game-like technology and render scores in points rather than strokes. Courses have borrowed features from other kinetic activities, including pool, baseball, foosball, zip lines, and slides.

There are horror-themed mini-golf courses and others on the rooftops of art museums. Still, other courses have moved closer to the traditional golf experience, with longer holes that have only bunkers and water hazards.

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Mini-golf architecture is flourishing these days, along with the business itself. Entry costs are likely one reason for this flourishing. You can launch a mini-golf course much faster and more economically than a traditional golf course. There’s lots of space to be had cheaply as commercial spaces struggle to find tenants post-pandemic.

Mini golf is also the sort of business that can thrive in a tight labor market. Once the course is completed, you need only someone to collect payment; disburse golf balls, clubs, and scorecards; and troubleshoot for those “Dang flabbit!” moments when things get stuck.