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This is Living West Michigan.

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("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) ("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) (Lively music) So can you talk to me a little bit about how Big Mini Putt Club kind of came to be?

Yeah, so about five years ago in Chicago our owners decided to quit their full time jobs and open a bar, which was always their dream.

So they got to work building the whole thing by hand.

And right after the COVID pandemic ended, we were able to open the bar and we just were able to bring fun to the Chicago community, which we now brought to Grand Rapids.

So can you kind of tell me about your operations behind picking Grand Rapids?

Why this location?

We did a bunch of scouting throughout the Midwest, some places in Chicago, Indianapolis, someplace in Wisconsin.

It really came down to the growing booming population that Grand Rapids has now and this awesome location we were able to find right at the corner.

in the downtown district, it just made sense to us.

We had enough space for a mini golf course, and we kind of knew Grand Rapids.

We just loved the place.

For sure, and it seems to be really popular already.

Yeah, it’s been off to a great start, and we couldn’t ask for anything more right now.

So, I guess to kind of talk about getting ready for opening this place, what was that process kind of like?

Yeah, so opening up the space definitely was a quick change for us.

We had this space that was all cubicles and office space tore it out, and turned it into the open space concept that we have, being able to get the course put together pretty quickly.

And all in a space of about four to five months, we were able to really transform it and have it ready for ready to be open.

We were just waiting for that liquor license and as soon as we got it, we wanted to get people in the doors.

So what makes this course, maybe stand out from other mini courses?

So what’s great about our golf course is that it’s built right here in house.

We build and install all the holes, and then it also gives us the opportunity to eventually change those holes down the line, too.

We’ve got other changes that happen at the other golf course, and you’ll see those eventually coming here too.

As our third location, we’ve learned as we’ve built all the courses of kind of what works and what doesn’t work.

This is actually our biggest and our hardest course of all three, and it’s kind of what’s made it the most fun.

People from the ages of four to 94 have played the course, and everyone can have fun.

It’s challenging, but not so challenging where you’re gonna get upset or anything.

We’d start with drawing up the plans for each hole, just like you would a house or a building or anything else.

They all start with a wood frame and then we play them a bunch, and we just hit balls over and over again until we see what works, what doesn’t work on those frames.

From there, we will carpet them and, you know, continue to add bricks, add, you know, little holes everywhere, add obstacles throughout the course, until it’s makeable for a hole in one, but also not easy to make one.

Every single hole can get a hole in one on, and that’s big for us, we want to make sure that you’ve always got a chance to go for that big celebration at the end.

Yeah.

I’ve played a couple of rounds here in these first couple of.

It’s happening.

All right.

So, kind of talk to me about the atmosphere in here.

Like, what’s the vibe or the theme that you guys are kind of going for So, as you see a lot of the wood around here and the fences up on the walls, we want you to feel like you’re in our backyard.

Truthfully, it’s a fun environment where you’re going to be able to do a little competition while having a good time and having a cocktail.

It’s a very laid back space, and it’s a really kind of builds your own experience.

Being in Chicago and in Grand Rapids, we know the weather it can be really hot or really, really cold.

People always look to, you know, go back to what you can do in the summer in the middle of the winter and feel warm for a little bit.

So it’s kind of just a laid back, fun, make it whatever you want kind of place.

We’ve got plenty of games for people to do while they’re here other than putt putt too, and it’s when you walk in, it’s all walk up service.

Be able to walk in and utilize Whichever part of the room that you were looking to.

If you want to play golf, come to this side, if you want to go to the arcade, head to the other.

So do you guys guys kind of host any special events?

Maybe it’s, like, tournaments in the community or even just, like, employee events in house?

Yeah, we host all kinds of events from, you know, bachelor, bachelorette parties, wedding receptions, corporate happy hours.

And those are outside events.

The inside events, will be starting leagues here shortly that run once a week.

We run charity tournaments throughout the year for local organizations.

Really, any event you can think of, we’ve kind of will run or have run to kind of work around whatever people need.

And you’ve also got a full bar, so I imagine the happy hours are probably pretty popular.

No doubt about it.

cutting out maybe an hour early to come check out with us before 6:00 and be able to take advantage of the really good deals that we’ve got up.

For sure, I think we’re gonna have to bring our team back here.

So, what do you kind of hope that people come in here and take away from their experience here?

My hope is that you always think of us as a great opportunity to hang out with date night and friends.

We’re great for coming in for groups and being given something for people to do together We’ve got things for people to do with a larger group.

We’ve got something to do when it’s just you and your significant other.

Truthfully, it’s the opportunity to come in, have a laid back, drink, and be able to give yourself an opportunity to do something before dinner, maybe after.

Who would you say your ideal customer is, maybe friends, family, kids, couples?

This is a tough question for us, because really, the place is built for, like I said, for everybody.

We do see a ton of dates in these places on our weekend mornings, a ton of families coming out and enjoying the early days.

The parents can enjoy the bar, the kids can enjoy the games in the mini golf course.

We’re a big believer in not cutting ourselves off at the knees.

We want to make sure that everybody comes in and experiences a fun time, whether you’re a kid coming in before 7 o’clock or whether you’re an adult coming in after.

So, future plans, what can we expect to see, you know, in the next five years?

Big Mini in every state.. That’d be great.

We definitely, we’re big fans of the Midwest.

Like I said, we’ve looked in Indianapolis and Madison and a few other places.

So hopefully the next few years, we continue to open up some more of these and bring the joy throughout the Midwest.

This has been a huge success for us out the gate, and we’re opening to have more successes in other cities, being able to find spaces in the Midwest, just like this that have a cool group of people that are looking for things to do in the downtown space.

So why do you love working here?

I’ve got a background in bars and golf.

So for me, when this opportunity came up, it was a perfect meld for me to be able to put those two together and be able to be around people, post people in a space that I can kind of call my own.

I love working for big mini ’cause it doesn’t feel like work.

Coming to work every day is really hosting a party.

We’re making sure everyone’s having fun on the golf course, enjoying their drinks, having fun in the game room Every day we get something different, too.

We get a little kid hitting a hole in one, and then his grandpa hitting a hole in one, and the excitement that comes, you know, from everyone in these places makes it worth it.

(Jazzy music) Let’s break some stuff.

Yes.

That’s pretty fun!

Oh, my.

Oh, my Gosh!

Break room Therapy.

Let’s just get into it.

Where you come and Break things, Dawn?

Correct.

Yep, we are West Michigan’s only rage room.

It’s a safe space for you to come in and break glass or electronics, either because you’re holding on to something and you need to physically let go, or just because sometimes it’s fun to break stuff to you.

You ready.

How does it work?

After you’ve made your appointment, you’d come in, we get you checked in, we come into this room and go over some safety instructions.

I would get you into some safety gear.

We have lab coats and body suits, or facial, safety glass.

glasses, gloves, hair andets, shoe booties, I can cover you head to toe or nothing.

It is a user’s choice and how much safety gear that they wear And then we go back into the room.

I go up some quick room instruction, tell you how the room works, and do use and the don’t.

And then I let you have that moment for the next 25 minutes to whatever you came here for to process the way that you need a process.

Dawn, how’d this get started?

That answer is definitely evolved.

Initially, my answer was I was looking for a space for my husband.

He’s a very big sweetheart, but he’s also just angry.

So I was looking for a spot for him as a care for me to help him let go of what he was holding on to This isn’t anything that he had any interest in.

However, I was a foster kid growing up and went through a bunch of just garbage myself as a child.

So the idea of if I had been able to have an opportunity like this, and then also just knowing a lot of different people in my life that if they had the opportunity to do something like this, it might have helped them as well It’s not going to fix whatever you’re going through, it’s not going to make it go away, it’s not going to, you know, take it off your plate, but just that holding onto it and that letting go, it really does just really hit home.

What are we breaking?

Glass and electronics.

And where do you get this?

We work with a lot of thrift stores in the area and buy stuff from them in bulk, because people donate stuff they think will sell.

Thrift stores only like it in their store for so long.

We also work with a lot of restaurants in the area to get their liquor bottles and wine bottles from them.

If we were to watch you in action, what would you be snashing?

I love to break printers.

They’re fun.

They have a lot of air to them, so they pop and they snap, and they crack.

Otherwise, I love keyboards because the letters just fly go flying off the keyboard base.

But glass gives you that little instant satisfaction.

So everything’s got something that’s fun to it, but printers are great.

So if I have printers in the basement and the keyboard in the sun room, bring it to you?

Sure, we do take donations or you can bring it in yourself and break it too.

What do you do after we’ve broken the things?

So it depends on what it is the item is that you’ve broke.

If it’s an electronic item, then we pick out the metals and that goes to the scrap yard.

We take it to Division Metal Recycling every Monday so that the metal can be scrapped out.

The plastics have to go to the trash, unfortunately, but they were going there before as it was And then glass items, we crush it down and turn it into sand so that the sand can be repurposed rather than going into the landfill.

And then our pickups that we get, like the boxes and the plastic bags, we also recycle those as well.

Is it therapy?

Yes, we even have therapists that come with their clients here because they also agree that sometimes it takes more than talking.

We have a marker in the room that you can write down things that are making you mad or sad, frustrated.

You’re allowed to be as loud as what you want, because verribally just like letting go as well.

And then just the idea of physically just letting go of what you’re holding onto can be very therapeutic.

The one thing I’ll have some people say is, oh, I’m not really angry or I don’t know if you don’t have to be angry, you enjoy it.

It can be a fun thing too.

But mental health is very important.

And for whatever reason, it’s just the one area that we don’t always talk about.

If I came to you with a cast in my leg I’m going to be very free and open to telling you how I broke my leg or that it’s my leg that got broken.

But if you ask me how I’m doing today and if I’m sad or if I’m not feeling very cheerful, a lot of times people just, I’m okay..

But it’s okay to admit when you’re not okay.

How does it make you feel that maybe you’re helping someone?

Really good.

We have a feelings board on the walls that they can write down how they feel before and how they feel after, and my staff and myself like to watch those boards go as we get going throughout the weekend, see all the different feelings change from somebody being really upset to feeling relieved feeling really sad, to feeling let go.

I’ve just always been a very empathetic person, probably having gone through everything, it just kind of made me care about that underdog person and just wanting to be there for them.

And this is just my way of giving back to, you know, people in a different way.

And your shirt says it all.

Yeah, we are very, very, very supportive of the LGBTQIA community and BIPOC communities, underserved underprivileged communities.

Probably like I said, having been that underdog myself, we just try and watch and support people.

We let anybody through our facility doors and don’t judge anybody until their actions show me differently.

You’re definitely going to feel a lot different on your way out than what you did on your way in.

And even if you’re not going through something, I mean, you’re just still going to feel let go and different because deep down, you still might be holding on to some tension.

And I’m sure Dawn sneaks in here three times a week for her own therapy.

I do have my own sessions as well.

Good.

Thanks for this, Dawn.

Of course.

Yes.

This is Living West Michigan.

We’re hitting here.

Once we can hit more ground and we’re scooping underneath, we’re going to hit that middle.

And that’s when we get the pretty little arc that we’re looking for.

Okay.

There we go.

That was beautiful!

So, Pickle and Pin started as a dream project for many of us a few years ago.

and we all had that same idea of kind of bringing West Michigan together.

We all loved golf, and we all started kind of getting into pickleball.

We all had that itch.

So we’re like, why not?

This is the perfect project.

We’ve been working on this project for a long time now, and we’re just happy to have the doors open and get the community in here now.

And as the community comes in, what are they going to see?

So right behind us, we’ve got the golf simulator, which can do a number of things.

You are a golf pro, correct?

And so tell us what people can expect if they can come and want to use the golf simulator.

We’ll start there.

Yeah, so the second you walk in that front door, you have someone greeting you immediately.

We’re getting you checked in, we have access right there to the bar.

We have a full bar with lots of local options.

Again, we want to stay as local as possible.

And then from there, either you’re signed up for pickleball or some golf and we’re walking every person through each one where they’re at.

So if they’re on the golf Sim, we’re in the room setting these people up, helping guide them on this new technology.

It’s called Golf VX, so it’s newer to the States, actually We have different types of turf that they’re hitting on, so we have the fairway, the bunker, the rough, and then very accurate putting.

If you’re producing like a three foot putt, it’s actually going to read it as that distance on the screen.

Also, the platform moves.

So if you’re out on the course and you need to practice a bunker shot that’s uphill, we can actually set this to that height, and you can feel that out and practice it, not feeling like you’re stressed on the core, having a someone behind you, you can take your time and actually practice the shots that you need to work on when you get out there.

(Jazzy music) Same thing with pickleball, even if they’re brand new.

We’ll walk out there, we have paddles, and we’ll start to teach them them how to play, to feel comfortable, give them a base where they’re like, okay, this is fun and a place where I want to be or I’ve had it where people call in and say, hey, I don’t have anyone to play with.

I’m like, "All right, come on in.

I will play pickleball with you right now.

Let’s do it."

And just creating that welcoming environment where people can actually feel included and enjoy what they’re doing.

I feel like pickleball’s gonna be around for a long time.

It’s just getting hot now.

Everyone’s really getting into it And I see a lot of people that come in that have never played before.

They play once and they’re addicteded.

They are like, in here once a week.

They’re like, this is the best thing ever.

So I definitely feel like it’s going to keep growing and just get bigger.

What’s the big difference between pickleball and say tennis?

Because is it the paddle?

Is it the movement?

So the movements and the paddles, there’s a lot of different features to it.

I’d say the paddle’s a little bit smaller, and there’s different types of balls you can use depending on the surface, and if you’re inside or outside, the movements itself are different as well, so the court is smaller than a tennis court.

So I almost think of it more like big ping pong, when I’m explaining to someone that’s never done it before, where you’re still kind of getting that cardio based in but you’re not burning yourself out.

And it’s safe, as well, for those who may not want to, you know, move a little too much for those who might be older and that kind of thing.

Oh, for sure.

Very safe.

The only way you get injured is if you’re doing something dumb.

Or clumsy.

Yeah, that too.

So a person like myself who’s a novice, and you know, I want my golf game to get better, it’s not good.

So let me just stay that.

Not quite into pickleball, but I’m interested because it’s become such a trend and so popular.

So you could help me along the way.

So you’ve got that beginner stage as well, so people are not, they don’t have to be afraid to come in and give it a shot.

Exactly.

I’m not saying I’m great at pickleball, but I understand enough where I can help people out, but we do have pickleball instructors as well, with clinics and lessons there Same thing on the golf side.

I give lessons here to every level, including two year olds and all the way up.

So I love working with any level of golfer.

My area is special needs and people with disabilities.

So that’s kind of my ballpark that I really enjoyed coaching but we have access to all levels with different coaches here for pickleball and golf.

It’s an incredible feeling, especially being so young.

If you would have asked me five years ago what I was doing, this is not what I thought I would have where I would have been.

I absolutely love this sport.

It has brought so many great things into my life.

I’ve met so many people, and being able to have a place where I’ve called this my home, where I can train on my own, I can work on my game, but also bring people in, and have a space where they feel included and not judged.

That was the the big thing where I was really excited to be here, and just knowing that everyone’s gonna be a little bit different, and we’re gonna work on that and get you to the next level.

It could be someone that just wants to hit the ball and we’re gonna get that and have it happen.

Hello, West Michigan.

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Uh oh.

That’s not good.

I hit a tree.

Everybody makes mistakes.

You have to be in the woods at some point in your life.

You have to make things difficult for yourself.

Well, we’re here at Johnson Disc Golf Park to play a couple of holes of disc golf.

Now, if you’re not sure what it is, no problem, I’ll give a couple of the basics, throw in a couple of fun facts, and then, well, maybe by the end of this video, you’ll want to try out a little bit of disc golf yourself.

Let’s throw some circles.

Either I’m gonna do the greatest throw and just park the basket.

Uh, or I’ll hit a tree, and it’ll be really funny.

But we’re gonna find out.

I hit a tree.

Well, it’s not a true round of disc golf.

In my eyes, if you don’t throw two discs off the first hole, it’s just the way we do it here.

Plus, it gives you a chance to not hit a tree, but, you know, maybe we’ll hit another one.

So disc golf, if you’re not familiar, it’s a pretty simple game.

Just get your disc into the basket in as few throws as possible.

Now, disc golf has some of the same terminology and scoring that golf has but disc golf has its own set of rules.

We’re not really going to go over rules today.

We’re just going to see what the experience of disc golf is like.

And well, you may ask yourself, what the heck, Alan, why are we playing disc golf?

Well, ’cause it’s free, dang it.

Most courses, I would say maybe 90% they’re free.

Hot tip, don’t forget your discs.

And speaking of the discs themselves, like I said, shares a lot with golf itself.

Golf, you have your drivers, your fairway drivers wedges, irons, putters, discs for disc golf, follow that same terminology.

You got drivers, fairway drivers.

This is a mid range, super blunt.

doesn’t go as fast any of your putters.

Oh, boy, down on the hill.

Ain’t that a doozy.

Well, And there we go, hole one.

There were another reason I love disc golf, is because the barrier to entry to play this disc golf, super low.

The courses are free, by and large.

Your discs, if you go to your local disc golf shop, if you go to the used rack, they go for five bucks.

I mean, pretty high, but we’re on the open.

Now, I’ll throw in a couple fun facts.

Michigan, surprisingly, more maybe not, is ranked number two for the best and most popular state for disc golf.

Who would have thought?

Now, a large portion of that best and most popular is because we have over 500 courses in the state, and in West Michigan here, we have a few dozen.

I’m nervous about this putt.

Yeah, I’ll take it.

That one’s for you, Danny.

That looks pretty dang good.

That’s way over there, but it’ll... Wee!

Come on back.

May be good, maybe bad.

Maybe great.

What the heck?

Can’t do that in the first one.

All in all, disc golf is a pretty dang fun game.

It’s a great sport to watch, amateurs, pros.

Everyone has their own unique style.

My style’s a little goofy, my friends’ styles are kind of goofy.

They’re super goofy, maybe, one would say.

But it’s just a lot of fun.

I enjoy it.

Let’s not mess this up.

Oh, I messed it up.

Oh, no.

Well, we didn’t see that.

It’s okay.

Everybody makes mistakes.

Happy Little trees, happy Little thoughts It’s okay.

We’re all right.

("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) Have a good day!