The City of Leesville, Louisiana recently held a Grand Opening (September 23rd) for an 18-hole “Leesville Mini Golf” municipal course that was designed and constructed by Adventure Golf & Sports using their eco-friendly Modular Advantage® System. According to Grant Bush, Director of Planning and Development for the City of Leesville, the course was built on land that was once the site of the old city pool. “That pool was filled in a number of years ago,” says Bush, “and that’s what we’ve been planning to build on top of it.
“We see it as a profitable venture right now. We’ve hired our manager and our (other community) pools will be closing for the winter months, so some pool employees will move over to work the mini golf course. Spring and summer next year we’ll staff up.”
The mini golf course will be open Monday – Wednesday from 3 p.m. – 8 p.m., Friday 3 p.m. – 10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. and Sunday 2 p.m. – 8 p.m. The course will be closed on Thursdays to accommodate private parties.
Leesville has never had a mini golf course before since the nearby Fort Johnson military installation (formerly Fort Polk) has its own mini golf and go cart track that’s been available to the public. However, as Bush notes, “It’s not that flexible just to go to Fort Johnson and go play golf or go play mini golf or anything. You’ve got to go through all these check stations and so forth. So it has a bit of barrier entry being a military installation.
“The idea for mini golf came up about 10 years ago. The Mayor and Northwestern State University had worked with a professor and came out with a four-theme type mini golf course. We did not get the chance to put in the themes we had drafted up, but we’re not finished with that…and the four themes we originally came up with a decade ago may still move forward.”
Bush says planning for the mini golf course began in earnest two and half years ago just before the COVID epidemic began that resulted in the shutdown of many public places. “We did an RFP and we searched out a number of different companies that we looked at submitting our RFP to and Adventure Golf & Sports was one that caught our eye. And so we started our contact with them. It took us quite a little while to get everything ready to go and approved, but when we did, we moved forward and been pretty happy about it.
“They (AGS) were good to work with and they kept their word…We were fortunate they were willing to work with us and come to west Louisiana during probably one of the hottest summers in a while and get this thing taken care of for us… I’m sure they were extremely hot, though, during the construction phase. It was a little over a hundred and five, six, seven and eight degrees of pure humidity and so I knew they had to watch themselves. They held pretty tight to the days they said they were going to need to be here for construction.”
The eco-friendly Modular Advantage Mini Golf System used by AGS to build the course features patented, interlocking, flexible panels made of recycled materials that are permeable for water drainage. AGS says it is ADA compliant with the look and feel of a concrete course but doesn’t require extensive excavating or the expense of pouring concrete.
“Everything was layered, piece by piece, hole by hole,” says Bush “…it is on dirt for the most part and they built it hole-by-hole on top of the dirt.” Together with permeable “turf,” water leaves the playing surface quickly for a quick-dry / no-mess performance. Bush adds, “…we brought in a bunch of rock and we’re going to put that in and around and between the different holes so we can keep (rain) water from causing any debris movement.
“It’s kind of like on a little field…As you come out of the golf clubhouse and you pay to play, you walk down in to the course. On the edge at the end of the course it goes straight down and into the golf course, so it’s a continuous stair-step. So there shouldn’t be a lot of water settling on any place. It all runs down and off.
In mid-September citywide staff and family members had first chance to play the course before the Grand Opening and Bush says everybody enjoyed it. “(It’s) something the Mayor really wished he had for a long time,” says Bush, “And I know he’s very excited to see it finally come to fruition.”
Adventure Golf & Sports (AGS) is a global leader in the design and installation of fun, interactive, cost-effective entertainment attractions like Miniature Golf, Pickleball, Shuffleboard, Bocce Ball, Croquet & other recreational courts. Besides traditional concrete-poured permanent installations, AGS has long term experience installing interlocking panel system versions, like the Modular Advantage® Mini Golf system and Bunkers & Bumps™ for a variety of indoor and outdoor applications for cities, parks, campgrounds, retail centers, hotels and resorts, family entertainment centers, amusement parks, as well as on rooftops and cruise ship decks.
For more information about the AGS Modular® Advantage Mini Golf system, as well as custom designed miniature golf courses from AGS and pre-made portable systems that can be used in a variety of situations, email [email protected], call (231) 922-8166 or visit www.AGSGolfandSports.com.