487: Can Mini Golf Actually Work at a Club?
Mini golf is not just windmills, clown heads, and beach town nostalgia. In this episode, Denny talks with Katie and Sal Conaboy of Harris Golf about how modern mini golf can become a real amenity for clubs, resorts, and golf properties. They get into how premium custom courses can create more family engagement, give clubs fresh programming ideas, and turn underused space into something fun, beautiful, and genuinely useful. They also talk about why clubs need to get more creative, how mini gol...
Mini golf is not just windmills, clown heads, and beach town nostalgia.
In this episode, Denny talks with Katie and Sal Conaboy of Harris Golf about how modern mini golf can become a real amenity for clubs, resorts, and golf properties. They get into how premium custom courses can create more family engagement, give clubs fresh programming ideas, and turn underused space into something fun, beautiful, and genuinely useful.
They also talk about why clubs need to get more creative, how mini golf can work for camps, family nights, tournaments, and events, and why putting style courses are becoming part of the conversation too. Plus, Katie and Sal share what stood out from the PGA Show and what they are seeing as golf properties continue to evolve.
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In this episode, I am talking with friends of mine from high school.
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Something I never thought I would be saying here on the show.
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I think I'm just getting old and I ate this.
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See, in this episode we are talking about mini golf.
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Yes, miniature golf, but not in the sense that you are thinking.
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So let me take this back.
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I.
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We are chatting with Sal and Katie Convoy.
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They are the president and CEO of Harris Mini Golf It's a family business and they are from my town.
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I graduated high school with them.
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They are uh, they were high school sweethearts.
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They are now married and have kids and took over.
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The family business and they make really amazing miniature golf courses.
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They design and help and create and build the most amazing mini golf courses all over the world.
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And I'm bringing them on because there are clubs, private golf, and country clubs who are seeing a little bit of how mini golf can be a really cool creative asset and amenity for their club.
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And that's what I love about having this show and this platform is sometimes the things that I want to bring on and talk about.
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Sometimes it might not relate a thousand percent or be a hundred percent on point, but at least gets creative juices flowing.
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It gets ideas going.
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It just helps open up the brain and just get the synapsis moving.
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You just never know where creativity goes and where ideas come from and where something sparks from, even though it's not a hundred percent maybe for what you need, but just the ideas create the creativity and the who, what, where, when, why behind it can spark so much.
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So this is really how clubs are getting more creative with how they use their property and their spaces and how, you know, a lot of people don't even realize what mini golf is in theirs.
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Uh, a lot of pushback because there is some of that old mental imagery of cheesy or corny courses, but it doesn't have to be that way, and that's not where golf and mini golf is going.
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cause mini golf and golf can be premium, it can be attractive, it could be custom, it could be low key, and it could be designed to fit the aesthetics of wherever it needs to be.
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And what's really great about mini golf and things of this nature and clubs and what we do is it's generational fun.
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They're not just designed for kids.
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This is generational fun.
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It's about getting people out, moving and creating memories.
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So I was just super thrilled to chat with my friends to bring them on, And I just love what they're doing.
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I think mini golf is so much fun.
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It is so much fun.
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And I'm surprised some clubs don't.
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Take advantage of and do more of a more custom made, cool little mini golf course at their clubs.
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'cause some clubs have some really cool spaces and things.
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And this really could be, I think, something neat for clubs to use as an amenity and as an upsell.
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Now before some of you listen and go, oh, this would never be for me, this would never be for my club.
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That's not what this episode or this point is about.
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It's about getting creative.
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It's about opening up your eyes to seeing what's available, what's out there, what can be done, what could be done.
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And if at a bare minimum, it'd be neat just for as, as a creative exercise for you just to go, how can.
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Mini golf fit here, right?
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I think sometimes when we think of an idea or we see an idea or we hear an idea or someone mentions an idea, the first thing we do is go, that will never work.
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I think sometimes, and especially in today's day and age, we should think about how it can work, not because it has to, but just as a creative exercise, right?
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Just to say, Hey, if my board came to me and said, Hey, in the next two years we want a mini golf course.
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How would we do that here?
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I think it'd be a cool, creative endeavor.
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Like what would you do to make it the most epic mini golf course a private club has ever had?
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How can you use your aesthetics, your terrain, your design, where you're at, right?
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How can you make it really cool and custom to your club?
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That's what this is about, and they're friends of mine, and I love helping out my friends and talking with my friends.
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Not often I get to bring, I don't think I've ever brought a friend from high school onto my show.
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they also did an episode on the Economics of Everyday Things, which is a Freakonomics podcast.
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It was episode one 15, miniature Golf, the Economics of Everyday Things.
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If you wanna dig down, uh, and learn more about the economics of mini golf, which it's just a really cool, fascinating episode, and it's like only 20 minutes, highly recommend it.
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And before we get to the show.
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If you or your club is looking for one of the most fun member event nights, you can have head on over to denny corby.com.
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There's excitement, there's mystery.
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Also, there's magic, mind dreaming and comedy.
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A ton of laughs, gasps, and holy craps.
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One of the most fun member event nights you can have guaranteed.
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If you wanna learn more, head on over to denny corby.com.
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Fill out the form, reach out.
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Let's talk about your club and your fun events.
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About that though, let's get to the show.
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Private Club Radio listeners, that's welcome.
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Katie and Sal Conna boy from Harris Mini Golf.
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Yeah,
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