Golf ball and tee

Golf ball and tee

Mini golf hits the road in Vernon

It's like mini golf, only portable

It’s like mini golf, only portable.

That’s the idea behind a new Vernon-based business, Floppy Shots Mobile Mini Golf, which is gearing up to run on Saturdays at the Shops at Polson Park, starting Jan. 6.

“Just like it sounds, it’s a business that delivers mini-golf to functions such as birthday parties, graduations, reunions, weddings, staff barbecues and so forth,” said founder Jen Herrick. “You may have seen (us) set up at Canada Day at Polson Park, or at Lumby Days in the tennis courts. Or even at the Vernon Winter Carnival’s Toonie and a Tin at Kal Tire Place. The possibilities are endless.”

Herrick came up with the idea of portable mini-golf in 2015 when her four children went through a phase of wanting to play mini-golf endlessly throughout the summer. She researched the possibility of opening up a mini-golf facility in Vernon; however, the expense and time commitment was too substantial for her at the time.

Upon her research, she stumbled upon a company in the USA who built mini-golf greens and sold them to rental companies.

Herrick, who took her first year carpentry course at TRU in the late-’90s and truly loves to work with wood, took it upon herself to build a full 9-hole course that following winter.

She and her husband, Aron, came up with the design of each hole. She ordered all the supplies needed, including putters, flag poles, brightly colored golf balls, ABS obstacles, and with the help of some close friends and acquaintances, Floppy Shots Mobile Mini Golf was born.

“The response has been wonderful,” Herrick said.

So wonderful, in fact, that Herrick spent the winter of 2016 building another 9-holes so that she could do multiple rentals.

This winter, Herrick and her crew have set up a 10-hole mini-golf course in The Shops at Polson Park. Every Saturday in January and February from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the public can come to the mall and play a round or few of mini-golf. $5 for one round, $8 for two rounds, and $10 for three rounds.

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Vernon Morning Star