New Mini Golf Course Opens in Fish Creek

Families looking for fun – or golfers trying to forget a tough 18 – now have a new place to go near Peninsula State Park.

Just in time for two big fall-festival weekends, Evergreen Miniature Golf opened Wednesday on Highway 42, just north of the BP gas station. The new, 18-hole mini-golf course winds around in the shadows of red pines and white pines that owners Kerry and Matt Johnson wanted to save. 

The Johnsons have created a new type of course on the site across Highway 42 from the edge of the state park. Their contractor built the base for the fairways and greens from shredded and broken recycled plastic pavers, which is in keeping with Evergreen’s environmental theme.

Debut patrons this week did not get to see the environmental lessons and fun facts that Kerry, a longtime educator, will have on signs and in exhibits, however, because the signs were not yet completed. There is one notable sign on the course, however – “Trespassers will be composted” – so that’s a start. 

Each fairway has entrances and barely visible wheelchair ramps. Kerry said that to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, they needed to have at least nine accessible holes, so the Johnsons went for all 18. 

“Instead of traditional statues and characters and things like that, we’re going to have xeriscaping displays and compost displays to give people something to see as they play,” she said.

So no windmill, huh?

“That is a renewable energy source, so there might be down the road. We’ll see,” she said with a laugh.

Adventure Golf and Sports of Traverse City, Michigan, designed the course and served as the general contractor, and local businesses such as Hockers Excavating provided materials and labor for the course. In keeping with the environmental theme, Kerry plans to plant more trees and is reusing items such as some green outdoor cafe tables that she found in Sister Bay.