March 28, 2024

Office mini-golf popular attraction at Hanson

A hushed silence falls over the crowd as the golf club begins its swing to finally get the ball in the hole. As the club makes contact, the ball begins rolling but before it reaches the hole, nicks a toy box of French fries and careens to the left. The crowd explodes with laughter and begin heckling the golfer as he tries to figure out where it all went wrong.

No, that is not a scene from a PGA tournament, but from the Hanson Directory inter-office mini-golf tournament.

In its 12th year, the tournament features nine highly decorated, themed mini-golf holes in nine different departments throughout the building. A bracket is created, 17 people are playing this year, and at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. breaks, the office comes out to watch two golfers compete in a head-to-head match.

“It’s a fun way to get everyone involved and interacting with each other in a fun competition,” marketing coordinator Kristine Perkins said. “Our CEO Bill Hanson loves doing intramural, inter-office activities.”

Hanson showed his enthusiasm as he completed against his daughter, Veronica, narrowly defeating her 5-4 in nine holes.

The two made their way through intricately decorated holes with themes ranging from popular movies such as “Star Wars” and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” to tasty treats with both M&M and Candyland themed holes.

At the Easter themed hole, golfers were required to wear Easter bunny ears and the “Star Wars” hole was played in the dark with Christmas lights guiding the way.

The most talked about hole this year focused on the “Wizard of Oz” story. Golfers had to get through a tornado before making their way down the yellow brick road, past the Wicked Witch, by the Royal Palace at Oz and finally making over the rainbow to the hole.

“At our last location we had it outside. When we moved to our new location we moved it inside because we had more room,” Hanson said “They really get into it. They like it.”

Along with the mini-golf tournament the office hosts a bags tournament, intramural sports day and has a friendly Iowa versus Iowa State competition.

“This time of year is everyone’s favorite. Everyone gets up and together roaming around during breaks, just having fun,” Perkins said.

Between the hoots and hollers as the ball makes it into the hole or takes a wrong turn and ends up way of course, it is easy to see that the mini-golf tournament is a crowd favorite.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at
641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or
jpierson@newtondailynews.com