Recently, we teamed up with Wilderness Resort in the Wisconsin Dells to create an ocean-themed version of their Cosmic Golf attraction.

Wilderness wanted an all-ages attraction that provided an immersive experience that guests couldn’t get anywhere else. The underwater ocean-themed Cosmic Golf accomplished those goals.

The two parties first met in 2019 at the IAAPA Expo trade show. “At IAAPA 2019, we saw Creative Works and it just stood out above everyone else and we’re like ‘Okay we need to get that here,’” said Wilderness Resort’s Attractions Manager, Trevor Hirst.

Wilderness Resort already had an existing mini golf course, but they knew it was time for an upgrade. Their previous course had nine aquariums with live fish and was popular with guests. Creative Works knew they were in for a challenge to provide an even more impressive experience for guests.

When it came to the new course, there were a few unique challenges. The first challenge was that there were no blueprints or plans for the pre-existing course, making it difficult to plan out the dimensions of the new course. Creative Works’ Creative Consultant Nick Salfity took a trip up to Wisconsin to address the issue.

“As soon as Trevor asked me to come visit I said ‘sign me up!’ Site visits are such a crucial part of our sales process. Not only do they help us better understand our clients vision, but they prevent any potential details from slipping through the cracks,” said Salfity.

There, Nick worked with Trevor and the Wilderness Resort team to map it out. “[Nick] took the extra time to make sure we were going to get exactly what we wanted. We had to get it pretty much pinpointed down within an inch and it turned out pretty successful,” said Hirst.

To further electrify the course design, Wilderness decided to implement Creative Works’ Electric Edging. This is a patented interactive technology that creates glowing edging along each hole, replacing the traditional brick edging found in most courses. “The Electric Edging is really what sold us on the product. Bricks are good, Electric Edging is better,” commented Hirst.

Another challenge of the project was the timing of the install. Wilderness was eager to have the mini golf project finished and installed by the fall months. Creative Works understood and worked hard to finish the project and have it installed by the deadline, without sacrificing quality.

“They’re extremely accommodating with the COVID world that we’re living in. To have a team of people to come do the install that quickly is pretty impressive,” said Hirst.

The 9 hole blacklight mini golf course was recently completed and installed at Wilderness and is now open to play. The course features many ocean props and murals, including fish, octopuses, eels, jellyfish, columns, oysters and more fun underwater themes.

Through communication and understanding, the challenges were overcome to forge a strong relationship and execute a successful project.

“Honestly, we were picky and we threw a lot of twists and turns at [Creative Works], and the accommodation to just say, ‘Okay, we can do that for you, we can change that,’ was the best part of it all. If I was to give it a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it a 10.”

Wilderness Resort, including their mini golf attraction, is open for business. Learn more on their website.

To learn more about Creative Works Cosmic Golf attraction, click here.