High-tech indoor mini golf, duckpin bowling restaurant opens in West Des Moines

Putts & Pins, an upscale miniature golf and duckpin bowling restaurant, opened recently in a new building near Jordan Creek Town Center

Putts & Pins also has a restaurant and bar. It occupies two new buildings at 6920 EP True Parkway just north of the mall.

The venue is in the midst of a soft opening where it is still working out bugs with software and other issues, said owner Mitchell Kann, a commercial Realtor who is whose partners in the business include his brother.

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"Work with us while we’re working out the bugs," Kann said.

The business' operating hours are still being determined, he said, and a grand opening will likely be held in January.

What's the atmosphere at Putts & Pins?

Kann said he and his brother wanted to create a place where people can be competitive but also socialize. The mini golf course features 24 interactive holes that score players based on whether they answer certain trivia questions correctly, avoid hitting into hazards and sink balls in bonus holes.

Quicker play also results in better scores, Kann said. In regular golf and mini golf the lowest number of strokes wins. But with Putts & Pins' scoring system, the player with the highest point total wins.

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"Some of them it will be like if you hit it up in a ledge then if you hit in the lucky cup in you get 5,000 points," Kann said. "And it shoots it into the final hole."

Mini golf costs $12 for nine holes or $22 for 18 holes.

What's the setup?

The two 17,000-square-foot buildings Putts & Pins occupies were built this summer on out parcels on the north side of Jordan Creek Town Center near the mall's Scheels store. Its bar and restaurant, two duckpin bowling lanes and six holes of mini golf occupy the east building. The western building houses 18 holes of mini golf and four lanes of duckpin bowling.

Putts & Pins' regular course is 18 holes and there are four duckpin lanes. Two of the duckpin lanes and six of the golf holes will be reserved mostly for parties and groups, Kann said.

What is duckpin bowling?

Duckpin bowling lanes there are pretty much "standard," Kann said. But duckpin bowling is played with slightly different rules than traditional 10-pin bowling. A variation popular on the East Coast, it has shorter lanes, downsized balls without finger holes and smaller pins.

It also does not require special shoes to play, and gives players three rolls per frame instead of two, making for a quicker game.

How's the food?

Putts & Pins' bar has six signature cocktails, and its restaurant features mostly traditional American fare like burgers, wraps and chicken wings. But there are some Asian offerings like seared ahi tuna and a ramen bowl.

Are children welcome?

Kann and his partners want to straddle a delicate line by being an adult-oriented business that also welcomes families. Their target demographic is people with disposable income in their 20s, 30s and early 40s, he said.

Late-night hours on weekends may be restricted to people over 21 as the business transforms into an interactive bar, he said. But during the first week in business many families have tried out the mini golf, and they will be a key demographic, he said.

Even as Putts & Pins' team irons out glitches, customers seem happy, Kann said.

"It’s a surreal feeling to put over a year’s worth of work into this project and see it up and running," he said.

Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Indoor mini golf restaurant Putts & Pins opens in West Des Moines