Blue-Ribbon Idea: Gorilla on the Range

by C&RB Staff (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
April 2007
 

Golf Pro Jon Helmker was driving to work one day when he got the inspiration for an idea that recently took a first-place award in the 2007 CMAA?Idea Fair—one of three that the Kansas City Country Club won this year. “I was driving down the road, and a new Ben & Jerry’s store was opening up,” he says. “They had an inflatable clown out front, and a big multi-colored red, white and blue hot-air balloon on top of the building. I thought it would be cool to put something like that out on the driving range for the kids to try to hit.

“So we rented an inflatable purple gorilla, and the kids fired balls at it,” Helmker says. “It was a huge hit. For many kids, it made their first experience with golf a positive one, and they wanted to do it again.”