MARCH/APRIL 2007
Golf and Bowl

The 2006 golf season spilled over into 2007, but that doesn’t happen too often in Wisconsin. The unusually warm weather gave otherwise closed courses the opportunity to earn some extra moolah, but probably not enough to make a real difference.

However, a select number of course owners have found a consistent way to supplement their winter business. It’s a bit more dependable than the weather, and it involves much larger balls than are usually found on a golf course.

We were able to find six golf courses that operate bowling centers on their properties. It’s an unusual combination – the two sports tend to draw players from different crowds – and one thing is certain: These are not country clubs . . . with the exception of one.  

Norsk Golf Bowl

Ned and Kerry McGinley didn’t choose to open the bowling center at Norsk Golf Bowl in Mount Horeb; it was already there when Ned’s family bought the business in the late 1960s. But the McGinleys, who are business partners with Ned’s brother Dennis and his wife, Katy, wouldn’t have it any other way.  

The eight-lane bowling center, built in 1960, is the only one in Mount Horeb. Ned McGinley has worked at the golf course and bowling center since he was a young boy, so he knows that many customers have played golf, bowled or done both at Norsk for a lot of years. Janet Ibinger of Mount Horeb is one of them. She joined the Tuesday afternoon women’s bowling league in the early 1980s.

“We started with a group of ladies and continued to have a good group, so we kept bowling,” she said. “And it’s good exercise.”

Leagues like the one in which Ibinger participates account for about 20 percent of Norsk Golf Bowl’s yearly profit. Golf takes in another 35 percent, and the rest comes from food and beverage sales.

Mike Barashes, a Black Earth resident who maintains a Wisconsin State Golf Association handicap, spends more time than most at Norsk Golf Bowl. Though he’s only been in a bowling league for two years, he plays golf in two leagues and subs in another. He even recorded a hole-in-one on No. 3 the day after Thanksgiving last year.

Along with a rash of other locals, Barashes also hits up Norsk’s bar area for weekly lunch specials, and his wife’s 50th birthday party was held there in February. The old wood paneling on the walls and the familiar smell make customers feel right at home.

“It’s our Cheers,” he said, referring to the famous Boston bar of television fame. “We have a fun time up here.”

Thal Acres Links & Lanes

 In the late 1970s and early ’80s, the owners of Thal Acres in Westfield dabbled in the cross country skiing business. But it didn’t take brothers David and Richard Thalacker long to realize it wasn’t the way to make millions.

“It doesn’t snow,” David Thalacker said. “My background was in recreation at (the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point), and I had done cross country ski rentals and downhill ski rentals, so I had some experience in it, and we had enough land to do it. However, the sport was a fad at the time . . . and it was very difficult to generate income from it because all the state parks have it.”

Also, Thalacker added, people who cross country ski typically are health conscious, and they didn’t account for many food and beverage sales. So friend and 1940s bowling great Connie Schwoegler, who had a retirement home in the area, talked the Thalackers into adding an eight-lane bowling center to their golf pro shop in 1982.

“Everybody comes through the same front entrance,” Thalacker said. “You exit to the first tee if you’re playing golf, you exit the other way if you’re going to bowl.”

Now, 25 years later, Thal Acres Links & Lanes is home to one of only two golf courses in Marquette County, and its only bowling center. The Thalackers keep busy year-round with daily golf leagues in the warmer months and daily bowling leagues in winter. They draw league members in both sports from a 20-mile radius.

Customers who participate in both leagues – about 30 percent of them – bowl 28 weeks out of the year and play golf 20 weeks. The other four weeks, Thalacker joked, are left open “to do things with their families.” Though he doesn’t have exact numbers, Thalacker said about 65 percent of his annual revenue comes from golf, and the other 35 percent comes from bowling.  
Thal Acres’ golfers and bowlers are typically a different crowd, and Thalacker said it’s a pretty delicate balance to keep the golfers happy.

“Golfers in the beginning think it’s a little unusual that there’s a bowling center, but when they look at it from an economic standpoint, what do other golf courses do in the wintertime?” he asked. “They sit idle and have no revenue, which doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense.”

Meadow Links GC

 When Steve Skarda’s father added a bowling center at Meadow Links GC in Manitowoc, the sport was in its prime. But that was more than 30 years ago, and although his business is profitable, Skarda, who bought 18-hole Meadow Links from his father and his business partner in 1992, probably wouldn’t make the same move in today’s market.

“At the time that he bought the golf course, the market (for bowling) was real strong. That was during the boom times of the bowling era, so it made sense,” Skarda said. “Would you do it in today’s market? I don’t know. But it’s here and it works well already being established. To start it up would probably be a different situation.”

To Skarda, it makes sense for a golf course and bowling alley to be on the same property because bowling is typically a winter sport, and golf is usually a summer sport. But that’s not to say it’s always easy.

“When all the other golf courses are planning for next season, we’re right in the middle of bowling season, and we can’t do that,” he said. “And we don’t have any downtime in the summer in the bowling business because we’re on the golf course.”

Skarda’s 24-lane complex isn’t the only one in Manitowoc. His sister and her husband own an 18-lane house, which they also bought from Skarda’s father, on the other side of town.

“We’re in competition for league bowlers and open play. Even though it’s my sister, we’re still competitors,” Skarda said. “I guess you’d call it friendly competitors, but yeah, we’re competing for the same recreational dollar.”

Ojibwa Golf & Bowl

When the growing community of Chippewa Falls left nine-hole Ojibwa landlocked in the early 1980s, its owners had to face the fact that there was no room for expansion and therefore a low probability of increased revenue.

But the owners, a group of brothers with the last name Wagner, quickly came up with another way to cash in. Bowling was in their blood – they owned alleys in Eau Claire for many years – so they decided to add an eight-lane bowling center and banquet facility.

The move proved to be the right one. Today, owners Chuck and Bob Wagner, who bought the business from their father and uncles in 1989, said nearly 40 percent of their yearly revenue comes from the bowling center.

“Golf is probably the higher-end numbers because it’s a higher-end ticket,” Chuck Wagner said. “But the bowling does do well, especially since we did some remodeling.”

Wagner said local tourist attractions like Leinenkugel’s Brewery bring many out-of-town golfers to the course, but most of his bowlers are locals. Chippewa Falls’ other bowling center has 20 lanes and is only a few minutes away, but the two have a friendly competition and established customers.

“We both fill our niche,” he said. “I just kind of do what I do and try to stay on very good terms and work with them, the same way you do with golf courses.”

Coulee Golf Bowl

 Dick Mulder built Coulee GC in Onalaska in 1962, but his story is a bit different than the rest. Then an accountant by winter, golf course owner and operator by summer, Mulder decided two years later to open his eight-lane bowling center for a few reasons.

Like everyone else, he was looking for a way to make more money in winter, and his small town needed a bowling alley. And while Mulder knew golf was a part-time business in Wisconsin, he also recognized it was only a seasonal job for most of his employees.  

“I got hungry in the winter,” Mulder said. “Actually, there was a need in our area for a small bowling center, and we wanted to keep our help year-round.”

And although the bowling industry has declined in recent years, Mulder’s lanes are the perfect fit for Onalaska. He said his daily leagues are what kept him afloat, and he weathered the decline quite well. Golf still makes more money than bowling, but there are also more expenses associated with it.

Mulder said the word on the street is that his men’s golf league is “the best one around.”

“We feel we have a great facility; however, my best assets are the people behind the counter and my customers,” he said.
 
Racine CC

 Unlike the rest of the courses in the state with bowling centers, Racine CC is private. So the four lanes housed in the lower level of the clubhouse weren’t put in for revenue purposes, they simply serve as something else for the club’s 375 members to do.

“We have a couple different (bowling) leagues that are formed through the membership,” said general manager Lance Cotton. “They also get used for various types of parties and functions.” 

Cotton isn’t sure how long the lanes have been in, but he knows they date back to the days of manual pinsetters. Racine CC opened its doors in 1909, and mechanical pinsetters were not invented until 1936. Cotton said the bowling lanes give older members a reason to get together and socialize during the colder months. It’s another perk the club offers that other country clubs don’t.

“Our members love the idea of having it,” Cotton said. “It gives the younger families something to do for birthday parties or just an afternoon of recreation.”