Playing through
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years AGO
Cale Russell, CEO of Ten Pin Territory, stands on a bridge over the water hazard in Ten Pin’s new mini-golf course. The course opened in July.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Glenna Killinger lines up a putt on the 13th hole at the Ten Pin mini-golf course Saturday. Her favorite hole is the 12th, she said, because of the water shot.
Brittany Aguinaga and her husband Jose Aguinaga of Moses Lake plan their strategy at the Ten Pin mini-golf course. The Aguinagas were having a little grownup time Saturday while their children were at a birthday party at Lake Bowl.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | September 20, 2023 1:30 AM
MOSES LAKE — The new Ten Pin miniature golf course is a family dream come true.
“(It’s) something we've always kind of talked about doing,” said Cale Russell, the CEO of Ten Pin Territory, which includes Lake Bowl, Ten Pin Brewing, Papa’s Casino and Ten Pin Inn & Suites, all located on the north side of State Route 17 where it crosses Stratford Road. “There were plans kind of hanging in the office for years that we've toyed with.”
Russell is a third-generation supplier of fun in the Basin. His grandparents started Lake Bowl in the 1950s, he said, and his family still runs it. The mini-golf course opened in July, in a little park space between the bowling alley and the hotel.
“We get a lot of days of sun here,” Russell said. “We get beautiful weather through the summer, and even our shoulder seasons are great. So we liked an outdoor thing. We had a park there, which was just a lot of grass, and we felt like that was underutilized. But the footprint was right on for an 18-hole mini-golf course.”
Many miniature golf courses are replete with moving parts, with windmills and buildings with revolving doors and the like. Ten Pin’s is designed along simpler lines, Russell said; the challenge is in the terrain, not the machinery.
“We went a little more on the competition side of mini golf so that you can have some fun … It poses a challenging course for people that are really interested in proving themselves with the putter.”
One part that does move is driven by gravity: the water hazard. The water starts uphill and flows all through the course with waterfalls and wooden footbridges to cross.
“One of the waterfalls has a stream that leads into the lower pond,” Russell said. “And if you play the course enough, you'll find that there's a small couple of gaps; you can hit (the ball) into the water and it actually funnels out onto the course. It's one of those things we don't tell people, we just sort of let them find it out.”
The goal is to have all the fun in one place, Russell said.
“We look at this as, ‘We hope you can pull into Ten Pin and check into your room and you have everything you need here: you have mini-golf fun, you have bowling, you have a casino, you have a lounge and restaurant,’” he said.
That proximity was on the minds of Brittany and Jose Aguinaga, who were playing the course Saturday.
“This is our first time playing,” Brittany said. “We’ll have to bring the kids next time.”
Their children were inside the bowling alley at a birthday party, she explained.
“We can be out here while they’re in there,” Jose said.
“Mini-golf is one of those things that appeals to all ages,” Russell said. “It’s similar to bowling, you know? We have senior leagues all the way down to kids’ leagues on Saturdays, so, you know, a 5-year-old can bowl with Grandma. Mini-golf is a similar thing. It's not an embarrassing sport. It's one where (no matter) your skill level or your talent level, you can still get up there and bounce it off the walls and hit a hole-in-one.”
In an earlier edition of this story, Cale Russell's name was spelled incorrectly. It has been corrected above.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
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COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
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