Now that it's finally turned cold, are you desperately searching for something fun to do? If you are, you might want to think about a round of miniature golf.
That's right, Linvilla Orchards now offers indoor miniature golf. Yet, Delaware County's newest mini golf course is about so much more than hitting a ball into a hole, as Linvilla worked with the Academy of Natural Sciences to turn every hole into a lesson about the environment around us.
Linvilla's course, called
Fore! The Planet, stands out for its scientific theme. This means every one of the course's 19 holes conveys a lesson about the Earth's environment and the organisms that inhabit it. Think of each hole as a textbook, with the golf club serving as a bookmark. The ball, on the other hand, represents different things depending on the hole. The layout includes a hole where the ball is a bat following sonar, a hole about landfills where the ball is supposed to be garbage, and a hole about water pollution with water traps denoting brackish water.
Rob Ferber, the senior manager at the orchards, enjoys hole No. 8 the most. This hole is "Predator and Prey,” where the ball is a rolling metaphor for a fly trying to elude its predators and find a safe place to lay eggs. Ferber is amused at this hole's sound effects. He's quick to point out that one of the fly's predators, the frog, has a decoy hole that spits the ball out and makes a frog noise. To Ferber, the course consists of "museum exhibits" that are reflective of
Linvilla's work with the Academy of Natural Sciences.
This course is also unique because it's one of only two public mini golf courses in Delaware County. It's also one of only a few indoor mini golf courses in the Philadelphia area. It represents a fresh idea and a fresh partnership for what many consider to be the Delaware Valley's most famous orchard. Linvilla has been known for its apple, pumpkin, and Christmas tree picking for decades, but never for golf. It's also emblematic of a new collaboration between the orchard and the
Academy of Natural Sciences, which also has no prior experience with mini golf.
Fore! The Planet, opened the day after Christmas, and has proven very popular. "It's been a big hit, especially the first week when kids were out of school,” confirms Ferber. He adds that Fore! has proven popular with adults as well, probably elated to see a miniature golf course open during the winter. Ferber makes sure to add that some of these adults take their golf quite seriously, as they have come bearing their own clubs.
Source: Rob Ferber
Writer: Andy Sharpe