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New Mini Golf Course Lets You Putter In The Dark

Suncoast News photo by KLINT LOWRY

Fluorescent lights give a otherworldly glow to Monster Mini Golf's decorations.

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By KLINT LOWRY

The Suncoast News

Published: August 3, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - The family that plays together is going to have a new place to do it starting this month.

Monster Mini Golf, an indoor entertainment center at 6429 U.S. 19, just north of Main Street, is expected to open in mid-August, putting a new look on an old favorite all-ages activity.

Besides bringing a traditionally outdoor game indoors, Monster Mini Golf puts players in an amusingly macabre, 18-hole world populated by strange, neon-colored creatures that will have a fluorescent glow under banks of black lights. The center also will include a video game and redemption game arcade and party rooms for hosting children's birthday parties and other special events.

"We'll be the first in Florida," said Bob Mendonca, who along with his wife, Tracy, is opening the franchise.

They are joining a rapidly growing chain of about a dozen Monster Mini Golf courses, most of which are in the Northeast. It may seem like a bold move to open a business during an economic slowdown, but Mendonca has several reasons to be confident their franchise will continue the chain's record of success.

Owning a miniature golf course had always been something of a fantasy, and the more they looked into it, the more practical it seemed. As an inexpensive form of entertainment that appeals to all age groups, mini golf tends to hold up well in tight economic times, Mendonca said.

On the other hand, one of the things that had always turned him off to the idea was having an outdoor business. Back home in Rhode Island, he'd always seen miniature golf as entirely seasonal.

Once in Florida, though, he noticed that except for in Orlando, there aren't a lot of courses. He found this curious until he went out to play a course with his three young children.

"By the second hole I was drenched" with sweat, he said.

The fact that Monster Mini Golf puts the game into an air-conditioned setting was just one of the appealing aspects of the brand.

Bob said he and Tracy took it as a good omen, in a tongue-in-cheek way, that another Rhode Island couple, Christina and Patrick Vitagliano, started Monster Mini Golf, in 2004.

Christina Vitagliano's background was in marketing and promotions in the entertainment field. Patrick Vitagliano owned a theatrical production company that did sound and lighting for Broadway productions and concert tours.

The Vitaglianos brought their expertise to bear when they created Monster Mini Golf.

"We visited some of their places to see how they are," Mendonca said. "Nothing is cheap."

The entire course is painted for maximum effect under the black lights. The various "creatures" golfers encounter along the way are made from a rubbery material that makes them look - for lack of a better term - lifelike. Several of them are robotic and interact with the customers.

"The centerpiece will be a 14-foot ogre that talks and interacts with the crowd and actually stands up," Mendonca said.

While the place has a monster theme, Mendonca said, these monsters are of the cartoonish, G-rated variety. There is no blood and guts, no zombies who jump out at you like at Halloween haunted houses.

"We're not going for scary, we're going for playful," Mendonca said.

Family outings, birthday parties - that's the kind of business Monster Mini Golf is built around. The center will have two 400-square-foot party rooms for private celebrations, furnished with haunted house-style antiques. The center will offer package deals that will include the use of a banquet room followed by a staff-supervised round of golf and time in the game room.

Because the place requires a dark setting, extra effort will go into maintaining a lighthearted, safe family atmosphere, Mendonca said. Everyone is welcome, but this isn't going to become a hangout for delinquents, he stressed.

One of the proven methods they plan on using is in playing mostly music from the 1970s and '80s. This is meant to encourage parents to stick.

Adding to the family atmosphere, a member of the Mendonca family - either Bob, Tracy, Bob's brother, Paul, or his father, John, will be on duty at all times.

With golf rates of $7.50, for adults, $6.50 and $5.50 for children, based on height, Monster Mini Golf should be appealing to parents' wallets, as well.

"We're not going to have the $5 popcorn," Mendonca said. They are planning on trying to work out some cross-promotional deals with nearby restaurants, especially pizza places, but that's still in the works.

For a self-guided sneak preview of what Monster Mini Golf is all about, go online to www.monsterminigolf.com.

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