We recently connected with Tom Loftus and have shared our conversation below.

Tom, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

In 2011, my now wife and I started dating and a big part of our first dates was mini golf. We realized that we both had a deep fondness for the game that went back to our respective childhoods. The two of us wanted to seek out unique and special courses so we naturally went online to search. Prior to this, I had spent a lot of time in the music world running a record label, booking shows, and supporting artists. I knew that with the rise of the internet, you could find deep pockets of information on the history of every genre, sub-genre, and artist in the world of music. I assumed that mini golf was well documented online and we’d be able to directories of courses and find out where we could play the best courses around. It became immediately clear that information would not be easy to come by. When seeking out local courses, we ran into situations where courses were listed as being open online but had been closed for years. In most cases, very little existed in the way of photos and visuals of courses. Given we were both very interested in the aesthetics and visuals of the game and the immersive elements throughout courses, we thought there should be more of a visual appreciation of the game. We both had mobile devices with cameras and just started with the idea that at a minimum, we could document our adventures together and share our love of the game with photos taken on our phones. It took us a little bit of time to go from it being a good idea to a reality but we just went in with zero expectations. We just wanted to contribute to the game we already loved.

Shortly after we got our review site (acoupleofputts.com) in motion, we got opportunities to build and design courses in large part due to Robin’s art background and our connections in Minnesota’s arts community. We were thrilled to take our love of the game to another level, We quickly found out that our unique passion for the gameplay and aesthetics of the game gave us a distinct position in the mini golf world. Our joint efforts and perspectives set us aside from the others in the field. As new opportunities came our way, we always said “yes”. Media inquiries. Invitations to play new courses. Emails from random people with questions about courses we had played or looking for suggestions. We were happy to share all of what we were learning in the mini golf world to help others who loved the game. Very few of the things we did early on provided any financial compensation for our skills or knowledge but we didn’t care because we were focused on having fun and sharing our passion for the game.

T0m, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Myself and my wife, Robin Schwartzman, started a mini golf endeavor called A Couple of Putts in 2012. The initial idea was to just review and document mini golf courses with an eye on aesthetics and the experience of playing that specific course in comparison to our other mini golf experiences. With my background in project management in the creative world and my wife’s design and fabrication skills, we were able to evolve A Couple of Putts into designing, building, and consulting on mini golf courses. It initially started with building a hole for the Walker Art Center’s mini golf course but we were also brought on to that project as “experts” since we were already passionately documenting the game like no others at the time. We wrote articles for the Walker and presented on our passion for the game. This opportunity and our consistent efforts to share our mini golf adventures on our website and social media grew our body of work and presence. We learned more about the process of designing, building, and running mini golf courses along the way and possessed a rare combination of skills and knowledge that was desirable by other arts organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs. For over 10 years, we’ve consistently shared content that we captured from visiting mini golf courses and/or building mini golf holes. The size of our body of work has grown big enough to the point where when people search out anything on mini golf, we’re likely to pop up right away. We’ve worked on projects in the Middle East, China, and throughout the US and we’re always eager to work on unique and fun projects across the planet. Mini golf is a great medium for connecting with people all over the globe.

Before we combined efforts to form A Couple of Putts, we both focused on having a strong aesthetic presence in all of our creative endeavors. I did this with my record label, Modern Radio (modern-radio.com), and in other projects in the music and arts world. My wife has this front and center in all of her artistic endeavors too. As we were seeing a continued and consistent influx of inquiries for our design and consultation services, we created a separate website minigolfdesigners.com to feature our portfolio of work. We made sure to give the website an easy-to-remember name and designed it so it had a strong visual presence of our work that distinguished us from other organizations that build and/or design courses. We looked at the other companies and found out quickly that we were already distinct in offering custom design work as many of the other companies sold a limited range of products/courses.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Robin and I met while working on an all-night arts festival in June of 2011. We got to know each other a little throughout that project and stayed in touch. Months after initially meeting, I suggested that we play mini golf at a unique course that I had heard about. I wanted to get to know Robin more and was keen to find something fun and not your run-of-the-mill dinner and movie date. The course we played at, Big Stone Mini Golf, was special and both of us were blown away by the creativity of the course and sculpture park on the property. We had so much fun exploring the spaces and wanted to find more places like this that sparked next-level joy. Little did we know that we were playing a one-of-one course and are always still on the hunt for those places that activate the same levels of fun and playfulness as that course when we first played it.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Our reputation in the mini golf world is marked by our authentic and deep passion for the many facets of the game. We’re happy to talk with anyone passionate about the game. This has even included free consultations with courses and providing referrals for other companies that work in the mini golf world. We want to continually have more opportunities to get paid for our work but start with operating from a place of being eager to engage with others passionate in this niche world. We’ve learned through our own collaboration with each other that finding new and interesting ways to collaborate with other people in the mini golf world ultimately leads to great things. Sometimes it is financial compensation but more often than not, it has lead to friendships and adventure.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.acoupleofputts.com and www.amaminigolf.com and minigolfdesigners.com
• Instagram: @coupleputts @amaminigolf @tomrloftus
• Facebook: @coupleputts @amaminigolf @tomrloftus
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasrloftus/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ACoupleOfPutts
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/modernradio
• Other: http://www.modern-radio.com
  http://www.puttcastmini.com