Mini-golf bar The Fat Putter ready to open in downtown Des Moines

Posted by Admin December 12, 2024 Golf

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The Fat Putter, a mini-golf bar, will open Friday in downtown Des Moines.

Located in the Wilkins Building at 713 Walnut St., Fat Putter is modeled on owner Michael Worley’s other Fat Putter location in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Both are part of the Let’s Go Putt chain, which also has combination mini-golf and restaurant operations under various names in Elkhorn, an Omaha suburb, Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Kansas City suburb of Independence, Missouri.

The Fat Putter’s announcement of its Des Moines opening promises “an outrageous mini-golf experience.” The 11,600-square-foot space will house three 9-hole courses — 27 holes in all — a full bar and a golf simulator. Holes feature themes like the Plinko game from “The Price is Right,” beer pong and roulette. Several holes also are sports themed, challenging players to overcome football, hockey and basketball obstacles.

The Des Moines location also will offer pizza from Fong’s, the website says.

“We have been looking to get into the Des Moines area for a few years,” Worley said in April. “It seems like a very healthy and active downtown, and we are hoping to recreate the success we have had at the first location.”

The Fat Putter’s hours initial hours will be:

10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.
10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday.
10 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

On May 26, its hours will change to:

9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday – Thursday.
9 a.m. to midnight. Friday and Saturday.

After 6 p.m. The Fat Putter will be open only to people over age 21.

Mini-golf will cost $18 per player age 13 and up and $12 for children, with admission covering all three courses, according to the Fat Putter’s website.

The Fat Putter follows other golf-themed openings, including Top Golf

The Fat Putter is the latest golf-themed attraction to open in the Des Moines metro. They include several restaurants and bars with golf simulators, like the Range Restaurant in Urbandale and X Golf in West Des Moines, and Putts & Pins, an upscale miniature golf and duckpin bowling restaurant just north of Jordan Creek Town Center.

Topgolf opened its interactive driving range, bar and restaurant in West Des Moines on Sept. 6. The location is its first in Iowa and offers 72 indoor-outdoor climate-controlled hitting bays.

Bombers Golf, under development in Johnston, plans a similar interactive driving range using Topgolf’s Toptracer Technology. Bombers also plans to have an indoor mini-golf course snaking through an arcade and an outside putt-putt golf course similar to those at Tiger Woods’ chain of Popstroke restaurants, which resemble miniature versions of regular golf holes.

Philip Joens covers retail and real estate for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.