photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Emily and Matt Baysinger are pictured at the new Sinkers Lounge in downtown Lawrence on Oct. 4, 2024.

When it comes to minigolf in Lawrence, there’s nothing small about interest levels.

“If you read any Lawrence Facebook group, about every 30 days there is a question why Lawrence doesn’t have minigolf,” Lawrence entertainment entrepreneur Matt Baysinger told me.

But there is a consistent answer for why Lawrence hasn’t had a minigolf course for decades: There is nothing simple about minigolf in Lawrence.

“The model has always been that you need four acres on the edge of town,” Baysinger said.

With Lawrence land prices what they are, that proposition becomes very tight very quick.

No worries. Baysinger — CEO of the entertainment company Swell Spark that operates escape rooms, axe throwing and other ventures in the region — has never been shy about building a new model.

His latest has quietly opened in downtown Lawrence, and yes, he’s betting big not only on minigolf but a unique offshoot of it too. Sinkers Lounge includes nine holes of traditional minigolf over two floors in the large downtown building at 722 Massachusetts St. that used to house the Signs of Life bookstore.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Emily Baysinger, left, works on a mural that she’s designing for the upstairs space of Sinkers Lounge at 722 Massachusetts Street. Matt Baysinger looks over holes No. 8 and No. 9 of the venue’s minigolf course.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

A portion of mingolf hole No. 9 is shown at the Sinkers Lounge in downtown Lawrence on Oct. 4, 2024.

It also includes something called tabletop golf, which is a mix between golf, pool and shuffleboard. It is a project that has literally involved Baysinger and members of his corporate team building new models. First with cardboard and then with flexible plastic, Baysinger and designers created tabletops that have loops, bends, twists and slopes for a standard golf ball to travel upon.

Players use a device — also created by Baysinger’s team — that looks like a putter and shuffleboard stick. Something similar to a stroke of a pool cue is used to propel the golf ball on the table. Each tabletop has a standard golf cup, and you obviously are aiming to make a hole-in-one. However, if you don’t, the tabletop also is broken into various zones, each assigned a certain number of points. Unlike minigolf, you shoot just one time per hole. If your ball lands in the cup, you get a score of one. If it lands anywhere else, you get the number of points shown on that zone.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Matt Baysinger, an owner of Sinkers Lounge in downtown Lawrence, stands next to a row of tabletop golf stations on Oct. 4, 2024.

While Sinkers’ grand opening isn’t until Thursday, it has quietly opened, and the tabletop golf is a talker, Baysinger said.

“People say that they love the minigolf, but they really love the tabletop golf,” he said.

Baysinger has a theory on that: While the tabletops are anything but level, the playing field is.

“The reality is, if you are a good putter, you probably are going to be good at minigolf. But no one has ever used this before,” Baysinger said while grabbing the combination putter/pool cue/shuffleboard stick. “It is a great equalizer.”

Apparently, it also is great for producing rousing victories, though perhaps not enjoyed equally by all.

“It is fun to see the 8-year old beat the heck out of her dad,” Baysinger said.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Matt Baysinger demonstrates a tabletop golf golf stroke at the new Sinkers Lounge in downtown Lawrence on Oct. 4, 2024.

Sinkers Lounge indeed is a bar in that it offers a full range of beers and cocktails. The menu includes plenty of golf-themed cocktails, including On the Green, which features cucumber vodka, ginger beer, lime and mint.

But Baysinger said he and his wife/business partner, Emily Baysinger, are intent on having Sinkers be a good place for families too. The couple are 20-year residents of Lawrence, and have three children between the ages of 7 and 11. One of the reasons they decided to pursue the Lawrence venture is because they largely agreed with many parents who said there’s not enough entertainment options for kids in the community.

The Lawrence Sinkers is the third such operation for the Baysingers. The original opened in Kansas City in 2022, and another opened in Manhattan last year. While the couple live in Lawrence, they held off on opening a Sinkers in Lawrence until they got a better read on what Lawrence’s future looked like.

Matt — who was an all-Big 12 track athlete at KU in the mid-2000s — said the university’s decision to pursue a conference/convention center as part of the football stadium remodel sent a positive signal for businesses like his. He said visitors looking to fill some down time either as part of a convention or a game visit are expected to be a part of the business’ customer base. For a while, Baysinger wasn’t sure Lawrence was going to make the investments to attract such visitors. Now, he thinks Lawrence is set to be a player in the market.

“I don’t know that we would have done this without at least the hope that will come to fruition,” he said.

The Lawrence Sinkers project has been two years in the making since the Baysingers purchased the building from the former Signs of Life owners. A part of the enterprise opened about a year ago. Blade & Timber is an ax-throwing business that features six lanes where people can pay to test their skills at how accurately they can throw an ax at a target.

If the name sounds familiar, the Baysingers had opened a Blade & Timber location on Massachusetts Street — where The Raven Bookstore is today — but it closed after a devastating fire in 2019.

The ax-throwing business is part of the Sinkers space. It takes up about 500 of the 8,000 square feet in the building. Despite its size, it is mighty, and if you have any doubt, you can go to the bar and order a Paul Bunyan, which is a mix of bourbon, apple, rosemary syrup and seltzer.

What you won’t find at Sinkers is a restaurant. While that was once part of the concept plan, Matt said they decided against adding a kitchen to the building, in large part because there are already many good restaurants within walking distance of the business. Baysinger said he thinks Sinkers will end up being the activity many people do before or after dinner.

“This is a new version of dinner and a movie,” he said.

Sinkers is setting up its business with that type of user in mind. While people can come by and purchase a single game of minigolf or tabletop golf, the business also has a $20 all-you-can-play package that allows a patron to switch back-and-forth between minigolf and tabletop golf throughout the evening.

The business also is set up for group events. About half of the second floor is devoted to The Fairway, which is a gathering spot that will seat about 100 people and is being booked for corporate events, sorority and fraternity functions, private parties and others, Emily said.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Matt Baysinger shows off the most unique hole at Sinkers Lounge on Oct. 4, 2024. The whole features a tabletop golf layout at the start of the hole and then transitions to traditional minigolf hole.

Baysinger said he’s seen what such “destination entertainment” businesses have done for other downtowns in other communities. He thinks it is important for downtown Lawrence to have those offerings as part of its mix.

He said he thinks City Hall believes so too. Sinkers Lounge is the seventh business venture he’s been involved with in Lawerence. While he doesn’t necessarily own or operate all of them now, he was part of the founding of Mass Street Soda, Breakout Lawrence, Taylor’s Donuts, Blade & Timber and two locations of 1900 Barker Bakery & Cafe. He said the Sinkers Lounge project has been the smoothest project he’s had go through Lawrence City Hall, despite it being the largest and most unique.

“This is the most pleasant and straightforward experience we have ever had with the city of Lawrence,” he said. “I was very down on planning and development six or seven years ago, to the point that I said I’m done doing stuff in Lawrence.”

Today, Baysinger said he thinks city leadership has made significant changes, and especially sees the value of doing more with its downtown to capitalize on its unique appeal to both residents and visitors alike.

Now, we are set to find out whether Lawrence residents who have long lamented the lack of minigolf are ready to get into the swing of it. Or, if you play minigolf like me, perhaps the swing, the swing, the swing … Baysinger said the course should produce plenty of twists and turns for golfers of all types.

“It is easy to get an eight on hole eight,” Baysinger said with conviction when asked for a tip on how to play the course.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Golf balls await at the new Sinkers Lounge in downtown Lawrence.