[water lapping rocks]
- Angela Fitzgerald: Visit the town of Ephraim in Door County
and you'll discover the sights and sounds
are pretty much par for the course.
- Tracy Opper: The harbor, the bay, everything is beautiful.
It's one of the best sunset spots when you're downtown.
Really good place to be, to live, and to visit.
[waves splashing]
- Putter around further north, however,
and those sites and sounds take a dramatic swing.
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[upbeat, playful pizzicato]
[thwack]
[clack]
[teasing pizzicato with light tension]
[metallic clatter]
- Welcome to the Red Putter!
- Tracy Opper: I love to play mini-golf.
I love to watch people play mini-golf.
[golf swing whips air]
- Meet Tracy Opper.
She and her father played their first round of mini-golf
at the Red Putter in 1992.
- Tracy: His name was Bob Yttri.
He would tell you his name was Bob with one 'O'.
[laughs]
- Soon after, Tracy was told that the Putter had been sold.
Who bought it was a bit of a mystery to everyone around town,
to everyone except Bob with one 'O'.
- One of my friends started telling me, like,
"Oh, no, somebody bought the Putter!
"What are we going to do?
I hope they don't change it!"
And my mom and dad were sitting there one day,
and my dad just got a big old smile on his face.
And my mom looked at him like, "You didn't!
You didn't buy it without telling me, did you?!?"
[chuckling]
- He did indeed, and for the next 24 years,
the Red Putter became a serious passion for Bob.
[man laughing]
- Chris Otter: It's serious and not serious at the same time.
- Chris is Tracy's husband.
Some would say he sort of married into the business.
- Tracy: We had our wedding reception here, and it was fantastic.
They played mini-golf all day,
and it was-- it was such a fun time.
- As time passed, the Putter became so popular
the idea of a tournament was brought up.
- Chris: The gist of it is, basically,
there were some people bragging about their scores.
The short story is Bob said, "Prove it!"
And he said, "I'm going to make them prove it.
I'm going to set up a tournament."
- Thus, the Red Putter Pro Tournament was born.
- So many people will come here and say,
"Oh, you have a tournament?"
And we're like, "Yeah.
You got to qualify to get in."
"Oh, sure, what's qualifying?"
Well, you got to get one under.
You know, it's 41," and...
"Oh, sure, absolutely, you know."
They'll be all cocky about it.
They'll go play.
They'll come and set their putter down,
like, "I'll see you tomorrow," and then, they'll leave.
You know, this place, it seems unintimidating
until you're playing it.
And then, you get halfway through.
You're like, "Too hard!
It's intimidating."
- The tournament is made up of three rounds.
The person with the lowest total score is declared the winner.
- Yeah, nice! [laughter]
Nice, buddy!
- They receive a trophy,
a cash prize,
and something that could only come from the mind of Bob.
- Chris: He ended up watching the Masters,
and he called up Tracy, and he said,
"They keep talking about this green jacket.
What's with the green jacket?"
So, she explained it to him.
There was a pause on the phone, and all of a sudden, she went,
"We're getting a red jacket, aren't we?"
[laughter]
- That's right!
The winner of the Red Putter Pro Tournament
gets their very own red jacket.
- Tracy: We've had stories of people wearing it to prom
or for graduation pictures, so that's always fun to hear about.
- Sadly, Bob is no longer with us,
but you don't have to look far
to see that his presence is still felt.
- Tracy: He became so well-known.
He had been a bartender for a number of years,
and I think that kind of personality came out,
like, over the counter.
Whether it's the bar or the mini-golf counter,
kind of the same thing.
You're talking to people.
He meant a lot to a lot of people.
- The Red Putter remains in steady hands.
- I guess we always knew we'd want to keep it in the family.
It's a great, fun business to have.
- If I ever looked at this place as a business,
I would-- It would change my opinion of it.
But this is just a place that I hang out.
- And that's exactly the way Bob with one 'O'
would have wanted it.
- Tracy: It's a sport that's for everyone.
You know, whether you're young and can barely hit the ball
or a retired person just looking for something fun to do,
anyone can play and anyone can enjoy it.
You can have fun; you can get serious.
You can get too serious.
But it's a good sport for everyone.
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