photo by Rebecca Devereaux
James Coe takes on the role of the 90’s horror flick character Scream at the Haunted Mini Golf Course in Hopewell, PA. He is one of three volunteers spooking putters as they make their way through the course. 

The places ghosts will haunt these days are getting more and more diverse, judging by the haunted mini-golf course out in Hopewell that sprung up a few years ago.

The Hopewell Windmill took the game of mini-golf and added ‘the element of surprise’ to serve up a spooky experience that lasts throughout October.

“It’s the element of surprise that really gets people here,” Jim Burgunder, the owner of the mini-golf course, said while walking around the course. “Nobody expects this from a mini-golf course.”

The course does contain the green pastures and obstacles of the traditional mini-golf course but is also decorated with fence paintings of horror icons and scenes such as Michael Myers and the Night of the Living Dead at each hole, as well as several horror props and corn stalks. Players also use special glow in the dark golf balls for night play.

“It all started because I had these inflatables and it grew from there,” Burgunder said about his inspiration for the idea.

There are also actors lurching throughout the course, lying in wait to scare unsuspecting golfers.

“Some people get jumped while they’re watching their balls because they don’t expect it,” Burgunder said.

“Making grown men pee their pants is the best part of the job,” James Coe, an actor at the course in his fifth season of working there, said in the downtime of one of his shifts.

“Scaring people and little kids is just really fun,” said Mason Pettener, an actor at the course who started just this season.

Coe and Pettener said they had no experience with acting of any kind before they started working at the course. They said they also help set up the props at the course.

Burgunder said that he doesn’t advertise the fact that the course has actors except for on weekends, just for the added surprise. Bugunder also said that he sometimes takes on the role of an actor when he has to.

“Halloween wasn’t always one of my favorite times, but it is now,” Burgunder said.

“It’s such a nice setup and really fun, even got my 16 year old in on it,” said Janice Schmidt, who said she has been going to the haunted course with her family for at least a few years.

Burgunder said that while the course is meant to be fun for the family, it attracts people from teenagers to grandparents.

“People say nothing but good things about us, and there’s really nothing like us in the area,” Burgunder said.

On the day before Halloween, the course is host to a trick-or-treat style event where kids dress up in costumes and get candy at each hole.

Besides the mini-golf course, the Hopewell Windmill is also a food and ice cream stand that operates throughout the year. There is also a remote control racecar track by the course.

Haunted mini-golf takes place from Sept. 13 through Nov. 1. Adult tickets are $8 and kids’ are $6. It is open from 2:30-10 p.m. on weekdays, 12-11 p.m. on Saturdays and 12-10 p.m. on Sundays.

“People just come down here to play golf, but get something unexpected and have a blast doin’ it,” Burgunder said.

photo by Rebecca Devereaux
Mason Pettner, dressed in an all moss costume, sneaks up on guests as they make their way around the haunted golf course at Hopewell Windmill golf in Hopewell, Pa. on Sunday, Oct. 4. 

photo by Rebecca Devereaux
Recognizable horror flick characters such as Freddy Krueger from ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’, decorated the Hopewell Windmill haunted miniature golf course. 

photo by Rebecca Devereaux
The Hopewell Windmill miniature golf course will have their seasonal haunted golf course until Nov. 1.