4 Seasons Mini Golf, an indoor mini-golf course, opens at Uptown Janesville mall
JANESVILLE — Just outside the Kohl's store at Uptown Janesville mall, you can putt a neon-colored golf ball down a road a tortoise and hare racing, then across a glowing, frozen lake, and then over a slippery, glasslike section of carpet an animatronic dragon has "melted" with his flaming breath. It's all from the mind of Dalton Knueppel, owner and developer of 4 Seasons Mini Golf, a new indoor mini golf course that opened this month at Uptown Janesville. Knueppel's imagination was captivated and molded by his grandfather's buildout of a small mini golf course years ago. He'd always wanted to build one himself. Knueppel, a structural steel foreman who builds towers and stadiums, has never built a mini golf course; he simply likes them and he's got a disarming business model when it comes to putt-putt golf: "I have kids. I wanted to bring some entertainment and happiness to Janesville. We need a little bit of entertainment around here," Knueppel said. Knueppel said he scouted out several retail and commercial buildings seeking space, but he said it was "very difficult" to find a tenant interested in leasing for a a not-yet-designed mini golf course. Knueppel and his partner, Shauna