A floating golf green is just one of the many amenities at this multi-recreational rental property
By Dave Allen,
John Phillips loves golf. The 31-year old HVAC systems sales engineer from Milwaukee, Wisc., owns a condominium on an 18-hole replica golf course at Northern Bay Resort in Central Wisconsin, and also runs a Wednesday night golf league at Brown Deer Park Golf Course in Milwaukee—the very same course that hosted Tiger Woods’ professional golf debut in 1996.
He’s also an engineer by degree, which proved very useful when he bought a six-bedroom home and barndominium not far from Northern Bay last December. In two months’ time, Phillips managed to convert the 3,000-square-foot heated garage into a multifunctional game and entertainment center, replete with a pickleball court, basketball half-court, ping pong table, dartboard, private bar and several large flat screen TVs. By March, he had all the beds in and began listing the 3,700-square-foot home—which also includes two sleeping nooks and can accommodate up to 20 or more guests—on Airbnb.
“With the help of my wife, parents and in-laws, we’d come up every weekend and grind down the concrete floor to make it more porous, and then put down the primer, base paint and lines for the pickleball and basketball courts,” Phillips said. “It was a little more work than we anticipated, because it’s so big. Fortunately, the bar was already in there from when the previous owner built the barndominium.”
Phillips’ renovation project wasn’t done, however. With the indoor amenities fully operational, he turned himself to the six acres outside. While one of Wisconsin’s largest lakes, Castle Rock, is only a mile away, he wanted a place where guests could swim and hang out on property, so he built a pond out back. While spitballing some additional concepts around with friends, he came up with the idea of utilizing the manmade pond as a mini-aqua golf driving range. He contacted Aqua Greens owner Matthew Gault in mid-June, and six weeks later a custom-made 10-by-21- foot, playable floating golf green in the shape of a pickleball paddle was parked out in front of the house.
“We were batting some names around at New Year’s and one of our friends said, ‘Well, you have this barn, why not just call it The Pickle Barn,’ so we kind of rolled with it,” Phillips said. “I said to Matt, ‘I know this sounds a little crazy, but would you be able to make a green in the shape of a paddle?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I think we can.’ He put some renderings together and it just felt like the perfect fit.”
For Gault, the challenge was making the green look like a paddle, not just from ground level, but from all angles, including above. The paddle face, or surface, of the green is 10’ x 13,’ while the handle is 3’ x 8.’
“Any custom shape like this, we have to spend some extra time on the art and rendering side of it, making sure it’s proportional so that when it lays flat, it looks like a pickleball paddle,” Gault said. “We look at it in virtual space and adjust the angle, width and length of it so that when it’s in real use, it looks the way the client wants it to look.”
It’s the second time that Gault has built a custom-designed floating island green for an Airbnb rental property. In 2023, Aqua Greens installed a 20’ x 30’ kidney-shaped green at an Airbnb in Vermont. Inspired by the famous 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, it has a sand bunker that wraps around the front of the green, and a 6’ x 18’ wooden dock with ladder on the back end for fishing, swimming or just hanging out.
Phillips’ multi-functional pond also has a lounge deck, raft and two kayaks. Other outdoor amenities include a nine-hole disc golf course, fire pit, grill and 75-inch TV.
“It’s more of a passion project than anything,” Phillips said. “Any money that it makes, I just roll into additions and whatever is left over goes into the next property. My plan is to make one of these a year and see how far I can take it. I need five acres plus to create the manmade pond with golf and other outdoor experiences, but the barndominium concept with the pickleball and basketball courts makes a ton of sense for a northern climate like ours because you need the heated indoor space.”
Since opening in March, the pickle juice has definitely been worth the squeeze. Nearly every weekend was booked through Labor Day, and a number of dates have already been sold for next summer, Phillips said.
It’s certainly been good for business that Wisconsin Dells, the officially trademarked “Waterpark Capital of the World,” is just 30 minutes from The Pickle Barn. But a lot of Phillips’ guests come from large golf groups who are in Central Wisconsin to play at Sand Valley Golf Resort, located 40 miles northeast of The Pickle Barn. Sand Valley is one of the premier golf vacation destinations in the U.S., with three courses ranked in the top 25 in Golf Digest’s rankings of “America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses.”
“We probably have the most diverse group [of guests] of any Airbnb in Wisconsin,” Phillips said. “We will get basketball teams, and elderly groups that want to play pickleball. We’ll have family reunions, corporate retreats, bachelor parties and, of course, lots of golfers. Not long after I put the green in, I got a couple of bookings for next July from golf groups that said, ‘Hey, we’re coming up to Sand Valley next summer. We want to stay at your place.’ ”
One reason why The Pickle Barn is so popular with large golf groups is the savings. One night at the Airbnb this past summer would average $120/person per night—when filled by an entire group. This is significantly less than an individual might spend on accommodations at a premier golf resort, but with substantially more space.
“World-renowned golf courses are great at bringing people into town, and when not at the course, our goal is to make that experience even more memorable,” Phillips said. “We do that by creating exceptional places to gather, connect and make memories.”
They have to stay somewhere, says Phillips, so why not a place where there’s more to do than put your head on a pillow after golf and dinner.
“Creating large, family reunion-type rentals can be quite rewarding if you’re willing to make them a desirable experience for everybody,” Phillips said. “I put in a 100-inch television and these massive hangout areas so you’re not spending your evening watching TV alone in your bedroom. You’re hanging out with your group.”
The floating golf green amenity has been one of the most popular hangout spots since it was installed in early August, Phillips said. Nine tee mats surround the pond and the green at distances from 30 to 70 yards, and to make the experience even more fun and competitive, Phillips is thinking of creating a point system and scorecard that rewards those shots that land and finish on the green and are closest to the hole.
“It’s cool,” Gault said. “These off-the-course projects are a lot of fun. We have anchor products that we build a lot of, but it’s nice to do custom work. They’re fun to design, and they take a lot of creativity to put together. When it goes live and is sitting there in the water, it’s very satisfying for everyone who’s involved with it.”
