For more than half a century, the rolling hills of Village Greens Miniature Golf have been a staple of Lancaster County. Now, a local family with Major League Baseball roots is stepping in to ensure that that tradition of mini golf in a scenic setting continues.
Travis Jankowski, a retired major league outfielder and current Texas Rangers coach, and his wife, Lindsey, bought the course earlier this month for $1.17 million. The couple said they plan to add new attractions to the Strasburg Township landmark while preserving the 13-acre course, which is part of a larger 35-acre wooded tract.
With the purchase, the Jankowskis are ensuring the entire property — which they feared was a target for residential development — remains untouched.
“Once it becomes developed, there’s no undeveloping it,” said Travis Jankowski, a Lancaster Catholic High School graduate who lives in Strasburg with his family during the baseball offseason. “It’s kind of a way of keeping Strasburg Strasburg.”
Lindsey Jankowski, a Lampeter-Strasburg High School alumna who grew up near Strasburg, remembers playing the course as a child and visiting for its annual Christmas light displays and Easter egg hunts.
“I feel like everyone who is local to here has been (at Village Greens) since they were little,” she said.
With four children under age 7, the couple wants to provide that same nostalgic experience for other young families.
When the course holds its grand reopening April 4 — headlined by an Easter egg hunt with 4,000 eggs — visitors will see three new outdoor patios with fire pits and a revamped snack bar featuring a full coffee bar.
The most significant addition is “Tiny Tees Village,” an outdoor play area featuring miniature versions of some Strasburg area businesses, including a coffee shop, pizza shop and barber shop.
“I think it will be really exciting. I think the community is going to love it – I hope they are going to love it,” Lindsey Jankowski said. “Our goal is to have mini golf not just be a one-hour activity, but an all-day experience.”
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End of an era
The sale marks the end of an era for the Petters family, which had owned and operated the business since 1972.
The late Oscar Petters, a former engineer for Hamilton Watch Co. and president of the Lancaster firm’s spinoff company Datcom, designed the holes with his wife, Jean. The 18-hole Orange Course is the original, easier course while 23-hole Gold Course challenges players with hillside terrain.
Following Jean Petters’ death in 2023, the course continued under the care of daughters Debra Anspach and Cindy Fairchild, who made the decision to sell.
“It is our time in life to retire, although this is so bittersweet,” Anspach wrote on the business’s Facebook page. “Our whole family will miss being a part of Village Greens.”
The business is leaving the family, but it remains a local affair — sold to a family friend who has been part of the Strasburg circle for years.
Lindsey Jankowski went to Lampeter-Strasburg High School with some grandchildren of the golf course’s founders, and one of its operators was a sports coach for her and her brothers.
“Jim Fairchild (Cindy’s husband) was a softball coach for me and coached my brothers in midget football,” Lindsey Jankowski said. “They were a good family.”
Growing local portfolio
The purchase is the latest in a series of local investments for the couple. In December, Travis Jankowski opened the Jankowski Performance Complex in East Lampeter Township.
The Jankowskis invested $350,000 into the former Formula Fitness at 2495 Lincoln Highway East where they updated the gym with a batting cage, spin studio and red light therapy room
The couple’s path to ownership of the Village Greens began a year ago when they purchased an 1800s schoolhouse at 1355 Penn Grant Road for $264,120. They learned the schoolhouse was owned by the same family as Village Greens.
While the Jankowskis said they liked the idea of owning some open land near Strasburg, they were hesitant about taking over operations of a mini golf course. However, a desire to protect the land from potential residential development — and a commitment from the Petters family to help with the transition — sealed the deal.
“There’s just something about Lancaster County having the land and the farmland staying what it is,” Lindsey Jankowski said. “I think it makes it feel like home here, and we want our kids to be able to see that when they grow up.”
Travis Jankowski, who concluded an 11-season career with approximately $8.9 million in earnings, called the Village Greens purchase as “a real estate investment we don’t really ever plan on cashing in on.”
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