twin tour takeover
How college golf twins and some friends with time to kill accidentally created a viral mini-golf sensation
Dog zoomies, concert screeching, thirst trap, X/Twitter screenshots, viral dance move, yet another viral dance move, mini-golf tournament, cat being a jerk, “New Girl” clip, podcast ra .. n … t … wait a second. Let’s scroll back up to that mini-golf tournament.
This is the typical TikTok madness that we all know and (sometimes) love. And yet in that nonstop chaos, Twin Tour Golf has taken a foothold in both the algorithm and the minds of golf lovers (and golf agnostics) everywhere.
It all started as a lark in 2021 for twin brothers and D-II college golfers Danny and Steven Sanicki. The pair live-streamed college golf team, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, testing out new simulators and almost immediately had more than 200,000 viewers. Instead of making this a one-off, the marketing and business-management duo decided to keep the momentum going, continuing to stream simulator tests and eventually graduating to golf competitions and trick shots. Then, in September 2023, not long after graduating, the Sanickis tried their hand at mini-golf, and … it sort of blew up.
@dannysanicki Mini Golf Tournament #10 18 holes (Holes 1-3) #golf #viral #minigolf #minigolfing #puttputt #puttputtgolf #golftiktok #golftok #golfer #foryoupage #fyp ♬ Epic Music - DM Production
“I think that golf content, there's only such a big market for it,” Steven said. “But with mini-golf, who hasn't been mini-golfing? It's so much more relatable, anyone can play anybody and win in a game of mini-golf. With golf, there's a handicap system, it can get complicated. And we’ve had people say, ‘I don't watch golf, but I enjoy your golf content. Like you guys are fun to watch.’”
Although the 23-year-old Wisconsin natives still record and post old-school golf matches, their mini-golf seasons have become the center of the brand, now appropriately known as Twin Tour Golf. They regularly post to TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. (Sorry, Elon.)
Most of the videos are made in CapCut, a free-to-use video editing tool, and the two make sure to post two to three clips a day to TikTok under the massively popular @dannysanicki feed.
This photo was from the Callaway Ai-ONE putter launch at Omni PGA Frisco. From left to right, Steven Sanicki, Charlie Pietz, Eddie Benson, Danny Sanicki, Matthew Kirchberger. They were playing with these Callaway putters for the first time.
Eddie Benson at Twin Tour Golf’s first live event finishing on 18. He needed a 2 on the last hole to win the tournament and take down the 56 players who played in the tournament. He won with a 39 topping Carter (an active player now on the channel) who shot a 40 that day.
This photo was from Twin Tour's first MAJOR. From left to right. Tommy Winkler, Steven Sanicki, Danny Sanicki, Eddie Benson, Matthew Kirchberger. Filmed at PopStroke in Fort Myers, Fla.
This is a photo from before Bella and Jess started playing in mini-golf tournaments not knowing yet how big of an impact they’d have on our channel. This photo was taken during the first month of mini-golf clips at Doc Fords in Fort Myers, Fla.
Steven (left) and Danny at the Callaway Ai-ONE putter launch at Omni PGA Frisco Resort.
Danny (left) and Steven at the 2023 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando.
Collab in Chicago with Michael Dicostanzo (content creator) who joined us for a regular season mini-golf tournament.
They’re far from the only golf influencers in the social sphere, but the Sanickis have carved out a niche as run-of-the-mill, kind-of-good-at-golf guys who take on their friends, talk some shit and keep things pretty lighthearted. They’re not really going to teach you proper form or new putting strategies, but if you want to watch a few pals challenge each other at mini-golf, then this is the place for you.
And judging from the numbers, there are many out there who want to watch exactly this. The brothers say that they’ve had 430 million views on TikTok in the last year and on Instagram in the last 30 days, they’ve gotten 46 million views.
Speaking of the challengers, the Sanickis have kept things close-knit, inviting friends and family to join their competitions from high-school teammate Eddie Benson to Steven’s fiancee Isabella Dory. Twin Tour even has merch promoting these “celebrities” that have catchphrases including the famous (in the understandably niche golf TikTok circles) “Bella’s pumped up.”
“We just wanted to film some mini golf, and Eddie turned out to be a great character and a great personality for the show. And then we introduced Bella and one day she just showed up after work in her scrubs and people loved it,” Steven said. “So it's all kind of random, the personalities that people bring. But we don't push people to act a certain way.”
“With Eddie and I, we will be trash-talking on the ride to mini-golf and stuff like that,” Danny added. “Or with Bella, Eddie will throw some shots at her, but you kind of don't want to get Bella upset. We're just happy she's there.”
In a media landscape that centers on personality-driven content, these small additions allow viewers to pick a horse and have something to root for. The comments, which can get into the low thousands, often breaks down the contestants with randoms rooting for and snarky-comments. It’s essentially the PGA Tour, just without the millions or the Saudi-based upstart rival league. Well, so far. There’s still time.
In the last year, since the mini-golf idea took hold, Danny and Steven have pumped out around three videos a day on TikTok, which consist of three holes in each video. Then on Instagram, it's nine reels a day, and then the horizontal long-form YouTube video will be out every two to three days. They’ve created mini-seasons that end with majors, which you’re more than happy to follow, but you can just as easily tune in, watch a few holes and be on your merry way. It feels like they’re always onto the next season, which again feels a bit like professional golf.
Now, if you’re like me, a slightly older media consumer who feels like a geriatric when opening TikTok, you might be wondering something like … is there any money in this? It’s something that the twins have discussed ad nauseam. And, while they are tight lipped on how much money there is (they split everything 50-50), yes, this is their full-time job.
“At this point? Yeah, we turned it into a full-time job, so it would be very stressful if we had something else in the way. I can't imagine,” Danny said. “People will be asking, where are the mini-golf videos?
Twin Tour Golf has worked with PopStroke (the Tiger Woods mini-golf courses), has gone to events for Callaway and Odyssey putters and promotes the Bucket Golf game on their pages. Viewers will even send in money that will be used for cash prizes for majors. A $1,700 jackpot for one good round of mini-golf is a pretty nice reward.
Since they’re twins, it only seems fitting that Steven and Danny match-ups are often too close to call. Although they say that they’re not too competitive, the decimals come out almost immediately when they break down their games.
“So Steven had a better high school career than I had,” Danny said. “And then in college, I think my scoring average was 75.29 and Steven's was 75.46. So it was back and forth the whole way, but I didn't want him to beat me in both high school and college. Every round is a 50-50 chance of who's going to win.”
No matter who wins the head-to-heads, Danny and Steven Sanicki are winning at nearly everything else, even getting a chance to travel for mini-golf to keep their videos distinct and escape the blustery Wisconsin winter. The duo is planning for excursions to Orlando, Fort Myers and Phoenix over the upcoming months (hopefully Myrtle Beach one day), but they’ll be back at their home course Big Putts soon enough. We’re assuming the course won’t complain after its brush with social-media notoriety.
“Courses will be super friendly and welcoming and appreciate us posting them with the exposure that we're giving them,” Steven said. “We’re always at Big Putts and they said that they have seen the number of customers that come in almost double since we started posting.”
