The aim of the game is to play like one would with golf, except it is played on campus and the tee-off point and goal is determined by those playing.
There is a tradition that goes with the game, and that is, if a guy hits a girl with a tennis ball while playing, he has to ask her on a date.
One night in the spring of 2007, Mark DeYounge and a group of friends decided to get as many people as possible together to do as little as possible.
Their meeting place was the parking lot between the apartments and Stegenga Hall. During the shenanigans, someone popped their truck, which contained a tennis racket, tennis balls, and golf clubs. The group then starts hitting tennis balls at Stegenga, including a few friends’ windows, in order to gather more people.
Josh Kuipers disagrees with DeYounge. Kuipers said, “You know, Mark claims that he invented it, but I think it (gennis) was around before we were in college.”
In the years since its creation, there have been many things that have occurred with gennis at the center.
Including a map of the course, a tournament, and even a mass email sent out about how not to play gennis.
The tournament was a Student Activities Council (SAC) event that was set up like the professional golf tournaments, and there was even a jacket and a trophy given to the winner.
According to Marlon Haverdink, “The course would go over Highway 10, and drivers would slam on their brakes because they saw someone swinging a golf club towards the highway.”
The police department even ended up contacting Haverdink to notify the students about not having the course go over the highway, and that was the end of the course extending past the Green.
SAC does have maps of the course for gennis and disc golf, as well as scorecards so students can play if they want to try either game.
Gennis is not only played on Northwestern campus, but at other campuses.
According to Abe Hall, a Dordt student, “We have it on campus, but I think it is called Campus Golf.”
At one point when DeYounge moved back to Northwest Iowa, he was on a run and saw some Dordt students playing gennis, to which he promptly yelled “Gennis!” at them, not knowing that they call it campus golf.
“Imagine a new pastor yelling at you about a beer,” said DeYounge.
