A lot of our usual activities for summer are taking a backseat in lieu of activities we can do in our backyards.

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Recently featured in Forbes, Chip Down is a game that was invented right here in Buffalo. And because of the pandemic pushing people out of golf courses and into their backyards, business is booming.

Forbes writes:

"Chip-Down’s creator and company founder, Bernard Cohen, said that in the spring of 2020, amidst coronavirus stay-at-home orders, his company saw a 400% surge in sales orders. He thinks that general enthusiasm for golf and Spring 2020’s reduced access to the links might have a lot to do with it."

The game at first looks like a combination of skee-ball, golf and badminton. It's played with a golf club and a birdie, and the object is the get the birdie in the inner-most ring of the target. It comes with turf pieces, to make chipping the birdie possible on any surface.

The game's inventors Buffalo entrepreneur Joseph Ricciardi and Bernard Cohen, got the game off the ground via a crowdsourced $12K investment raised in a Kickstarter campaign, according to a 2017 article in Buffalo Rising. 

So where did the idea come from? Cohen tells Forbes:

“My dad and I brought our golf clubs down to the beach to practice chipping off the sand. Later, we took a walk and I noticed the whole beach was lined with yard games. I wondered why there wasn't a golf-inspired game.” Cohen said he immediately went back to their spot on the beach, “drew circles in the sand, and started chipping away. That's when Chip-Down was conceived."

The founders were awarded $10,000 from the Henry A. Panasci Jr. Competition at UB in 2017, reports 43North.

The game retails for $49.99 and can be purchased here.

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