Tuesday, May 24, 2011

A 'perfect' round of 9(-9) on a Crazy Golf course by Minigolfer Richard Gottfried

At the 241st Minigolf course we played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour I managed to score a 'Perfect' round of 9(-9) by hitting 9 holes-in-one in a row!

This 'feat' was achieved on the 9-hole Crazy Golf course at Bainland Country Park, near Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire.

Video evidence of the 'achievement'.



The layout of the holes on the course 'greens' was a first for us on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. Instead of one hole, they had five cups to shoot into!? Without a scorecard/instructions to explain the course specific rules, Emily and I played a round, scoring normally with one stroke scored for each shot to get the ball into a hole, and then also totalling up the scores on points (each cup had a point score ranging from 1-5) - with the lowest score winning. On both counts Emily was victorious in the Irregular Mini Golf Tour contests. We have played this fibreglass type of Crazy Golf many times on our tours before, in fact there is a version of this course in Luton's Wardown Park.

Crazy Golf at Bainland Country Park in Woodhall Spa
The five cups on the green of the Crazy Golf course at Bainland Country Park in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire

The aim in any round of competition minigolf is to score as many holes-in-one as possible, with Par for each hole regarded as two shots. Many courses have their own Par system, with some holes being a Par-3, 4 or 5.

European WMF standardised Miniature Golf (Eternit) courses enable players to score perfect rounds of 18(-18) as there is an 'Ace Line' on each hole. The minigolf website Minigolfnews.com holds records of such achievements and states that almost 300 players have achieved perfect rounds of 18 on Eternit Miniature Golf! In the UK our Crazy Golf, Minigolf, Putting and Adventure Golf courses do not allow for such low scores due to the design and build of the course.

My best competition score on an 18-hole Eternit Miniature Golf course came in 2008 when I competed for Great Britain in the WMF Nations Cup in Tampere, Finland. I scored a 39(+3) in the fourth of my four rounds on the surface in the competition. Such is the rarity of these courses in the UK that these are the only four full competition rounds I have ever played on Eternit! The UK is home to some Eternit-type Miniature Golf courses, but many have had felt added, or are in very poor condition due to their fragile nature.

The lowest ever score on an 18-hole Adventure Golf-type Miniature Golf course on UK soil was actually scored quite recently, by Oleg Klassen of Germany, in the 2011 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters in Hastings, in May 2011, when he scored a 24(-12).

Rick Baird, USA, who plays the Putt Putt version of Minigolf recently scored only the third-ever perfect round of 18(-18) in the Professional Putters Association.

My best competition score on an 18-hole Minigolf course was at the 2010 BMGA National Open at Star City where I scored a 28(-8).

My best competition score on a 12-hole Minigolf course is 24(par), which came in my win of the 2009 Blackpool Pleasure Beach Open tournament.

Back in August 2009 I was looking good for a low score on a 9-hole Crazy Golf course in Towyn, Wales, but hit some threes and was left thinking, what could have been?

Related blog posts:
List of courses visited and played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
Minigolf, Crazy Golf and Adventure Golf Courses on the Lincolnshire Coast

4 comments:

Richard Gottfried said...

The course type on show here is known as '5 Star Crazy Golf' and is made by DK Fibreglass of Lowestoft. Many thanks to them for making a fun course ;-)

Seth Thomas said...

Well done. What was most impressive about this was how quick you did it. Well done for holding your nerve on those final holes :)
This is surely your greatest minigolf achievement!

Richard Gottfried said...

Many thanks young sir.

It certainly ranks up there with some of my best.

And also down there with plumbing the depths lol.

Cheers.

Richard Gottfried said...

During one of my rounds of play on the Eternit-type of Miniature Golf at the 2011 WMF Nations Cup in Stockholm, one of my playing partners scored a perfect round of minigolf - scoring 18 holes-in-one in a row!

Check out the original blog post - Sweden's Fredrik Persson scores a "Perfect 18" at the 2011 WMF Nations Cup International Miniature Golf Tournament

Check out the video on YouTube - Swedish Minigolfer Fredrik Persson - Final Hole of his Perfect Round of 18