Crazy Golf at the Zumo Cafe in Forton (from the archives)

A felted 'Concrete' type of Minigolf course in Forton, Lancashire.

My friend, Minigolf rival and co-owner of the excellent Splash Point Mini Golf course in Worthing, Anthony Pope recently spotted a 'felted-Beton' type of Minigolf course in De Panne and Koksijde, Netherlands and posted the pics on Twitter.

At first I didn't think we'd found a type of this course - known in continental Europe and by the World Minigolf Sport Federation as 'Concrete' - on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. But then I remembered we'd played a felted-concrete layout on a road-trip in 2012.

The 18th at the Zumo Cafe in Forton

Emily playing Crazy Golf at the Zumo Cafe in Forton

The course in question was the first we played on our 49 course tour of the north west of England, some of Scotland and the north east coast. Located at the Zumo Cafe course in Forton, near Garstang in Lancashire, the course was the 285th course we played.

Each of the holes on the course is named after a local place or landmark.

Hole 1 - Cockerham Sands

Hole 2 - Fleetwood

Hole 3 - Parlick Pike

Hole 4 - Lancaster Canal

Hole 5 - Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Hole 6 - Glasson Dock

Hole 7 - Beacon Fell

Hole 8 - Windy Harbour

Hole 9 - White Scar Caves

Hole 9 - White Scar Caves

Hole 10 - Zumo Cafe/Bar Special

Hole 10 - Zumo Cafe/Bar Special - an intriguing hole!

Hole 10 - Zumo Cafe/Bar Special - the green

  

Hole 11 - Isle of Man

Hole 12 - Nicky Nook

Hole 13 - Brock Bottoms

Hole 14 - Garstang

Hole 15 - Morecambe Promenade

Hole 16 - Forest of Bowland

Hole 17 - Trough of Bowland

Hole 17 - Trough of Bowland - the hole!

Hole 18 - Lancashire Windmills

While not a totally official type of 'Concrete' course (see our blog post for photos from the championship course in Stockholm, Sweden for pics of a traditional looking one) the course in Forton looked very similar to Beton (albeit with shorter holes), with obstacles and lane types we've seen and played before.

On our visit, the owners of the Zumo Cafe told us they had been inspired to build the course having played a lot of Minigolf on courses like it in Spain.

The Miniaturegolf standard of course (aka Eternit) is another smooth concrete type of Minigolf, and we've found a few examples - official and un-official - on our travels. Notably in Warrington, Clacton-on-Sea (where a couple of the holes were a bit Beton-y too), Colchester, Woking, Beckenham and Milton Keynes.

More recently we visited Valley Gardens in Harrogate where I played on the solid concrete course that was very similar to the Eternit type of Miniaturegolf.

Link:

- Golf Westhoek BVBA in Koksijde

Related blog posts:

- Visiting a further 49 Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in England and Scotland

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - List and links for all Miniature Golf courses visited to date

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