Sunday, March 20, 2016

Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf at Haven's Caister-on-Sea Holiday Park

The photos our friends Matt and Helen Dodd took of the Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course at the Haven Golden Sands Caravan Holiday Park in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire reminded us of this snap our friends Sophia and Karl Moles took while on holiday at Haven's Caister-on-Sea Holiday Park in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk a few years ago.

One of the obstacles on the Arnold Palmer Putting Course at Haven's Caister-on-Sea Holiday Park in Norfolk. Photo by Sophia and Karl Moles, 2012
One of the obstacles on the Arnold Palmer Putting Course at Haven's Caister-on-Sea Holiday Park in Norfolk

It's great to see there are still Arnold Palmer Putting Courses dotted around the coast. They're definitely a great part of minigolf history.

Check out Haven's web pages for the Caister-on-Sea Holiday Park for more photos of the Crazy Golf course. They've got an interesting paint job on the classic windmill obstacle.

Link:
Haven

Related blog posts:
- Sophia Moles
- Karl Moles
Arnold Palmer
Haven
Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

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Saturday, March 19, 2016

Crazy Golf at the Haven Golden Sands Caravan Holiday Park in Mablethorpe

Our fellow minigolf adventurers Matt, Helen and Emily Dodd have been on a trip to the fine county of Lincolnshire and found plenty of courses to visit there. With the Dodd's staying at holiday parks they were able to play some courses that we never got to when we first visited Lincolnshire in 2011.

A dogleg hole at Haven's Golden Sands Crazy Golf course. You don't normally see a bridge/ramp on the fairway

This Arnold Palmer Putting Course was played in the Haven Golden Sands Caravan Holiday Park in Mablethorpe. What a great discovery.

A BIG minigolf elephant on the themed Arnold Palmer course

Plenty of obstacles in the path to the cup on this hole!

Tricky

Even trickier!

The hole below is a regular sight on Arnold Palmer Putting Courses and is very often a good opportunity for a hole-in-one. But this is the first time I've the hole with additional obstacles!

The ledge hole in Mablethorpe

A version of the hole in Whitby, Yorkshire

As hole 16 in Hastings, East Sussex

There is another Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course in Mablethorpe. The Hooks Island Crazy Adventure Golf was a 13-hole layout (12-holes, plus lucky last hole) when we played it in 2011.

Lincolnshire is a real hotspot for minigolf. Skegness alone has 102-holes spread across nine seafront courses!

The Arnold Palmer Putting Course in Skegness still has an old scorecard in use. It lists many of the Arnold Palmer courses that are long gone. A great bit of minigolf history

Related blog posts:
- Mablethorpe
- Matt Dodd
- Helen Dodd
- Arnold Palmer
- Haven
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Link:
- Haven

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Sunday, March 13, 2016

A revisit to Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing

A BIG day for Splash Point Mini Golf.

Minigolf is hard work

We were in Worthing on Saturday for my brother's birthday party, which also coincided with the annual Jet Wash Day down at the Splash Point Mini Golf course in Denton Gardens.

There was no sign of Top Gull, but some pigeons were enjoying walking on the newly cleaned course

Course owners Anthony and Peter were part-way through their nine-hour shift to blast the dirt and grime from the 18-hole course ahead of the opening of the course for the 2016 season.

A local squirrel admires the newly refreshed course

We also spotted a new feature on the course for this year. A bench.

The bespoke bench at Splash Point Mini Golf course. Hand crafted by co-owner Peter 'Empton' Emmerson

It's always nice to have a sit down

In addition to Jet Wash Day Splash Point Mini Golf will be hosting two competitions this year. Check out details of other BIG 'days' in the minigolf calendar too.

We always enjoy our visits to sunny Worthing

While in town we were lucky enough to find a nice old postcard in a flea market just off the seafront. The card, published by Valentine & Sons Ltd and posted on the 7th July 1958, shows the Putting Green in Denton Park. Always a nice sight to see on old postcards.

The old multi-view postcard showing the Putting Green in Denton Park

A view of the new Mini Golf course in Denton Gardens

Links:
Splash Point Mini Golf course website
Splash Point Mini Golf course on Twitter

Related blog posts:
Mini Golf Dates for your Diary 2016
Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing
Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems.

You can also now sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter.

Clown on a Moped

What better way to celebrate my brother Christopher's 30th birthday than with a surprise party in Worthing. And a Clown on a Moped!

Tommy Tickle's guest appearance at Christopher's surprise birthday party went down a treat

Christopher is a charter member of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and on our travels we've putted through some clown's mouth obstacles.

The Clown obstacle at Luton's now demolished Wardown Park Crazy Golf course. One of the first we played on our tour

The Crazy World of Minigolf Tour began at the Treasure Island Adventure Golf course in Southsea in September 2006. The town is home to a number of other miniature golf courses, including this one on Southsea Common 

Check out Tommy Tickle's Clown on a Moped website, YouTube Channel, and give him a like and a follow on Facebook and Twitter. He was brilliant entertainment - even two of three coulrophobes at the party enjoyed his act!

Brighton-based Tommy Tickle - the world's number one Clown on a Moped. Available for all sorts of functions

Tommy Tickle appeared in the brilliant BBC documentary Clowns, it's well worth a watch.



Link:
- Clown on a Moped website

Related blog posts:
- Christopher Gottfried
- Worthing

Monday, March 07, 2016

North Marine Crazy Golf in Bridlington

Playing minigolf at the North Marine Putting Greens in Bridlington.


Last summer we finally made it to the seaside town of Bridlington. It'd been on our 'to visit' for quite some time.


Unfortunately we only had a couple of hours there so couldn't fully explore - but we did visit the minigolf courses there. And played two of them.


The first we played was at the North Marine Putting Greens, where you can find two grass Putting courses along with a very interesting Crazy Golf course. It's a mixture of holes - with some of them of the Swedish Felt variety, and others are Fibreglass. There are also some unique obstacles dotted around the course.

The Rules






 

The Crazy Golf course at the North Marine Putting Greens became the 383rd course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and the 663th visited since September 2006.

It was also the first course we've been to that's got a Frankenstein's Monster on it

The course is 15-holes(!?) and in our contest Emily beat me 36 to 41.

Happily we both managed to get a hole-in-one. Well, Emily got three in a row on the final holes!

The pair of Putting Greens looked nice too. We'll definitely give them a play when we're back in Bridlington.

The North Marine Putting Greens overlook Bridlington Bay

No 1 Green

No 2 Green

While in Bridlington we also played the Treasure Island Adventure Golf course and had a look at the Crazy Golf course on the Foreshore Sands.

We're really looking forward to a return visit to Bridlington later this year as there's plenty to see and do there.

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems.

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Sunday, March 06, 2016

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf in Whitby

Playing the updated Pirate Adventure Golf course at Whitby's Pleasure Island Amusement Arcade.

We love visiting Whitby in North Yorkshire and on our last trip to the seaside town we revisited the Pleasure Island Amusement Arcade. We were quite surprised to find that the Adventure Golf course we had played on our previous trip had changed a lot!

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
At the Pleasure Island Adventure Golf course in Whitby

In March 2014 the indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course had become the 327th course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. And with the significant changes it also became the 386th played!

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
Hole 8 used to be the 1st

As well as the addition of some new holes - notably the first - most of the course had actually been reversed. Crazy!

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
This didn't used to be the 1st hole

Check out the photos of the course as it was on our most recent play of the course in August 2015, and how it looked in March 2014.

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
On the new 1st

In our match-up on the course Emily smashed me 18 to 25.

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
Emily on the tricky 3rd hole

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
Hole 8 used to be the 1st! 

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
The 4th hole is another new addition

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
Emily on the new 4th

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
This didn't use to be the 7th hole
 
Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
A crocodile! Or is it an alligator?

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course in Whitby
I'm not sure the Fountain of Eternal Youth works...

The Shooting Shack there has been massively upgraded too.

Shooting Gallery in Whitby
We love a good old seaside shooting shack

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Minigolf at The Great Ideas Summit 2016, presented by ERA

A pop-up indoor minigolf course in Orlando, Florida.

Emily's friends and colleagues were recently at the Electronic Retailing Association's Great Ideas Summit in Orlando, Florida and found there was a miniature golf course set up for a Tee Up Tuesday Evening Reception!

The minigolf layout looked very interesting. It certainly did look like a great idea!

Indoor pop-up glow-in-the-dark minigolf at the ERA's GIS in Orlando. Photo by Liezl van Zyl
Indoor pop-up glow-in-the-dark minigolf at the ERA's GIS in Orlando. Photo by Liezl van Zyl

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems.

You can also now sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter.