Arnold Palmer Starr Gate Crazy Golf in Blackpool

A revisit to the Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course in Blackpool.

It's always a real shame to find a once thriving Crazy Golf course that has been abandoned. Unfortunately that's exactly what we found on a recent trip to Blackpool.

What remains of the course has become quite overgrown in places

The Arnold Palmer Putting Course next to the tram terminus at Starr Gate was a great course. Luckily we managed to play it on our visit to the seaside resort in April 2008.

The course at the end of the tram line at the south end of the town

Sadly the course closed earlier this year and all of the obstacles have been removed. Although the bases and borders of the holes remain.

The GOLF OPEN lettering at the entrance is certainly redundant now

The 18-hole course was the 45th course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Emily playing the course in 2008

Check out the video, and others in the links below, to see more of the course.

Arnold Palmer Putting Courses are a classic part of the British seaside and it's dreadful to see them either left in this state or worse. Another Arnold Palmer Putting Course to be demolished this year was the layout in Exmouth. We got to visit that course as part of our tour of the south west coast of England in the summer of 2015. Sadly, the two Arnold Palmer courses in Great Yarmouth have also been removed in recent years and been replaced by one Adventure Golf course. While the two courses in Cliftonville, Margate were closed a couple of years ago. The course that was once in Folkestone is no longer playable - as it was used to make an art installation.

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. Of the Arnold Palmer Putting courses listed on the reverse of the scorecard we've visited Camber Sands (now demolished), Mablethorpe (now Pirate themed), Southend (one of the two courses still exists), Tynemouth (demolished), Cleethorpes, Canvey Island (9 of the original 18-holes remain), Great Yarmouth (replaced by an Adventure Golf), Hastings (home of the World Crazy Golf Championships) and Margate (part demolished in 2014)

It's not all doom and gloom though, as you can still find examples of the Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf courses - in varying conditions - in Hastings, Prestatyn, Skegness, Whitby, Southport, Southend-on-Sea, Mablethorpe (Golden Sands), Mablethorpe (Hooks Island), Broadstairs, Gorleston-on-Sea, Canvey Island, Weston-Super-Mare, Caister-on-Sea, Cleethorpes, and Bognor Regis.

There is also a new type of Arnold Palmer Putting Course in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. Formerly a Beton-style of Miniature Golf, it received a refurbishment a few years ago and is now an oversized version of many of the courses listed above!

Related blog posts:
- Blackpool
- Arnold Palmer
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- From the archives...Arnold Palmer Starr Gate Crazy Golf in Blackpool (April 2008)

Videos:
- Crazy Golf course at Starr Gate, Blackpool October 2016 1 of 5
- Crazy Golf course at Starr Gate, Blackpool October 2016 2 of 5
- Crazy Golf course at Starr Gate, Blackpool October 2016 3 of 5
- Crazy Golf course at Starr Gate, Blackpool October 2016 4 of 5
- Crazy Golf course at Starr Gate, Blackpool October 2016 5 of 5

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. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.