Museum Week 2018

This week is Museum Week.

Running from the 23rd to 29th April, Museum Week is back for a fifth edition and celebrates the vital role culture, art, science and education plays in the development of societies, forging links which know no borders between women and men. This is why Museum Week 2018 is dedicated to shared values of living together, citizenship and tolerance.

The Crazy Golf Museum - the worldwide archive of miniature golf memories, histories and ephemera

Over the week there are seven different hashtags focusing on a different areas, with the overall theme of #womenMW.

Although the role of women in society is obviously just as important as that of men, it is far from being properly recognised. On Monday 23rd April Museum Week will focus on famous women in the fields of history, art, culture and science, as well as all those anonymous women whose lives structure our societies. Not women chosen for their beauty, but artists, intellectuals, workers, and so on.

The hashtags are:
#womenMW
#cityMW
#heritageMW
#professionalMW
#kidsMW
#natureMW
#differenceMW
#MuseumWeek

Find out more on the Museum Week website.

As a BIG fan of Miniature Golf and a Curator of the Crazy Golf Museum I wouldn't be doing what I am if it wasn't for women creating the game of minigolf.

Emily playing the world's first Miniature Golf course back in 2012

The world's first minigolf course was the Himalayas Putting course at St Andrews, Scotland. The layout was created in 1867 specifically for female players to use. Emily and I visited and played The Himalayas in 2012. It's a wonderful layout and a must-play course for fans of minigolf.

You can read more about the history of the St Andrews Ladies’ Putting Club on their website. It's interesting to note there had previously been a small putting area set-up before 1860, while the 9-hole course opened in 1867.

Today there is a 9-hole and an 18-hole course, both open to the public for a nominal charge.

Scorecard from the 2017 USPMGA Master's minigolf competition held at the Hawaiian Rumble Mini Golf course in North Myrtle Beach. Donated by Pat Sheridan of The Putting Penguin

A selection of Putt-Putt tokens from the Museum's vaults

Pencils from the Arnold Palmer Putting Course in Prestatyn

Some of the other key dates in world minigolf are:

• 1916 - The first minigolf course in the USA. James Barber opened the 'Thistle Dhu' layout in Pinehurst, NC.
• 1926 - The very first Crazy Golf course in the UK opened on South Parade in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England.
• 1926 - The first artificial miniature golf course in the USA. Garnet Carter created the 'Tom Thumb' miniature golf course near Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, TN.
• National Miniature Golf Day always falls on the second Saturday in May.
• Miniature Golf Day is always on the 21st of September.
• 30th September marks the day we visited our first course on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour back in 2006.

Check out the Crazy Golf Museum website and Crazy Golf Museum-related blog posts for more info.