Five years on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

Back on the 30th September 2006 we played our first course on what would become the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, when we played the 9-hole Victory Trail Adventure Golf course at Treasure Island in Southsea. The second course we played was the Warrior Trail course at Treasure Island on the 1st of October!

We've since gone on to visit a total of 419 courses in eleven countries to date, playing 268 of them. These 419 courses have gone under various names and guises (not all Miniature Golf courses are the same), in fact we've played the game at courses using a total of 43 synonyms!

The tour itself and the many road trips we've been on since 2006 came about after Emily and I set about visiting as many seasides in the UK as we could. So far we've made it to 149 coastal resorts, towns and villages by the sea. We've played Minigolf in 89 of these places.

Photo: Richard plays Hole 7 of the Oddballs Crazy Golf Course in Cleethorpes, Lincs

Photo: Emily putts through a Rocketship hole at the Arnold Palmer Putting Course in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

So to celebrate the half-decade landmark point of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour we've put together the following facts and stats.

Number of courses played = 268

Number of holes played on the 268 courses = 3,675

Number of courses visited but not played = 151

Number of courses visited overall = 419

Number of courses played that had a Windmill obstacle = 16

1. Brighton #12

2. Southend-on-Sea #16

3. Great Yarmouth #26

4. Broadstairs #35

5. Margate/Cliftonville #36

6. Margate/Cliftonville #37

7. Hastings #39

8. Blackpool #45

9. Bury St Edmonds #71

10. Rhyl #145

11. Prestatyn #147

12. Southport #150

13. Gorleston-on-Sea #173

14. Cleethorpes #226

15. Skegness #234

16. Great Yarmouth #265

- Rottingdean’s Putting Course and Miniature Golf #223 was at an actual Windmill!
- The Extraordinary Golf at Alton Towers has a Windmill on it but the course was flooded on our visit, so we could not play there

Number of countries Emily and I have played Minigolf in = 11 – England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Finland, USA, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden

Number of Piers that we’ve played Minigolf on = Two – Sandown, Isle of Wight & Clacton-on-Sea

Number of Piers that have got a Minigolf course on, but which wasn’t open on our visit = One – Southsea

Number of Piers that advertise that they have got a Minigolf course on, but haven’t = One – Brighton

Number of Seasides we’ve played Minigolf in = 89

Number of Capital Cities we’ve played Minigolf in = 6 – London, England; Stockholm, Sweden; Auckland, New Zealand; Vienna, Austria; Belfast, Northern Ireland; Edinburgh, Scotland

Islands in the British Isles we’ve played Minigolf on = 7 – Portsea Island, Isle of Wight, Thanet, Isle of Anglesey, Barry Island, Canvey Island, Hayling Island

View the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour courses played and visited list.

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A Landmark On Our Travels - Photographing Our First Milestone

On a recent visit to Luton's Wardown Park Museum I picked up a leaflet about The Milestone Society and joined their Facebook group. Upon joining I was asked to keep my eye out and photograph any Milestones as they may be unknown to the society.

So, on our recent roadtrip to Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth, by way of Sudbury and Ipswich, I took the landmark first photo of a Milestone on our travels. The Milestone is on Ipswich's Albion Road (the A1071) and gives distances to London, Yarmouth, Woodbridge, St Margaret and Colchester.

Upon joining The Milsetone Society's Facebook Group my minigolf rival Anthony Pope quipped "You were their 10,000th member but sadly they were unable to think of any suitable measurement to recognise it by."

Link to The Milestone Society

Castleford Xscape Cosmic Golf

A visit to Xscape and the 199th AND 200th minigolf courses played!!!


On Saturday 11th September 2010 we played the 199th and 200th courses on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour when we visited the Xscape Centre in Castleford.

Both course were Blacklight Indoor Minigolf courses - here they were called 'Cosmic Golf'!



The 199th course played was the 6-hole 'Search for Atlantis Mini Golf'.

Course played #199 - photos







The 200th minigolf course played on our tour was the 9-hole 'Curse of the Mummy in 3D' course.
Course played #200!!!







Both courses were good fun and reminded us a lot of our time in Las Vegas earlier this year when we played the two King Putt courses (1 and 2).







In the '200th Course Played Minigolf Classic Competition' Emily won by one shot with a 15-hole score of 45(+15) over the two rounds.

Since the 30th September 2006 we have now played 200 courses in 206 weeks (and re-visited many of them for tournaments and further fun rounds). We've also visited a further 78 minigolf course locations in that time - unfortunately many were closed, flooded, derelict or demolished!

Links:
- Cosmic Golf at Xscape website
- Xscape Yorkshire website

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Castleford
- Indoor Mini, Crazy and Adventure Golf courses
- Mini Golf in Castleford