From Stockport to Stockholm on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

A Crazy World of Minigolf Tour update from our trip to Sweden.

The 800th course we've visited - Swing by Golfbaren

Last weekend we headed to Stockholm for a mini-minigolfing trip to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the opening of the excellent Swing by Golfbaren miniature golf course run by our friend and minigolf rival Hans Olofsson.

Hans and me at his minigolf course in Aspudden

While in Sweden we managed to visit nine courses in 42 hours. The visit to Swing by Golfbaren was also the 800th course visit on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

At Golfbaren Aspudden

The nine minigolf courses we visited on the trip were:

• 798 (29th overseas) Solna, Sweden (Solna Bangolfklubb) - Eternit Miniature Golf

The Eternit Miniature Golf course at Solna Bangolfklubb

• 799 (30th overseas) Solna, Sweden (Solna Bangolfklubb) - NIFO Steel Minigolf

This was the first NIFO Steel minigolf course we've seen

• 800 (31st overseas and 472nd played) Vasastan, Stockholm, Sweden (Swing by Golfbaren) - indoor minigolf course and speakeasy

Emily on the 'secret' downstairs course at Swing by Golfbaren 

• 801 (32nd overseas and 473rd played) Solna, Sweden (Mall of Scandinavia) - Sports World Minigolf at O'Leary's

Playing Ice Hockey on the indoor minigolf course at the Mall of Scandinavia

• 802 (33rd overseas) Vasastan, Stockholm, Sweden (Bangolf Vasaparken) - Swedish Felt Minigolf

The Bangolf course at the Vasaparken in Stockholm

• 803 (34th overseas) Kristineberg (Golfbaren Kristineberg) - Minigolf

Golfbaren Kristineberg - it's right next to Kristineberg railway station!

• 804 (35th overseas) Hägersten, Sweden (Golfbaren Aspudden) - Minigolf

A great looking obstacle on a downhill hole at Golfbaren Aspudden

• 805 (36th overseas and 474th played) Täby, Sweden (Täby Centrum) - Paradise Adventure Golf, Inca course

Playing hole 2 of the Inca course at Paradise Adventure Golf course in Täby 

• 806 (37th overseas and 475th played) Täby, Sweden (Täby Centrum) - Paradise Adventure Golf, Explorers course

We're now up to 806 minigolf course visits since we began our travels in September 2006. There are a lot of new courses opening up too, so who knows what number we'll end the year on!

Minigolf course visit 800!

We've reached another big minigolf milestone - the 800th course visit on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

This weekend we were in Stockholm, Sweden to visit our friend, and minigolf legend, Hans Olofsson and help celebrate the 1st anniversary of his 1920's themed indoor minigolf course and speakeasy at Swing by Golfbaren.

Swinging into action on the brilliant indoor minigolf course

The course is one of the best we've ever played, it's a real must-visit venue.

We loved the 1920's theme at Swing by Golfbaren and really enjoyed the big celebration party on Saturday night

Check out the Swing by Golfbaren website for more info.

We had a brilliant time in Stockholm and visited a total of nine courses in 36-hours! What a wonderful trip on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

We've got LOTS of great photos, videos and blog posts to follow from the trip.

Adventure Golf at Haigh Woodland Park in Wigan

Playing the new Adventure Golf course at Haigh Woodland Park in Wigan.

On Saturday 8th April we headed to Haigh Woodland Park in Wigan to contest the first-ever Great Northern Minigolf Open tournament on the two minigolf courses in the park. First up was the new Adventure Golf course.

The Haigh Woodland Park Adventure Golf course is in a wonderful setting

The 18-hole course is Wigan-themed and was great fun to play. There was a lot of variety and some very large obstacles. It was certainly tricky in places too.

The new course in Wigan was great fun to play and quite tricky in places

The course became the landmark 700th we've visited in the UK and our 727th overall since our crazy golfing adventures began in September 2006.

The course offers ball retrievers for any errant shots into the water hazards. I wonder if this pole extends...

One of the BIG minigolf holes

And its accompanying green!

Back in 2012 I visited Haigh Country Park and the Play Haigh Golf Complex there. Where the new Adventure Golf course now stands there was once a grass Putting Course called The Himalayan Putting Green.

The old Putting Green has made way for the 18-hole Adventure Golf course

The new Adventure Golf course was proving popular on our visit - as was the park in general. It was a good job we teed-off our event at 10.45ish as the park and course only got busier during the day. The weather was wonderful which certainly helped.

The course was nice, bright and colourful

In the first round of the Great Northern Minigolf Open competition the scores were:
1st - Russ Dent - 44
2nd (tie) - Richard Gottfried - 49
2nd (tie) - Scott Lancley - 49
4th - Emily Gottfried - 52
5th - John Moore - 54
6th (tie) - Cat Patterson - 65
6th (tie) - Ryan Lancley - 65
8th - Ethan Rottenbury - 67
9th - Zoe Lancley - 83

We're looking forward to visiting Haigh Woodland Park again

Check out the Haigh Adventure Golf website for further info, opening times and prices.

The course was designed and built by the team at HM Adventure Golf. Visit their website for more info on their work.

Ten years ago today

A look back at the 10th course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Ten years ago today we visited the 10th course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. On a bitterly cold 23rd December 2006 Emily, Christopher and I headed along to the Horse and Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne, Oxfordshire to have a game on their beer garden Crazy Golf course.

Emily putting away as Christopher thinks 'What on Earth are we doing?'

What a course it was - we'd not seen anything like it before. And we haven't seen anything quite like it since!

One of the Crazy Golf holes in the Horse and Harrow pub beer garden on the 23rd December 2006

We revisited the course in April 2011.

The course in April 2011

A long minigolf hole

The green that Emily was putting on in the photo above

Back in 2006 we never realised quite how BIG the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour would become. To date we've visited 720 courses!

Y indeed!

I'm not sure if the Crazy Golf course is still at the pub. There's no mention of it on the pub's website and the last Google Street View image of the location is from April 2011 too. We'll have to swing by next time we're in the Abingdon / Didcot area...

Related blog posts:
- Crazy Golf at the Horse & Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne
- Crazy Golf at the Horse & Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne revisit
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

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Crazy Golf at Vickersway Park in Northwich, Cheshire

Visiting the 700th course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

On Saturday 17th September 2016 we reached another BIG milestone on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour as we played the 9-hole Crazy Golf course at Vickersway Park in Northwich, Cheshire - it was the 700th miniature golf course we've visited since our quest began back in September 2006.

At our 700th course

One of the nicest looking courses we've ever seen

Vickersway Park is a perfect setting for a sunny afternoon's minigolfing and is one of the nicest parks we've been to on our travels.

The Crazy Golf course was the 411th we've managed to play and it was very pleasing to see the layout offering up obstacles we'd not seen before.

Emily teeing off on hole 1 of our 700th course visit

On hole 2

Hole 4 was the longest

The hilly 5th hole

The tough uphill 6th hole

Hole 8

The incredibly tough 9th hole

In our match-up on the course Emily picked up the win 30-31 - but if it were not for the incredibly tricky pipe obstacle on the last hole it would've been by a lot more.

When we arrived at the park we were surprised to find there's not one minigolf course there, but two! So, we also managed to play the 412th course on our tour!

Hole 1 of the Putting Green

The looping Putting Green was a nice course, with some difficult routes to the cups.

A view of the Putting course

There were also some chicken coops and hen houses and bird cages next to the course which was interesting to see and hear. I got a small measure of revenge for my earlier defeat on the Crazy Golf course by winning our round on the Putting course 23-26.

Emily putting

The park games are nicely priced and we received brilliant service from the lady in the kiosk. The park and its team are certainly an asset to the town.

The menu board

The first game we spotted at the park looked like a minigolf course, but was actually a pair of skittle alleys.

The Skittle alleys

We'd definitely return to Vickersway Park for some more minigolf, a game of skittles, a nice wander and a sit down in the pleasant surroundings. Visit the GoNorthwich website for more information.

Emily enjoying a nice sit down at the Putting course

This year we're celebrating ten years of our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. It all began down in Sothsea, Hampshire on the 30th September 2006. We can't believe we've managed to visit 700 courses in that time. When we began there were around 600 courses in the UK! There are now 50 or so more for us to visit, but with new courses opening all the time who knows when, or if, we'll ever complete the set...

We added another brilliant minigolf scorecard to our collection

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Cheshire

Videos:
- Vickersway Park Crazy Golf Hole 1
- Vickersway Park Crazy Golf Hole 2 - hole-in-one
- Vickersway Park Crazy Golf Hole 3
- Vickersway Park Crazy Golf Hole 4
- Vickersway Park Crazy Golf Hole 5
- Vickersway Park Crazy Golf Hole 6 - hole-in-one
- Vickersway Park Crazy Golf Hole 7 - hole-in-one
- Vickersway Park Crazy Golf Hole 8
- Vickersway Park Crazy Golf Hole 9
- Putting Green at Vickersway Park Hole 1 and chickens
- Putting Green at Vickersway Park Hole 5
- Crazy Golf and a Northern train at Vickersway Park in Northwich

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.

Crazy Golf at Mundy Play Centre in Markeaton Park, Derby

The landmark 550th miniature golf course visited on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

While on our trip to the East Midlands on the 27th of March 2014 we visited Derby's Markeaton Park.

At Derby's Markeaton Park

Unfortunately the 17-hole (!) Crazy Golf course at the park's Mundy Play Centre wasn't open - it was an 'out of season' Thursday - so while it became the landmark 550th course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, it wasn't added to our played course tally.

Looking at the satellite image of the course on Google you can see it used to be an 18-hole course - but old hole 8 has been removed!

Photos of the remaining seventeen holes of the course are below.

I've been looking forward to visiting the Crazy Golf course for ages as I first saw David Cameron MP playing it on a visit to the town (back when he was the leader of the opposition) and I have some correspondence from him about Minigolf following his visit!

Unfortunately I didn't get started on playing the course. This time.

Markeaton Park is currently part way through a restoration project and there was a lot of upgrade work going on while we visited. Many of the facilities are still open at weekends - my local source Jam Trubridge told me that the Crazy Golf was open today, as was the bouncy castle. You can find out more details about the restoration project on the Derby City Council website.

Interestlingly the park is also home to a Miniature / Light Railway!

Mundy Halt on the Markeaton Park Light Railway line in Derby

Links:

- Mundy Play Centre on Derby City Council's website

- Markeaton Park on Derby City Council's website

Related blog posts:

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour