A visit to the MiniLinks Golf courses in Lytham Saint Annes

Playing the three MiniLinks Mini Golf courses in Lytham Saint Annes.

MiniLinks Golf on the seafront in Lytham Saint Annes is home to three miniature golf courses and on Sunday 18th June I played all of them.

If you're heading to the courses from the town centre or Saint Annes on the Sea railway station, just follow this handy - and BIG - Miniature Golf brown tourist sign to the front

First up was a replay of the 9-hole Crazy Golf course. Emily and I had first played the layout in 2008. In my two rounds on the course I scored a 21 and a 20.

The Crazy Golf course at MiniLinks Golf

Next I played the Pennines Putting course. It's a brilliant 18-hole grass putting course, with some very interesting routes to the cups! In my round I scored 43 - shooting 21 'out' and 22 'in'.

About to score a hole-in-one on the Pennines Putting miniature golf course

After a wander around the town and a play of the Crazy Golf course on the pier and the layout at Fairhaven Lake I returned to the MiniLinks for a game on the Par-3 Miniature Golf course when it was a little quieter as it'd been really busy all day. I'd also had a couple of rides on the Miniature Railway which runs around the perimeter of the course to scope it out a bit.

The MiniLinks Crazy Golf course and Saint Annes Miniature Railway

My score of 67(+13) - recorded as a 65(+11) with the Beginner's Handicap taken into consideration - was enough to see me finish in tied 13th place in the MiniLinks US Open tournament. A total of 43 players had submitted their scores over the weekend, with the winner shooting a round of 48(-6).

Hole 1 of the popular miniature golf course

The MiniLinks US Open trophy

The Pennines Putting and Par-3 courses were the 740th and 742nd visited on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, with the Crazy Golf course already the 48th visited and played back in 2008.

MiniLinks Golf hosts a number of public tournaments on the Par-3 Golf course throughout the year and there are four special competitions that run at the same time as the 'Majors' in regular golf. Next up is the MiniLinks Open running from the 20th-23rd July.

Visit the MiniLinks Golf website and Twitter for more information, opening times, tournament details and prices.

All in all it was a brilliant day out at the seaside. It's always nice to revisit somewhere after a number of years and this time I got to really explore the town. I'm looking forward to my next visit to Lytham Saint Annes already.

MiniLinks Golf gets the thumbs-up from me

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Minigolfing in Lytham Saint Annes

A return visit to the seaside at Lytham Saint Annes.

Yesterday I returned to the Fylde coast for a bit of minigolf fun in the sun. That bit turned into a LOT of minigolf as I ended up playing eight rounds on five courses in Lytham Saint Annes - a total of 79 holes.

Course one was a replay of the Crazy Golf at MiniLinks on the sea front. Good to see Humpty was still there

Course two was the new Pennines Putting layout on the sea front

Course three was an unexpected one as I didn't know there was a Crazy Golf course on the pier until I saw the sign for it!

The trip to Lytham Saint Annes has helped push the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour up to 742 course visits.

The biggest of the five courses I played was the Par-3 MiniLinks course

More blogs to follow about the three courses at MiniLinks (Pennines Putting, Crazy Golf and a lovely Par-3 layout), Crazy Golf at Fairhaven Lake and a Minigolf course I wasn't expecting to find at the end of St Annes pier!

I finally got to properly visit the Crazy Golf course at Fairhaven Lakes. Nine years after my first brief stop there!

Mini Majors at MiniLinks in Lytham St Annes

The MiniLinks course in Lytham St Annes hosts competitions on its Par 3 Golf Course throughout the year, with special Mini Majors held to coincide with the big major tournaments in golf. Next up is the Mini US Open from the 15th to 18th June, with the Mini Open Championship in July and the Mini PGA Championship in August.

Everyone is welcome to participate in the Mini Masters events regardless of background, ability or skill.

The MiniLinks course at Lytham St Annes is open all year round. Check out the MiniLinks website and competition page for more info, opening times and prices.

The Crazy Golf course at the MiniLinks golf centre in Lytham St Annes was the 48th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour way back in April 2008.

The Crazy Golf course and MiniLinks Par 3 course back in 2008

Since then I've heard the Crazy Golf area has been improved and a Pennines Putting course has been added. I'm looking forward to a return visit to play the three layouts at MiniLinks.

Playing Golf in the Luton Community Games

Playing in our first Par-3/Pitch & Putt competition as part of the Luton Community Games weekend at Stockwood Park.

Following our introduction to the sport of Pétanque on the first day of the Luton 4 Life Community Games, Emily and I headed to Stockwood Park's BIG Mini Golf course for a Par-3/Pitch & Putt Golf tournament!

Upon registration at the gazebo next to the first tee we had to declare our Golf skill level for a handicap rating (beginner, intermediate, or advanced).

Emily was classified as a beginner as she doesn't play Pitch & Putt that often and were given handicaps of '12'. I said I would be an intermediate player as I'd never played a full-round of Golf, but do play a lot of Mini & Crazy Golf - after this raised a laugh from one of the chaps doing the registrations (quite cheeky of him, Grrr) I was given a handicap of '7'.

We then had a quick chat with Graham from Team Beds & Luton, the tournament organiser, grabbed our Putters & Pitching Wedges, had a very quick warm-up and set off for the first tee.

Emily Gottfried setting up a tee-shot under the flight path of London Luton Airport

It was great that the lovely summer weather decided to restart on the morning of the competition and there was some very nice sunshine and heat for our 9.30am tee-off time.

Emily Gottfried playing out of an old bunker, next to an old bunker at Stockwood Park

We had a very pleasant round on the very well maintained course. Thanks must go to the group playing ahead of us on hole 7 who warned us of the extra hazard that had been left in the cup of hole 2 by an overnight 'visitor' to the course!

There were some cracking recovery shots played during our round and some very nice putting too. The Greens on the Stockwood Park Par-3 course are brilliant. The course as a whole is very well maintained, and while there are some quite deep areas of rough that can be troublesome to play out of, when you are on the green it is an absolute pleasure to play.

Richard Gottfried playing hole 8 in the Luton Community Games Golf Competition at Stockwood Park Golf course

At the end of the round we signed our scorecard, posed for some photos and had another chat with Graham who gave us some further information about the new Get Back Into sports activities that are coming up soon - Golf is one of them and you get more info on the Get Back Into website. It was through Get Back Into that I got back into playing Dodgeball!

The results of the event came through via email following the event as there were tournament rounds being played from 8.30am until midday. After playing Golf we went for a wander to the Athletics Centre to see the other Luton 4 Life Community Games activities.

The overall winner in the 27 player competition was Shane Timoney with a round of 30 for a Net score of 18! The joint runners-up were James Brennan and Michael Scanlon who both scored a Net 21(-6).

I finished in a tie for 12th place and Emily in 23rd.

The competition was a nice way to spend a few hours and  I'd definitely play in some more Pitch & Putt/Par-3 competitions at the course in the future. The Stockwood Park Mini/Par-3 Golf course is well worth a play if you're in the area. There is a good Driving Range facility at the club too, along with a bar and if you're so inclined a full 18-hole BIG Golf course.

Many thanks to Graham at Team Beds & Luton for organising the competition.

Links:

- Team Beds & Luton
- Active Luton
- Stockwood Park Golf Centre

- Community Games
- London Luton Airport - event sponsor

Related Blog Posts:

- Playing Pétanque in the Luton Community Games

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - Course Played #30 Luton (Stockwood Park) - Mini Golf/Pitch & Putt
- Dodgeball - then and now