Playing Crazy Golf on Southend Pier

A visit to the miniature golf course at the end of Southend Pier.

On Saturday 25th June we headed to the seaside town of Southend on Sea for a day out of fun and games. Starting with a visit to the new Southend Pier Crazy Golf course - 1.3 miles out at sea!

Olga the Octopus

Emily in action on the pier's latest attraction

The 12-hole layout is on the world's longest pleasure pier and is brilliant fun.

Putting through Olga the Octopus

It's a great layout and even though there are some tough holes and obstacles, there are still plenty of hole in one opportunities.



The course became the 402nd played and 683rd visited overall on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

A hole in one

During our visit we competed in a 12-player contest to crown the end of the pier champion. Featuring a cast of veterans, GB internationals, national tour champions and a sprinkling of rookies, the highly competitive event saw me take the win. Former British Master Chris Jones and regular 'do' champion Brad Shepherd were second and third.

The competitors give the course a double thumbs up

Results of the Southend Pier Invitational Tournament 2016:
1st ‘Squire’ Richard Gottfried – 31
2nd Chris ‘Stretch’ Jones – 34
3rd Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd – 37
4th (tied) Lionel ‘The Spoon’ Bender – 39
4th (tied) Gareth ‘Lemsip’ Holmes – 39
6th (tied) Marc ‘The Roller’ Bazeley – 42
6th (tied) Alan ‘Stormin’ Norman – 42
8th Taji ‘Not Seth’ Rafferty – 44
9th Emily ‘Lemony’ Gottfried – 46
10th Paul ‘Flip Flops’ O’Connor – 50
11th Cat ‘Helter Skelter’ Patterson – 52
12th Lhurlyn 'Hole-ing' Holmes – 59
DNS Madeleine 'The Caddy' Bender
DNS Steve 'F1' Gow

The tournament in full swing

Gareth on hole 1

Brad teeing-off

Chris lining up a putt

Lionel in action

Brad on a tricky obstacle

 

Chris and Lionel putting

Emily on the tee

Marc on a very tough middle hill hole

Emily on the pier

Emily and Olga

Lhurlyn finishing her round with a hole in one

Paul O'Connor on the last hole

The Southend Pier Crazy Golf course is well worth a play and it's a great addition to the entertainment on offer in the town. Visit the Southend Pier Crazy Golf course website for prices and opening times.

The pier Crazy Golf course

Video:
- Southend Pier Crazy Golf course hole in one

Links:
- Southend Pier Crazy Golf website
- Southend Pier Crazy Golf on Facebook

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Southend
- Southend Pier Crazy Golf course

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Minigolf in Sandhamn and Sigtuna, Sweden

I've received more brilliant photos from John Snelgrove from his visits to two miniature golf courses in Sweden.

The first was a 12-hole course in Sandhamn, on an island around 50km from Stockholm.

Sandhamn Minigolf course by John Snelgrove, May 2016

Sandhamn Minigolf course by John Snelgrove, May 2016

Sandhamn Minigolf course by John Snelgrove, May 2016

The second was an 18-hole layout in Sigtuna, Stockholm.

Sigtuna Minigolf course by John Snelgrove, May 2016

Sigtuna Minigolf course by John Snelgrove, May 2016

In April John sent me some great snaps of the snow covered 'Bangolf' minigolf course at the Hellasgården in Nacka, Sweden.

In 2011 Emily and I played for the GB team in the WMF Nations Cup international tournament in Stockholm.

On National Miniature Golf Day this year we played the refurbished Swedish Felt Mini Golf course in Guildford's Stoke Park, and later this month we'll be playing the new Swedish Felt course on the end of Southend Pier.

Links:
- Seglarhotellets minigolf
- Sigtuna minigolf

Related blog posts:
- Sweden
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Stockholm, Sweden (Tantogårdens BGK, Tantolunden Park) - Beton Minigolf
- Stockholm, Sweden (Tantogårdens BGK, Tantolunden Park) - Eternit Minigolf

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Crazy Golf in Stoke Park, Guildford

Back in 2008 the Crazy Golf course in Guildford's Stoke Park became the 75th course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. Last weekend it also became the 399th played. It has certainly changed a lot - even since my last visit in 2012.

The Swedish Felt B-Run course used to be a 12-hole layout. It's now a full 18-holes, and has a very different playing surface - with astroturf 'grass' and raised 'bunkers'. Quite different indeed.

Check out the photos of the new 18-hole Crazy Golf course layout below.

The new 18th hole

The course was built by City Golf Europe

It's a very tricky layout

This hole was nigh on impossible to play!

This one was trickier now it has thicker 'grass'

The longest hole on the course

A loop-di-loop with felt on the outside of the obstacle!

Another very difficult hole to play

The Stoke Park Minigolf course is in a very nice setting. It's worth a play - but don't expect to get a low score!

Our visit this time was as part of the Surrey Invitational Minigolf Tournament that took place on National Miniature Golf Day 2016!

Related blog posts:
- Guildford
- Actual Minigolf Course 75 - Guildford
- Report from the Surrey Invitational Minigolf Tournament 2016
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - List and links for all Miniature Golf courses visited to date

Videos:
- Hole in One at Guildford's Stoke Park Crazy Golf course 1 of 3
- Hole in One at Guildford's Stoke Park Crazy Golf course 2 of 3
- Hole in One at Guildford's Stoke Park Crazy Golf course 3 of 3

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Southend Pier Crazy Golf course

New Miniature Golf course at the end of Southend Pier.

A view of Southend Pier on one of our visits to the seaside resort

There's more great news for fans of minigolf as Southend-on-Sea has a new Crazy Golf course!

The 12-hole layout is situated above the sea itself as it's on the world's longest pleasure pier!

The Southend Pier Crazy Golf course is a Swedish Felt B-Run type of course (this photo is of the course that used to be on South Parade Pier in Southsea, Hampshire) - a nice, colourful and tricky layout 

We love visiting Southend. while attending a family 'do' in the town back in 2003 the Adventure Island course became the first Emily and I played. That's three years before our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour began in Southsea. I also made my competition debut on the national minigolf tour in the town and we've also played the Arnold Palmer Putting Course on the promenade a number of times over the years.

The 'playable' Southend Pier Crazy Golf website looks brilliant too. Do check it out!

Southend Pier is undergoing a redevelopment and as well as the Crazy Golf course there will be a refurbed cafe, pop up shops and a pier postal service - so you can get a special postmark on postcards and other mail sent from the end of the pier. Sounds marvellous.

See the poster below and visit the Southend Pier Crazy Golf course website for prices and opening times. We can't wait to visit and take on the challenge of 'Olga the Octopus'!

Link:
- Southend Pier Crazy Golf website

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Southend
- From the Minigolf Archives - Results of our first-ever game of Adventure Golf against each other!

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.

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