Celebrating 18 years of our minigolf adventures.
My free game card from Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea - never used! |
A blog about our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. With a sprinkling of nostalgia and urban exploration for good measure.
My free game card from Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea - never used! |
Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea |
My free game card from Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea - never used! |
Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea |
My free game card from Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea - never used! |
Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea |
Some of the Covid-19 signage at the course |
Times have certainly changed in the last 15 years! |
A closer look at some of the Covid-19 signage and measures in place at the course |
We played the Victory Trail course at Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea, Hampshire on this day in 2006. At the end of our round on Saturday 30th September I won a free game by firing the cannon on the lucky last hole.
Our minigolfing adventures have been rolling ever since!
How different would our lives have been if I'd missed my shot on the final hole? |
We last played the Treasure Island Adventure Golf course in Southsea on the 30th September 2016 to celebrate ten years of our travels. I won another free game then too. I also won a free game when we revisited the course on the fifth anniversary of our tour on the 30th September 2011. Incredibly I won again on the 7th August 2015.
Joining us on that first course visit was my brother Christopher. He's also played a fair few courses on his own branch of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. The latest being the Alton Water Mini Golf course in Ipswich, Suffolk. That brought the combined total course visits to 982!
We've now visited 956 courses, 39 of which have been overseas.
When our travels began in 2006 there were around 600 courses in the UK.
Minigolf has grown in popularity and has moved from only being a traditional outdoor seaside summer activity to become a year-round game that can be played indoors, outdoors and at pretty much any time of the day.
A number of new courses have come and gone during the last decade and we have been to a number of pop-up courses too. There are still new courses being planned, developed, built and opened.
When we first set out to visit all the courses in the country there were only two indoor courses, one in Felixstowe and one in Great Yarmouth. Both are still open and have been joined by around 100 other indoor minigolf venues!
We visited our 900th course overall when we played the North Bay Mini Golf course in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in June 2019.
North Bay Crazy Golf in Scarborough |
We visited our 900th course in the UK when we played the indoor Pirates Cove Adventure Golf course at the New York Thunderbowl in Kettering, Northamptonshire last December.
Pirates Cove Adventure Golf in Kettering |
Before the coronavirus pandemic we were closing in on visiting the final 40 courses of the original 600 we set out to play in 2006. We're also very close to hitting 1,000 course visits overall.
We had a very strong start to the year and visited 20 courses in the first 20 days of 2020.
We've been to a total of 46 courses this year. Fifteen of those are new courses added to our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour total and eight of them have been visited in the time of coronavirus.
It'll be interesting to see whether we'll be able to get down to Southsea to celebrate the 15th anniversary of our minigolfing tour next year.
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It got underway 14 years ago tomorrow.
On the 30th September 2006 I won a free game card on the lucky last hole at the Treasure Island Adventure Golf course in Southsea, Hampshire and our adventures rolled on from there!
Playing the Treasure Island Adventure Golf course in 2016 |
We've now been to 956 courses on our travels.
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A pirate lavvy? |