Emily playing the Windmill hole at the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings
Emily continued her good form this season by finishing in a career best position of tied 26th in the World Crazy Golf Championships. Emily scored rounds of 37, 36, 38, 35, 41 and 37 for a total of 224(+8) and recorded nineteen holes-in-one to win ‘The Gommery’ trophy that was awarded for most aces in the tournament.
Emily with The Gommery trophy awarded for most-holes-in-one scored in the World Crazy Golf Championships
Emily playing hole 17 during the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings
Emily said “This weekend has been a real mixed bag. I'm unbelievably pleased to finish in 26th place which is the best I've ever done at the World Crazies by a huge margin as my previous highest finish was 43rd in 2008! I'm also thrilled to pick up The Gommery for most competition Aces. However I had hoped to be the top placed female competitor at this tournament for the first time, but unfortunately I missed that target by two shots. I really enjoyed the weekend and look forward to playing again next year.”
Richard playing hole 2 during the Hole-in-One Charity Challenge at the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings
Richard said “I didn’t score enough aces and shot too many threes to be in with a shout at the title this year. Great play by Emily though as she scored a lot of holes-in-one over the two-days.”
Richard playing hole 4 at the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings
Chris Harding won the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships to become a three-time champion.
Richard was making his seventh appearance and Emily her fifth in the eleventh-annual ‘Castle Golf’ World Crazy Golf Championships.
Richard Gottfried plays hole 2 of the Hastings Crazy Golf course during the hole-in-one charity challenge competition
In the 78-player tournament played on the 18-hole Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course Richard finished in 21st place with Emily in 51st place. The competition was played in tough weather conditions with winds of over 30mph affecting the exposed seafront course.
Richard scored rounds of 45, 37, 35, 41, 44 and 42 for a total of 244 (+28), an average of 40.7 shots per round, and said “I was happy to be making a return to action on the British Minigolf Association Tour and the World Championships after being sidelined with a back injury for much of the season. I was pleased with my play on day two in the very windy conditions, but I let myself down on day one with only one under-par round. As ever the event was fun and certainly interesting with the weather to contend with.”
Emily scored rounds of 45, 43, 39, 45, 41 and 54 for a total of 267 (+51), an average of 44.5 per round, and said “Despite the terrible conditions, and some very poor scoring on my part, I enjoyed the tournament, and wasn’t too disappointed with my 51st place. I’m also really pleased for Olivia to be the first female winner. She played exceptionally well and deserved the victory. I can’t wait to play again next year.”
Richard will be competing at the Kent Open tournament in Sidcup Kent, and the pair will both next be in action at the BMGA British Club Championship at Basingstoke Golf Centre in November. They will be lining up against each other in the tournament as Richard plays for the 2008 National Champions the Midlands Minigolf Club, while Emily is a member of the Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club.
It was taken during the final rounds of the Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings on Sunday 28th October 2012. The dog was one of the most excited members of the crowd at the event! Links:
Tune in to Trans World Sport on Sky Sports this week to watch the feature on the World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings!
This year’s ‘Castle Golf’ World Crazy Golf Championship was filmed for a feature that will be shown on the TV sports show Trans World Sport this week.
From the Trans World Sport programme listing: "This week, time with Belarusian football team BATE Borisov. Plus, meet the stars of the Professional Bull Riding Tour in Texas, and the Crazy Golf World Championships in England."
Trans World Sport will be shown on Sky Sports in the UK on the following days and times:
Richard Gottfried teeing-off in the final of the 2012 'Castle Golf' World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings
In the 53-player Richard reached the final and finished in 17th place overall. In the two-day seven-round tournament played on the 18-hole Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course Richard made the cut to qualify for the final having scored a hole-in-one on the last hole of the qualifying rounds to avoid the need for a play-off to make the final round.
Richard Gottfried playing hole 3 in the final of the 2012 'Castle Golf' World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings
Richard Gottfried - 2012 'Castle Golf' World Crazy Golf Championship Finalist - Photo: BMGA
Following the tournament Richard said “After missing the cut last year I was very pleased to be a World Crazy Golf Championship finalist again. A number of changes were made for this year’s event with new balls introduced, the cups were made smaller and new felt had been laid on some of the holes. This all combined to make the tournament very different to last year and a very tough contest for all the players. It was a great weekend of top quality Crazy Golf and I’m looking forward to the 2013 World Championships already.”
Richard Gottfried playing hole 4 in the final of the 2012 'Castle Golf' World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings
Richard has been a finalist in the World Crazy Golf Championships four times in his six appearances and on each occasion he has finished in 17th place.
Richard Gottfried playing hole 16 in the final of the 2012 'Castle Golf' World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings
The overall winner of the ‘Castle Golf’ World Crazy Golf Championships was Oxford’s Michael Smith who became a two-time champion after retaining the title he won last year.
The World Crazy Golf Championship was the last individual BMGA Tour event for Richard in the 2012 season as he is unable to compete in the Kent Open at Sidcup in November.
Action from the final of the 2012 ‘Castle Golf’ World Crazy Golf Championship that was played on the 18-hole Crazy Golf course in Hastings, East Sussex on Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th October 2012.
Michael Smith managed to retain his title to become a two-time ‘Castle Golf’ World Crazy Golf Champion in the 53-player field.
Check out the links below to view action from the final of the 2012 'Castle Golf' World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings:
To enter the contest all you have to do is head over to the Putter Fingers Facebook page and post a comment on their wall with your caption. The Putter Fingers team will then choose the most entertaining entry to win a minigolf prize!
In the 74 player field Richard finished in 25th place with a six round total score of 210(-6). Emily finished in 51st place with a score of 233(+17) on the 18-hole Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course. Emily also finished 5th in the Castle Golf Women’s World Crazy Golf Championships.
The overall winner of the Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championships was Oxford’s Michael Smith, who defeated Andy Exall and James Rutherford in a sudden-death play-off. Olivia Prokopova from the Czech Republic won the Castle Golf Women’s World Crazy Golf Championships.
Richard scored rounds of 36, 37, 33, 35, 33 and 36 for his 210(-6) total and said “This year’s World Crazy Golf Championships was the closest yet, there were so many players battling to make it into the top 18 and despite my best efforts I couldn’t seem to score enough Aces. Most of my shots were tap-ins for two this weekend so it’s frustrating that more of them didn’t drop in first time. I’ll be back for another crack at the World title next year and can’t wait for it.”
Emily scored rounds of 40, 39, 38, 39, 37 and 40 for her 233(+17) total and said “I was a little disappointed with my performance, although I don’t think the scores accurately represented how I was playing. But it was a fantastic tournament with a nail-biting final round and play-off”.
The Crazy Golf course is an Arnold Palmer Putting Course and is kept in brilliant condition by the team at Hastings Adventure Golf. The course includes great obstacles such as the Windmill and Waterwheel, and is a great test of putting skill. It's my favourite course in the UK.
We were in town getting ready to compete in our first-ever World Crazy Golf Championships where Emily and I were to finish 54th and 39th respectively.
Before the main-event we held our usual Irregular Mini Golf Tour Match-up in which I defeated Emily 86-95 played over a round on both the Crazy Golf course and the Miniature Golf course.
We've since played the course loads of times, both in competition and just for fun.
Video: A walkround the 18-hole Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf in Hastings (September 2010)
The unofficial 'Magazine' for the 2010 Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championships included a piece I wrote about the Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course. Text from the article below: "The Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course in Hastings is a design classic and includes all the elements that make a Crazy Golf course great – the Windmill, the Waterwheel, an Obelisk, ledges, bunkers, traps, flat loops, hills and plateaus – everything laid out to make a course interesting, testing and most of all fun!
Back in 2007 the course became the 39th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. In the last few years we’ve visited and played at 284 minigolf course locations all over the UK, and a few overseas, but of them all, the Hastings Seafront Crazy Golf course is arguably the finest course in the country and a great example of an Arnold Palmer Putting Course, it’s a pleasure to play and a great host venue course for the World’s Biggest Crazy Golf Tournament.
There are plenty of Aces out there, but it’s a course that can trip you up if you’re not careful, in my first competition here I equalled the course record (at the time) of 32(-4), but you can also easily hit a round in the 40s! It’s a great place for a fun round, and also a top location for tournament play, where I’ve had the honour to play on it in the Planet Hastings Crazy Golf Open, the BMGA British Matchplay Championships, and this, my fourth Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championships.
It’s in an excellent location and is well maintained by David and Marion Hartley and their team, and it’s always a pleasure to visit. Here’s to many more years of competition and fun."
I've achieved the rank of 17th in the Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings three times in a row (2008, 2009 and 2010), and with the launch of Peter Parr's new Minigolf Majors Results and Rankings Archive website I decided to have a look at who else achieved the 17th spot before me!
2007 - Nick Chitty 2006 - Stuart Godfrey 2005 - Jan Palmer 2004 - Trevor Exall 2003 - Sam Birkett
.jpg "2014 World Crazy Golf Champion Chris 'Who' Harding on his way to victory in the final round of the tournament played at Hastings Sea Front. Opponents Nuno Cunha (POR) and Adam Kelly (ENG) look on, as do referee John McIver and scorekeeper Adrian Amey")
.jpg "Emily Gottfried playing the Windmill hole at the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings")
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.jpg "Emily Gottfried playing hole 17 at the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings")
.jpg "Richard Gottfried playing hole 2 at the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings")
.jpg "Richard Gottfried playing hole 4 at the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings")
.JPG "Richard Gottfried playing hole 4 in the final of the 2012 'Castle Golf' World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings")
.JPG "Richard Gottfried playing hole 16 in the final of the 2012 'Castle Golf' World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings")
.JPG "Emily Gottfried at the 2008 Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings")
.JPG "Richard Gottfried at the 2008 Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings")
.JPG "2008 Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings")
.JPG "2008 Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings")
.JPG "Richard Gottfried - 17th in the world following the 2008 Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings")