Eternit Miniature Golf in Herne Bay

An old postcard from Herne Bay reveals a miniature golf course.

While at the York International Postcard Expo we found a bumper crop of postcards showing minigolf, crazy golf and putting courses from around the UK, and one from South Africa.

A postcard from the seaside resort of Herne Bay in Kent was an exciting and interesting find as it showed the town was once home to an 'Eternit' style of Miniature Golf course. A lovely piece of minigolf history.

The Eternit Miniature Golf course in the central foreground of the postcard (Herne Bay PT4524). The course was located on the town's Central Parade. The card is postally unused and undated. As the pier suffered fire damage in 1970 the card is from the 1960's. It was produced by Colourmaster International Photo Precision Limited, St Ives, Huntingdon

It's often thought that these 'European standard' Miniature Golf courses, often known as 'Eternit', don't exist in this country. While many have become derelict over time there are examples still standing, though they have often been amended, with a variety of new obstacles added to the 'lanes'. I've got a few other examples in my postcard collection.

We played a version of Eternit Miniature Golf at thecentre:MK a couple of times. This course has had felt added to the concrete playing surface

Unfortunately the Miniature Golf course on Ayr seafront in Scotland is a derelict example of an Eternit course

Herne Bay is still home to a Mini Golf course - it was the 78th course we played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour back in November 2008.

You can find Herne Bay Mini Golf next to the ifun@Sandancers amusement arcade on Central Parade

Links:
- York International Postcard Expo
- Reflections of a Bygone Age
- Picture Postcard Monthly Magazine
- Herne Bay Mini Golf

Related blog posts:
- Postcard
- Postcards
- Herne Bay
- Eternit
- A Putt-Putt Postcard from South Africa

A Putt-Putt Postcard from South Africa

We recently visited York and attended the International Postcard Expo held at the racecourse to see what miniature golf postcards we could find. We found a bumper crop.

We picked up 31 minigolf postcards for our collection at the York CardExpo

The very first postcard we bought at the fair was from Brian Lund of Reflections of a Bygone Age who had saved a great old Putt-Putt card from South Africa for me.

The reverse of the card is stamped from 'Putt-Putt Southdale', a suburb of Johannesburg, and doubles as a FREE game card!

Putt-Putt is the only patented game of miniature golf and began in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1954. In the 1960's Putt-Putt franchises began opening outside of the US, in locations such as the one on the postcard, as well as Australia and Japan. You can read the Putt-Putt story on the Putt-Putt Fun Centres website.

Update 22/04/15: My expert minigolf contact in South Africa PJ Goedhals has been doing some research on the location of the Putt-Putt course shown on the postcard and he tells me that course is not in Johannesburg as I had thought based on the words 'Putt-Putt Southdale' stamped on the reverse.

The location on the front of the card is actually the Putt-Putt miniature golf course at Three Anchor Bay in Moullie Point/Sea Point in Cape Town - PJ's local course! Great to hear that it's still standing. I can't find a website for the course, but it has got a Google+ page.

Looking at the card again it makes sense that one standard postcard/advertising card was produced for marketing purposes and then distributed to all of the Putt-Putt courses in South Africa. So the Southdale location stamped on the reverse of the card is in Johannesburg, but the image is of the course in Cape Town. Many thanks to PJ and his Putt-Putt contacts for the info.

There are currently Putt-Putt courses in a number of US states as well as a competition circuit operated by the Professional Putters Association.

The PPA website has an archive of Putt-Putt World Magazine - a great resource and an interesting read indeed.

Check out MiniatureGolfer.com for details of minigolf courses in South Africa.

Links:
- York International Postcard Expo
- Reflections of a Bygone Age
- Picture Postcard Monthly Magazine
- Putt-Putt Fun Centres
- Professional Putters Association

Related blog posts:
- Postcard
- Postcards