Happy April Fools' Day!

Happy April Fools' Day!

Did you get reeled in by our egg-shaped minigolf story or not?

A spoof story about an egg-shaped golf ball on April Fools' Day AND Easter Sunday was impossible to resist

New regulation minigolf ball

We've heard there's going to be a new shape of golf ball allowed in minigolf tournaments - it's oval!

The egg-shaped ball will certainly add to the unpredictable nature of Crazy Golf tournaments.

Who knows who hatched the ingenious plan to inject more fun into the sport of minigolf. Hopefully we'll find out later today

Popular in our antipodes, the balls are used for the game of Golf Cross aka Kiwi Ball and enjoyed a short trial run at Adventure Island Mini Golf in Birmingham back in 2013 thanks to minigolf star Tiger Pragnell. Unfortunately the test event ended prematurely with myself and team-mate Adam Kelly in the lead. I'm looking forward to using the ball again - even though it rendered any course notes irrelevant with it's ludicrous bounce and roll.

There are thousands of different specialist minigolf balls available for use in tournament play, with hundreds more produced each year. I own a fair few - including a special Ball of Fame created to celebrate the second time the Midlands Minigolf Club won the British Club Championships

With the sport gaining momentum down under it's little surprise that the strange new ball is going to be used in competitions more often. The New Zealand Mini Golf Federation recently hosted the second NZ Minigolf Open competition at Lilliputt's T Rex Alley and Safari mini golf on Tamaki Drive in Auckland. The pro event was won by Australia's Allan 'The Putter King' Cox.

I bet my mate, minigolf rival and North West rugby correspondent Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley will be pleased to hear about the move too.

We've played quite a few variants of 'golf' including most kinds of miniature golf, although we're yet to play the Putt Putt brand of the game. Some of the versions include Pitch & Putt, FootGolf, Crazy Golf Pool, FootPool and Pit-Pat.

The Midlands Minigolf Club Ball of Fame

The Midlands Minigolf Club has a Ball of Fame!

Following the Midlands Minigolf Club's victory in the BMGA British Club Championships this year the club had the honour of producing a Ball of Fame to mark the achievement.

The Midlands Minigolf Club's Ball of Fame!

The Midlands Minigolf Club (MMGC) was formed in 2005 and are two-time national team champions, winning the title for the first-time at Stratford-upon-Avon in 2008 and regaining the title in Hastings in March.

Playing in the national final in Hastings

I'm proud to have been a member of the MMGC since my debut season in 2007 and have been a member of both winning teams alongside Chris Harding (2008), John Moore (2008 & 2015), Jam Trubridge (2008), Michael Smith (2015) and Seth Thomas (2015).

The winning Midlands MGC team of Seth Thomas, John Moore, Michael Smith and Richard Gottfried

The Midlands Minigolf Club's Ball of Fame (BoF) was produced by 3D Minigolf in Germany. Details of other Balls of Fame can be found on the 3D Minigolf website.

When playing in minigolf-sport competitions players can choose to use a wide-variety of specialist balls. Each has a a different property in terms of hardness, weight, bounce, surface and size. In the last 70 years more than 10,000 minigolf balls have been produced!

The Midlands Minigolf Club's BoF has the following properties: Bounce 5cm, Shore 37, Weight 45g. It's a low bounce ball and is slightly softer than average. It's good for direct shots and our club captain Michael Smith has highlighted some holes on the Pirate Golf course in Hastings and the Star City Adventure Golf course in Birmingham where it could be useful. The MMGC BoF costs £15. To secure one of the limited edition balls please get in touch via the MMGC's Facebook page.

The MMGC consists of a dedicated group of crazy minigolfers from around Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the USA. For more information check out the club's Facebook, Twitter, and other MMGC-related blog posts.

The 2015 BMGA British Club Champions in Hastings. From l-r Seth Thomas, Michael Smith, Brenda Smith, Paul Johnson, Owen Johnson, Richard Gottfried, John Moore, Chris Smith

Around the world there are over 900 minigolf clubs and 38,000 competitive minigolf players registered with the World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) via the 55 member nations. For further info on the sport of minigolf and essential kit and equipment check out the WMF's Starting out in Minigolf guide.

Links:
- Midlands Minigolf Club on Facebook
- Midlands Minigolf Club on Twitter
- 3D Minigolf 

Related blog posts:
- Midlands Minigolf Club
- Crazy about Mini Golf Balls
- Minigolf Clubs in the UK

Some new minigolf kit from Fun-Sports

Updating my putter for the 2015 minigolf sport season.

A new putter rubber and a fancy looking ball 'picker upper' ready to add to my Fun-Sports Minigolf Sport Putter ready for the new season

Link:
- Fun-Sports website
- Fun-Sports on Facebook

Related blog posts:
- Crazy about Mini Golf Balls
- UK Mini Golf Competitions in 2015
- “Mr October” on a Minigolf Calendar!
- New (Minigolf) Balls Please
- What's in a Minigolf Kitbag?

Crazy about Mini Golf Balls

A blog about golf balls.

Practicing for the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Open - one of them went in. Eventually

As an avid collector of ephemera and souvenirs from the world of miniature golf I was interested to recently receive a follow on Twitter from Martyn Vallance @Logo_Golf_Balls.

Martyn is crazy about golf balls and has a collection of over 70,000!

Before I mentioned it, Martyn didn't realise there were quite so many specialist balls used in the sport of minigolf (not many people do unless they dip their toe into the sporty side of crazy golf).

Over 10,000 minigolf sport balls have been produced in the last 70 years!

With a Metro Golf Centre Mini Golf branded golf ball on a visit to play the 9-hole course in Barnet in 2010

Each minigolf sport ball has special qualities that allow for a variety of shots to be played on the range of different courses and obstacles - the balls range from 'dead' where there is no bounce, through to super bouncy balls for multiple rebounds.

A selection of minigolf sport balls I took to a recent tournament weekend in Hastings

Together with my fellow curator of the Virtual Crazy Golf Museum, Tim 'Ace Man' Davies, we've built up quite a collection of stuff from all types of minigolf, from scorecards, pencils, leaflets and postcard, to pin badges, tokens, jigsaw puzzles and games. Tim has even found a sugar cube from a minigolf course!

We've also got a lot of balls between us. Check out the 'Other Miniature Golf Ephemera' page on the Crazy Golf Museum website for more info and pics.

A set of four golf balls from the KISS Glow-in-the-Dark Indoor Minigolf course in Las Vegas

I've also had a look through my collection and dug out the following 'normal' golf balls that are branded with minigolf-specific info and/or are tournament approved balls. I've also picked out a selection of my favourite minigolf sport balls.

The other side of a KISS by Monster Mini Golf ball

A World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) approved competition ball

The other side of a special WMF branded ball given to delegates at the WMF Media Workshop in Vienna, Austria in 2010

A British Minigolf Association golf ball used at the 2013 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings

The other side of the World Crazy Golf Championship ball

A ball from the Japanese Putter King minigolf franchise and app

The other side of the Putter King minigolf ball

The official ball of the World Crazy Golf Championship 2014

A ball from the mini-golf course that was in Devonshire Square, London in 2009

A ball given to people who played the Lyle & Scott 'Wooly Golf' course in Covent Garden, London in 2012

The official ball of the 2008 Nations Cup minigolf tournament in Tampere, Finland - the event was me and Emily's debut for the Great Britain team 

The official ball of the 2011 World Adventure Golf Masters competition held in Hastings. The ball was made by 3D-Minigolf

The Finnish Heavy Gentlemen 100 Year Anniversary ball by 3D-Minigolf

The Minigolfnews.com ball #5 by Ravensburg

A Tim 'Ace Man' Davies Legends ball by M&G

A NIFO 2 minigolf sport ball - a great ball to use on many minigolf lanes (holes). Made by NIFO

A Fun-Sports 2 ball - there are a number of Fun-Sports balls and they're a good entry level type of ball to use

In 2009 I won the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Open minigolf competition held on the 12-hole Adventure Golf course in the seaside resort. The trophy I was presented for winning the tournament was a magnificent and BIG golf ball mounted on a wooden plinth

Check out the @Logo_Golf_Balls to keep up-to-date with Martyn's collection as it continues to grow, as well as The Crazy Golf Museum for all things mini and crazy golf-related.

Links:
- @Logo_Golf_Balls
- The Crazy Golf Museum
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Related blog posts:
- New (Minigolf) Balls Please
- What's in a Minigolf Kitbag?
- Some new minigolf kit from Fun-Sports
- Ephemera
- Merchandise

New (Minigolf) Balls Please...

At the BMGA British Open tournament last weekend I picked up five new minigolf balls for my kitbag.


Among them was the new Tim 'Ace Man' Davies Legends Ball, which I look forward to testing out on the greens at Strokes in Margate, and on the Ace Man's home course at Planet Hastings.


My minigolf kitbag has certainly grown since March 2008.


Which ball would ace the hole now?

I also picked up some Camouflage Golf Balls today, they'll be interesting to use!?