Putt-Putt Germiston in Johannesburg, South Africa

A look at a postcard coupon good for one free round at Putt-Putt Germiston in Johannesburg, South Africa.

I recently bought 50 more postcards for my collection of minigolf cards and among them was this Putt-Putt advertising postcard/coupon. It's not the first version I've seen, but it was still well worth getting as it's such a nice piece of ephemera and minigolf history.

Putt-Putt Golf Courses - South Africa's Premier Putting Courses. A postcard coupon good for one free round at Putt-Putt Germiston, Johannesburg

This postcard is stamped for a free game at 'Putt-Putt Germiston', the other one I have is for 'Putt-Putt Southdale'. Sadly the Germiston location is no longer there.

The reverse of the postcard coupon good for one free round at Putt-Putt Germiston, Johannesburg

My expert minigolf contact from South Africa PJ Goedhals identified the location on the front of the card as the Putt-Putt miniature golf course at Three Anchor Bay in Moullie Point/Sea Point in Cape Town - PJ's local course! Some of my cousins have also visited the course.

A photo of the Three Anchor Bay Putt-Putt course in January last year

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. At one time there were even Putt-Putt courses in the UK. You can read the Putt-Putt story on the Putt-Putt Fun Centers website.

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

Minigolf goodies from across the pond

Check out this brilliant selection of minigolf items from our friends at A Couple of Putts.

Many thanks to Tom and Robin at A Couple of Putts for sending over this great minigolf stuff

A BIG minigolf thank you goes out to Tom and Robin at minigolf review site A Couple of Putts for sending over this fine selection of minigolf scorecards, stickers and other stuff.

A Mini Golf is for EVERYONE bumper sticker designed by Tom and Robin

We love seeing and collecting scorecards and other ephemera and merchandise from miniature golf courses around the world. Seeing these items gives a wonderful insight into the game and also showcases the variety of courses and venues out there. Hopefully we'll get to visit some of them in the future too.

A Big Thrill Factory Mini Golf course scorecard from the 18-hole course in Oakdale, Minnesota

A Big Thrill Factory Mini Golf course scorecard. Check out the course review at A Couple of Putts

A Can Can Wonderland mini golf course sticker from the course in St Paul, Minnesota. Read the course review at A Couple of Putts

A coloring book from Goony Golf of Spring Lake Park in Minnesota. Sadly this venue closed down in July 2017. You can read an extensive history of the location at A Couple of Putts

Three Goony Golf of Spring Lake Park scorecards

Goony Golf of Spring Lake Park scorecards

Scorecard for the Championship course at Goony Golf of Spring Lake Park in Minnesota

Scorecard for the Championship course at Goony Golf of Spring Lake Park in Minnesota

Scorecard for the Executive course 1 at Goony Golf of Spring Lake Park in Minnesota

Scorecard for the Executive course 1 at Goony Golf of Spring Lake Park in Minnesota

Scorecard for the Executive course 2 at Goony Golf of Spring Lake Park in Minnesota

Scorecard for the Executive course 2 at Goony Golf of Spring Lake Park in Minnesota

Sticker from Goony Golf of Spring Lake Park

Scorecard for the Mini Golf course at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). Check out A Couple of Putts for two reviews of the course - including details of the holes they designed and built for the course in 2016 and 2017

Scorecard for the Mini Golf course at the IMA

Scorecard from Pocono Family Golf in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Check out the review at A Couple of Putts

Scorecard from Pocono Family Golf

Scorecard from the Walker Art Center Artist Designed Mini Golf course. Tom and Robin have been involved with this art center and the various incarnations of the minigolf course there for a number of years. Check out the A Couple of Putts website for more info

Scorecard from the Walker Art Center Artist Designed Mini Golf course

Scorecard from the Walker Art Center Artist Designed Mini Golf course

Please do visit the A Couple of Putts website for stacks of course reviews and follow Tom and Robin's adventures on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

Related blog posts:
- A Couple of Putts
- Sparkle City Mini Putt in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Barry Island Resort 1995 Information & Entertainment Guide

A look at the Barry Island Resort 1995 Information & Entertainment Guide.

The Barry Island Resort 1995 Information & Entertainment Guide

As a big fan of the British seaside and traditional holiday entertainment I was pleased to find a Barry Island Resort 1995 Information & Entertainment Guide while sorting through some paperwork at home.

Seeing the Barry Island Resort 1995 Information & Entertainment Guide brought back so many happy memories.

My family used to go on holiday to Barry Island in the late 80's and 90's and loved it there. The holiday camp was absolutely marvellous, with everything from swimming to Crazy Golf, to snooker and darts, to the fun fair and more - all free of charge once you had checked in. My brother's and I would spend hours going from one activity to another and then spend the evening in the arcades playing games such as Blasteroids, Xybots, Double Dragon and Wardner. Halcyon days.

Check out the six-page Barry Island Resort 1995 Information & Entertainment Guide. As a former holidaymaker at the camp, fan of the British seaside, postcard collector and marketer it makes for interesting reading - especially some of the adverts!

What a cover

There was always so much to do at Barry Island

The entertainment continues

Back when you could still advertise cigarettes!

A great bit of marketing and use of a postcard image

I spent many an hour at building 5 - Princes Ballroom as that's where the Crazy Golf, snooker and arcade was 

Barry Island Resort was originally a Butlin's holiday camp in 1966 and was re-opened as a Majestic holiday camp in the 1980's. Sadly it closed for good in 1996 and was demolished to make way for housing.

I've returned to Barry Island - in 2009 and 2010. Apart from the disappearance of the holiday camp there were some new attractions, but the resort was still recognisable from the 90's. I'll have to return for another look as the last eight years since our last visit has flown by!

Barry Island in 2010

Outside the gates of the former holiday camp

Related blog posts:
- 45 minutes on Barry Island
- Minigolf Course Visit No. 121 - Barry Island / Ynys y Barri
- Barry Island
- Holiday Camp
- Postcards
- Butlin's

Indoor glow in the dark minigolf in Brighton

Finding out about Jurassic Globalls indoor glow in the dark minigolf in Brighton.

It's always brilliant to see new minigolf courses opening and even better to hear they are doing well. One such new minigolf course is Jurassic Globalls, an indoor glow in the dark course in Brighton. We haven't been to Brighton for a few years, but really ought to so we can play the new course and see what's changed down there. In the meantime the team at Globalls were kind enough to send me the first scorecard they ever printed for my collection of minigolf ephemera and merchandise in the Crazy Golf Museum. It looks great.

The scorecard at Jurassic Globalls is nice, big, colourful and high quality

I've been told the course record for the 12-hole course currently stands at 19 shots, with the average score coming in at the 50 shots mark!

The reverse of the scorecard shows the Globalls Course Rules

You can find Jurassic Globalls at Unit 8, Ground Floor, Mermaid Walk, The Waterfront, Brighton Marina BN2 5WA. Visit the Jurassic Globalls website for more information, opening times and prices.

Emily and I are looking forward to having a crack at the course on our next trip to Brighton on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We've played minigolf at Brighton Marina before - on an Adventure Golf course which had one of the smallest holes we've ever seen!

Do give Jurassic Globalls a follow on social media too as I've seen they run quite a few competitions to win free rounds and other fun stuff.

Related blog posts:
- Scorecards
- Dinosaurs
- Brighton
- Indoor Minigolf

Links:
- Jurassic Globalls website
- Jurassic Globalls on Twitter
- Jurassic Globalls on Facebook
- Jurassic Globalls on Instagram
- The Crazy Golf Museum

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. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

Pirate Flyer Laser Gun Monorail in Blackpool

Riding a monorail inside Blackpool's Coral Island amusement arcade.

The Pirate Flyer monorail in Blackpool

I'm a big fan of seaside Amusement Arcades, Monorails and Laser Tag. So when I first saw the Pirate Flyer Laser Gun Monorail ride at the Coral Island Amusements in Blackpool back in 2009 I was amazed.

Can you spot Emily in the crowd below the monorail?

On our recent return to the seaside resort I had to have another go on it.

Well worth a go if you're in Blackpool

Unfortunately the guns in our Monorail car didn't work and no scores were given. And there was a fairly long queue for the £2 ride. But it was still fun to ride the rail above the crowds of people enjoying the arcade games below.

A nice bit of ephemera

There's a blacklit tunnel section of the ride

Coral Island is one of my favourite amusement arcades - and we've visited a LOT of arcades on our travels to over 200 seasides in the UK

Related blog posts:
- Monorail
- Amusement Arcades
- Blackpool

Link:
- Coral Island, Blackpool

Video:
- Pirate Flyer laser monorail ride at Coral Island in Blackpool

Minigolf collectables from the Lost City Adventure Golf course in Nottingham

As my friends, family and regular readers of the blog will know, I'm a BIG fan of minigolf merchandise and ephemera.

The Lost City Adventure Golf course in Nottingham is a great place for minigolf ephemera

On our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour travels we've collected hundreds of scorecards, leaflets, postcards, pencils, balls, badges, t-shirts, tokens and whatnots.

The great branded scorecards and coasters at the Lost City Adventure Golf in Nottingham

A classic way to encourage repeat visits in the miniature golf business is to employ a 'Lucky Last Hole' where, as a bonus, you can try and win a free game - we've played a fair few on our travels, and won on some of them.

You're very likely to find a 'Top Hole' on an Arnold Palmer Putting Course and the Free Game Cards are great. They're well made and often draw on the history of the putting franchise.

In this day and age most courses that give out free games for Lucky Last Hole wins use a paper or card based 'token', and very few still give metal coins to winners.

Except for the Lost City Adventure Golf course in Nottingham. If you're skilled - and lucky - enough you might just win a piece of treasured Inca Gold!

The Lost City Adventure Golf's Temple Trail and Sacred Skull Pass courses were the 330th and 331st we played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. The 36-hole indoor layout has two Lucky Last Holes - both are actually the 18th hole of the course, rather than standalone holes.

The lucky last hole on the Sacred Skull Trail

The 18th Top Hole on the Temple Trail course

When we've played as members of the general public we've not been able to master the lucky last holes at Nottingham, and when we've played there in national tour competitions we've only used one course and skipped the 18th, replaying the 1st hole instead. So unfortunately we've never won a free game there.

I did win a bronze medal at the Midlands Invitational Tournament at the course last year though

But the team at the Lost City were kind enough to send me a nice package that contained a branded pen and two magnificent tokens in a cardboard slip case. Fantastic additions to my collection.

Two pieces of prized Inca Gold from Nottingham

A nice Lost City branded pen

What's more, the Lost City Adventure Golf also has it's own handstamp applied to its mail! Absolutely brilliant to see. There aren't nearly enough minigolf stamps, postmarks or handstamps in circulation.

The Lost City Adventure Golf have really gone to town on their branding - on our travels to 675 courses it's the only place we've seen with an Adventure Golf table! Marvellous.

The theming in Nottingham is brilliant

Check out the Lost City Adventure Golf's website for more details, opening times and prices.

The Lost City Adventure Golf course is well worth a visit

Links:
- The Lost City Adventure Golf
- The Crazy Golf Museum

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Ephemera
- Merchandise
- Token
- Tokens
- The Lost City Adventure Golf at The Cornerhouse in Nottingham
- Revisiting The Lost City Adventure Golf course in Nottingham
- A gift from Paradise

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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