Gravitee Adventure Golf in Oxford

A visit to Gravitee Adventure Golf at the Ozone Leisure Park in Oxford.

Gravitee Adventure Golf in Oxford

We were recently back in my home town of Abingdon-on-Thames for a special Bun Throwing event and while down south took the opportunity to swing by the new Gravitee Adventure Golf courses at the Ozone Leisure Park next to the Kassam Stadium in Oxford.

Gravitee Adventure Golf is home to two 18-hole courses - the Space Odyssey and the Galactic Explorers - and they became the 852nd and 853rd visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Gravitee Adventure Golf is the sister course of The Golfing Hole in Swindon. We had a brilliant time playing that layout back in January 2015.

The new Gravitee Adventure Golf layouts are superb and we had two fun rounds there.

A very smaller crater to putt through

It was the first time in over twenty years that I had a game of minigolf with my parents! It's amazing to think that Emily and I have visited so many courses in the last twelve years, but not had a game during our travels.

A pair of Galactic Explorers on the course

The matches were very close, with my dad Chris taking an early lead on the Space Odyssey course, before a disastrous seven on the tenth hole put a dent in his hopes of winning.

Emily took the victory on the Space Odyssey layout with a round of 47. I shot a 49, Chris a 53 and my mum Mary carded a 56. Emily and my dad were the only players to hit a hole-in-one, both acing the 18th.

Moving on to the Galactic Explorers course and Emily took a fine win with a score of 42. I was second again with a round of 46, while my mum and dad both shot rounds of 50.

Almost a hole-in-one by what looks like Zaphod Beeblebrox!

The stargate

Putting on the Galactic Explorers course at Gravitee Golf

We really enjoyed our competitive and fun rounds on the Gravitee Golf courses and had a drink in the bar area to cool off after the games. I also had a game of Air Hockey against my dad, which I won 7-4.

The theming at the indoor Adventure Golf venue is fantastic. The courses were built by the team at HM Adventure Golf. The Martian landscape on the Galactic Explorers course is incredibly well done, while the UV glow-in-the-dark section of the Space Odyssey course is the best I've seen on my travels.

 

Hole 12 starts inside the spaceship

The 'green' of hole 12

Check out the Gravitee Adventure Golf website for more details, opening times and prices.

There are three holes to play inside the crashed spaceship on the Galactic Explorers course

Playing on the alien planet

Inside the ship

At the controls of the crashed ship

Related blog posts:
- Oxford
- The Golfing Hole, Swindon
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Links:
- Gravitee Adventure Golf
- HM Adventure Golf

Junkyard Golf in Oxford

A visit to Junkyard Golf in Oxford.

On Friday 9th November we swung by Junkyard Golf in my home city of Oxford.

Junkyard Golf Oxford is home to three 9-hole indoor Crazy Golf courses - 'Gary' is a scrapyard challenge, 'Bozo' is a circus-themed course and 'Pablo' is jungle-themed.

Junkyard Golf began in my new home city of Manchester and there are now also Junkyard Golf courses in London and Leeds.

You can find Junkyard Golf Oxford in the Westgate Social Street Food section of the Westgate shopping centre.

Check out the Junkyard Golf website for more details, opening times and prices.

Related blog posts:
- Junkyard Golf
- Oxford

Abingdon Bun Throwing on the 10th November 2018

Check out my post about my home town of Abingdon's latest Bun Throwing event over on my other blog at the World of Bun Throwing.

Bun Throwing in Abingdon

The latest in a long line of Bun Throwing events took place in Abingdon-on-Thames at 2pm on Saturday 10th November.

The special Bun Throwing brought people together to commemorate the end of the hostilities of World War One and celebrated the return of the soldiers at the end of the conflict.

Knights Realm Adventure Golf in Basingstoke

The new 18-hole Knights Realm Adventure Golf course recently opened in Basingstoke.

You can find the Knights Realm Adventure Golf course at Basingstoke Golf Centre

Check out the Knights Realm Adventure Golf course website for more info.

It's another course we'll have to visit on our seemingly never-ending quest to visit every minigolf course in the UK. When we began in 2006 there were 600 courses. To date we've visited 853, including 38 courses overseas.

Galactic Golf in Halifax

A new indoor Crazy Golf course recently opened in Halifax - Galactic Golf.

Galactic Golf has two space themed 18-hole courses

Check out the Galactic Golf website for more info.

It's another course we'll have to visit on our never-ending quest to visit every minigolf course in the UK. When we began in 2006 there were 600 courses. To date we've visited 853, including 38 courses overseas.

Luckily, it's not a million miles from us and we'll have to swing by when we're next in the area.

Caddyshackers Crazy Crazy Golf in Leicester

A new 18-hole indoor Crazy Golf course recently opened in Leicester - Caddyshackers Crazy Crazy Golf.

Check out the Caddyshackers Crazy Crazy Golf course website for more info.

It's another course we'll have to visit on our seemingly never-ending quest to visit every minigolf course in the UK. When we began in 2006 there were 600 courses. To date we've visited 853, including 38 courses overseas.

Invasion of Manchester

Searching out Invader street art in Manchester.

MAN_16 - 10 points - my favourite

As a fan of retro videogames, tickable lists and urban exploration it's been brilliant to go 'Invader Hunting' in Manchester over the last year.

A Super Mario Invader - MAN_17 - 30 points

French street artist Invader visited the city in 2004 and put up 47 pieces of mosaic tile art with a total points value of 970. They look superb.

Yesterday I managed to find the last of the Invaders currently in place in Manchester.

Invader Hunter

This was MAN_27 and a reactivation of a piece made by Invader in 2004. Unfortunately some of the Invaders have been destroyed or stolen, while some of the buildings the Invaders were on have been knocked down entirely!

The reactivated Invader MAN_27

To date I've managed to snap 37 Invaders on the Flash Invaders app - worth 770 points. I've also visited the locations of some of the destroyed / removed Invaders. Check out my Instagram profile to see more of them.

One of the large 50 pointers - MAN_45

I've seen some of the bootlegs / homages too.

Not an Invader. This is the work of _manic_

Looking for the Space Invaders has been brilliant fun. Along with Emily we've seen a lot of the city we wouldn't necessarily have explored if we weren't Invader Hunting. It's always nice to be on a leaderboard for something too.

I've got a way to go before I'll be troubling the top 100

The first Invader I spotted in Manchester that reminded me that they existed - and got me hooked on finding more - was MAN_08 on Withy Grove Stores on Dantzic Street.

A classic

We've also snapped a few Invaders down in London and recently saw most of the Invaders in Newcastle.

To date Invader has invaded 77 cities around the world, putting up 3692 pieces. We're hoping to visit Paris where he's put up 1371 Invaders!

Check out the Invader website for more information.

Alex Ellison's Flickr page, Invader-Spotter and a whole host of people on Instagram have been very helpful in finding some of the more out of the way and hidden Invaders

Forgotten Garden Adventure Golf at The Alnwick Garden

A look at the Forgotten Garden Adventure Golf course in The Alnwick Garden at Alnwick Castle.

The Fogotten Garden Adventure Golf course has some huge obstacles and decorations

Charter member of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour Christopher Gottfried has added another course visit to his list as he recently spotted the Forgotten Garden Adventure Golf course in The Alnwick Garden while on a trip to Alnwick Castle in Northumberland.

An oversized club, ball and spider at the miniature golf course

At least the signmaker didn't forget

A Tremor-sized worm!

Check out the Forgotten Garden Adventure Golf website for more details.

Some nice big toadstool obstacles on the course

We're looking forward to playing the Forgotten Garden Adventure Golf and a visit to The Alnwick Garden - they've got a Poison Garden there! Intriguing.

Alnwick Castle

Christopher Gottfried has now been to 24 minigolf courses on his part of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, including courses in Turkey, Spain, Italy, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, France and Indonesia!

Link:
- The Alnwick Garden

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Fore Play Crazy Golf in Glasgow

There's a new indoor Crazy Golf course in Glasgow.

A new 9-hole indoor Crazy Golf course recently opened in Glasgow - Fore Play Crazy Golf.

Check out the Fore Play Crazy Golf website for more info.

It's another course we'll have to visit on our never-ending quest to visit every minigolf course in the UK. When we began in 2006 there were 600 courses. To date we've visited 853, including 38 courses overseas.

Glo Crazy in Harlow, Essex

We recently heard there's an indoor Crazy Golf course in Harlow, Essex.

The 12-hole UV glow in the dark Crazy Golf course is called Glo Crazy and can be found at the Q Entertainment centre in the town.

Check out the Glo Crazy website for more info.

It's another course we'll have to visit on our never-ending quest to visit every minigolf course in the UK. When we began in 2006 there were 600 courses. To date we've visited 853, including 38 courses overseas.

Teezers Crazy Golf in Coventry

There's a new indoor Crazy Golf course opening in Coventry this month, it's called Teezers.

Check out the Teezers Coventry Facebook page for more info.

It's another course we'll have to visit on our seemingly never-ending quest to visit every minigolf course in the UK. When we began in 2006 there were 600 courses. To date we've visited 853, including 38 courses overseas.

Crazy Golf in Dunoon

A look at the Crazy Golf course in Dunoon, Scotland.

Many thanks to Martin Evans, head of the Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society, for sending over this snap of the Crazy Golf course in Dunoon. It's a course we're yet to visit!

By a strange coincidence Telegraph Pole Appreciation Day and Miniature Golf Day are both on the 21st of September each year. Who would've thought there'd be so much crossover between the two hobbies.

You can view a post about the telegraph poles Martin found on his trip on the Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society website.

88 years since the first National Tom Thumb Golf Championship took place

Celebrating 88 years since the first National Tom Thumb Championship was contested in Chattanooga.

Garnet Carter created the first artificial miniature golf course in the USA in 1926. The first of the 'Tom Thumb Golf' brand of miniature golf course was an 18-hole layout located near Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

By 1930 there were some 25,000 miniature golf courses in the USA, 3,000 of which were the now patented Tom Thumb course franchises.

The course and fantasy theming soon caught the imagination of visitors and on the 23rd October 1930 the final of the first-ever National Tom Thumb Championship took place.

Qualifying events had taken place in all of the then 48 states of the USA, with 200 players representing 30 states in the grand final. The event had a total cash fund of $10,000, with the champion winning $2,000!

We haven't played a Tom Thumb Golf course on our travels, but we do have some nice old postcards of Tom Thumb courses in our collection. This one is of a course at Westende Bains in Belgium

Today hundreds of tournaments take place around the world and the game is experiencing a real boom.

Check out the Crazy Golf Museum website for more details of minigolf history.

Mini Golf at Brodick, Isle of Arran

A view of the Crazy Golf course at Brodick, Isle of Arran.

Stockport-based artist Eamonn Murphy recently stumped us on Twitter when he challenged us to identify a Crazy Golf course he had visited.

What a location for a course

We had no idea it was the course at The Taste of Arran Shop & Mini Golf in Brodick, Isle of Arran.

It looks like a cracking layout with some wonderful views. We can't wait to play it.

Like buses, you don't see the Crazy Golf course in Brodick in twelve years of minigolfing and then two people tell you about the course! Check out Martin Evans photo of the course in this guest blog post.

Crazy Golf at Brodick, Isle of Arran

A look at the Crazy Golf course at Brodick, Isle of Arran.

A big thank you to Martin Evans, founder of the Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society, for sending over this photo of the Crazy Golf course at Brodick on the Isle of Arran. It's a course we're yet to visit and it looks marvellous!

What a colourful layout

You can find the course at The Taste of Arran Shop & Mini Golf.

By a strange coincidence Telegraph Pole Appreciation Day and Miniature Golf Day are both on the 21st of September each year. Who would've thought there'd be so much crossover between the two hobbies.

You can view a post about the telegraph poles Martin found on his trip on the society website.

Like buses, you don't see the Crazy Golf course in Brodick in twelve years of crazy golfing and then two people tell you about the course! Check out Eamonn Murphy's photo of the course in this guest blog post.

Guide to constructing a minigolf course from Mini Golf Ltd

Stan Stoyanov of Mini Golf Ltd. recently got in touch offering a free intro guide to constructing a minigolf course. Take a look at the PDF.

It's an interesting look into what goes into bringing a miniature golf course to life!

Stan Stoyanov and Mini Golf Ltd. are based in Sofia, Bulgaria and you can see a gallery of courses on the website.

38 of the 847 courses we've visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour have been overseas, but we haven't been to Bulgaria. Yet.

Links:
- Miniature Golf Plans
- Free Guide from Mini Golf Ltd