Crazy Golf in Wales

A look at names for the game of minigolf in Wales.

We love visiting Wales and have visited most of the minigolf courses in the country. We were supposed to have a holiday there back in March and one of the towns we planned to visit was Porthmadog.

On our minigolf road-trip around Wales in 2009 we arrived in Porthmadog just as the three miniature golf courses there were closing so were looking forward to finally playing them this year.

Golff Giamocs

Last week I posted this question on our Facebook Page - where did we see this sign and what does Golff Giamocs mean?

Giamocs means a number of things, but doesn't necessarily translate directly as 'crazy'

Some of the responses were very interesting as they gave us even more meanings when translated into English as 'Giamocs' can mean tricks, gimmick, prank, stunt and a joke.

All quite apt ways to describe Crazy Golf.

Ways to say minigolf in Welsh

We've seen a number of names for the game on signs and scorecards at courses.

Adventure Golf = Golff Anturus

Crazy Golf = Golff Gwyllt

Crazy Golf = Golff Giamocs

Crazy Golf = Golff Gwallgof

Crazy Golf = Golff Gwirion

Minigolf = Minigolff

Mini Golf = Golff Bach

Mini Golf = Golff Mini

Miniature Golf = Maes Golff

Miniature Golf Course = Cwrs Golff Bach

Pitch and Putt = Golff Byr

Putting Green = Llain Bytio

Golf = Golff

Course = Cwrs

Bach = Small

Maes = Field

Giamocs = Tricks / Gimmick / Prank / Stunt / a joke

Gwallgof = Crazy

Gwirion = Stupid

Gwyllt = Wild

Types of minigolf courses

Since our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour began in September 2006 we have visited and played minigolf in a number of forms, names and guises.

Definitions of minigolf

There are a number of different names for the game of minigolf. While there are some design standards for courses, most would be regarded as 'fantasy' courses where the end result is limited only by imagination, budgets and building regulations.

You can see the common names for the game of putting in this Definitions of minigolf blog post.

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Crazy World of Minigolf Tour update - June 2020

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic we were closing in on visiting the final 40 courses of the original 600 we set out to play in 2006. We're also very close to hitting 1,000 course visits overall.

Before the lockdown hit and our out-of-home putting was paused we'd visited 948 courses since September 2006.

We'd had a strong start to the year and visited 20 courses in the first 20 days of 2020.

We went to Wythenshawe Park just over the border in Manchester for our daily outdoor exercise on Sunday 21st June and revisited the Crazy Golf we first played in 2009. While there we also visited the currently closed Pitch & Putt Miniature Golf course. That became course visit 949 and the first new course since the pandemic hit.

During the lockdown I've been taking a look at minigolf and competitive socialising in the time of coronavirus and social distancing. You can read more in my post at 'The Coronavirus (Ham & Egger) Files'.

The Crazy World of Minigolf Tour before and during the lockdown

Last new course played before the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown - CLUB GOLF pop-up minigolf in King's Cross, London. 25th February 2020.

Last course played before the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown - Junkyard Golf at First Street in Manchester. 9th March 2020.

Last course visited before the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown - The Lost Valley Adventure Golf at Amazonia in the Market Place Shopping Centre, Bolton. 14th March 2020.

First course we visited on a daily walk that we saw with social distancing measures - Bruntwood Pitch & Putt in Cheadle Hulme. 23rd May 2020.

First previously played course visited during the Coronavirus pandemic - Crazy Golf at Wythenshawe Park in Manchester. 21st June 2020.

First new course visited during the Coronavirus pandemic - Pitch & Putt at Wythenshawe Park in Manchester. 21st June 2020.

Social distancing minigolf

We're interested in seeing examples of Covid-19 social distancing at minigolf courses around the world - from signage to scorecards we'd like to see them and share them.

If you're a course owner, minigolf club or player please do get in touch with your examples.

New courses opening

It's been good to hear that new miniature golf courses are still being planned, designed and built ready for the future.

We've found out about the following developments during lockdown.

• Construction is underway on Adventure Golf courses at Fairhaven Lake in Lytham St Annes.
• Work is nearing completion on the Woodland Adventure Golf course at China Fleet Country Club in Saltash, Cornwall.
• The Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club has been created in Bristol, with online Putt at Home activities taking place ahead of the building of a new Crazy Golf course.
• A new Ghetto Golf course could be heading to Sheffield.
• A new indoor Mini Golf venue is opening Birmingham.
• A new Mini Golf course has been installed at Sea Acres Holiday Park at Kennack Sands in Cornwall.
• A new Roxy Ball Room is being created at Withy Grove in Manchester, it'll be home to a minigolf course.
• And a new Adventure Golf course could be built in Andover, Hampshire.

If you know of any other new minigolf courses opening or are planning to create one please do let us know.

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NO GOLF signs in Poynton

We saw a number of NO GOLF signs on our daily walk in Poynton yesterday.

NO GOLF in Poynton

NO GOLF ALLOWED in this Poynton Park

A closer look at the NO GOLF ALLOWED sign

  

A NO GOLF ALLOWED sign at the top of the steps leading from the Middlewood Way in Poynton

A faded NO GOLF ALLOWED sign next to the Macclesfield Canal in Poynton

Happy Olympic Day

Today is Olympic Day.

About Olympic Day

The first Olympic Day took place on the 23rd June 1948.

Olympic Day aims to unite the whole world behind the Olympic dream and the Olympic movement.

Putt at Home

Back in April the Olympic Channel suggested building a Crazy Golf course during isolation. It was nice to see the Olympic movement getting involved in the craze for Putting at Home during lockdown.

World Minigolf Sport Federation and the Olympic movement

The World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) is the governing body for minigolf and has 63 member nations. There are currently a further three countries awaiting recognition as full members.

The WMF is a member of GAISF (Global Association of International Sports Federations), AIMS (Alliance of Independent Recognised Members of Sport) and TAFISA (The Association For International Sport for All).

On the 12th January 2020 it was announced that AIMS had become a fully recognised International Olympics Committee (IOC) umbrella group.

Olympic collecting

As well as playing, organising and promoting sports I am also an avid collector of sporting memorabilia and ephemera. As such I'm a member of both the Olympin Club and Sports Philatelists International.

I got to see a lot of Olympic Torches in 2012. I was also a Paralympic Flame Assistant in Luton that year

Miniature Golf and the Olympic Games

Did you know - Miniature Golf was once played during the Olympic Games!

While it was not officially part of the Games programme, the participants in the Golf tournament at the 1904 Olympic Games held in St Louis, USA also competed in a Putting Championship on a specially built miniature golf course.

The 9-hole Putting Course was specifically built at the Glen Echo Country Club for a Putting Championship and was constructed with electric lights surrounding the layout.

The Putting competition was won by Burt McKinnie of Normandie GC. McKinnie defeated Clement Smoot of the Exmoor Club in Chicago for the trophy after McKinnie scored a total of 21. Both players had been tied going into the last hole!

The 1904 Games were quite a wild affair - with a number of other sporting events taking place out of the scope of the 'official' sports. They also took place over several months and organised alongside the World's Fair, rather than as a standalone event.

Olympiapark München

On a related note, the Olympiapark München is home to a Miniature Golf course that was set-up in the athletes village for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Now open to the public you can find more information on the Olympiapark München and the Minigolf & Pit-Pat Olympiapark München websites.

We're hoping to visit and play the courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future.

The Oslympic Games

Back in the summer of 2012 we were proud to be a part of the Oswestry Games. The festival of sport in Shropshire saw the sport of minigolf included in a multi-sport games event in the UK for the first time. The Oslympics consisted of more than 50 sports and cultural events held over ten-days in July 2012.

Medals from the Oswestry Games

Related blog posts:
- Olympic
- Olympics

Links:
- The Olympics
- Olympic Day

Crazy Golf course at Wythenshawe Park, Manchester

A look at the Crazy Golf course at Wythenshawe Park in Manchester.

Hole 4 of the 9-hole layout

We visited Wythenshawe Park over the border in Manchester for our daily outdoor exercise yesterday.

On the first course since before the Coronavirus pandemic hit

The 9-hole Crazy Golf course is the first previously played Crazy Golf location we've revisited during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 9-hole course

It was the first time we've been to Wythenshawe Park since we played the course on the 25th July 2009 when it became the 114th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Bizarre really as technically it's our most local course!

We had asked a number of people if the course was still there since we moved to Stockport in 2016 but nobody knew anything about it, or said it was long gone.

So it was a nice surprise to see it was still there.

The park is also home to a Pitch & Putt miniature golf course. That became the first new course we've been to during the pandemic and the 949th visited overall on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

A view of the Pitch & Putt course

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Adventure Golf in Windsor

A look back at the Adventure Golf course at Extreme Motion in Windsor, Berkshire.

I first played the course on the 21st June 2014.

We returned to Windsor for a game in May 2015.

The 18-hole Adventure Golf course is notable for the castle tower, a nod to Windsor Castle itself.

It was the 562nd visited and 338th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

On our first visit to the town in May 2009 we played the Eternit-style Miniature Golf courses in the park.

Check out Extreme Motion Windsor for more information.

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How to play minigolf - in three languages

Whereabouts on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour did we find this sign?

How to play minigolf

So wird bahnengolf gespielt

Jouer au minigolf

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Today is Summerween!

Happy Summerween.

Summerween is celebrated annually on the 22nd June.

Will you be carving a Summerween Jack-o-Melon today?

The quirky holiday is also on the second to last Friday of the month of June. That was last Friday.

So you get two bites of the cherry (or should that be watermelon) to celebrate the made up event.

Crazy Golf at Wythenshawe Park, Manchester

A visit to the Crazy Golf course at Wythenshawe Park in Manchester.

We revisited the Crazy Golf course at Wythenshawe Park in Manchester while on our daily outdoor exercised today.

At the Wythenshawe Park Crazy Golf course

It's the first previously played course we've revisited during the coronavirus pandemic.

We first visited the course back on the 25th July 2009 when it became the 114th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

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Woolworths Pick n' Mix Crazy Golf

A look at the Woolworths Pick n' Mix Crazy Golf hole at Teezers Retro Golf in Coventry.

The last Woolworths shop in the UK closed in January 2009 so we were amazed to see there was a sign still up at the old Stoke-on-Trent store last year.

There's a Woolworths-themed miniature golf hole at Teezers Retro Golf course in Coventry, we played that course in April 2019.

We also saw the remains of the Woolworths store in Brunstane, Edinburgh in 2011.

Putt-Putt items from Cape Town, South Africa

A look at some ephemera from the Putt-Putt Golf centre at Moullie Point in South Africa.

It was marvellous to receive these Putt-Putt Golf items from Cape Town, South Africa!

A scorecard, discount card, free game card (two free games remaining) and a Putt-Putt Golf ball from South Africa

Many thanks to my friend, supporter of The Crazy Golf Museum and international jetsetter PJ Goedhals for sending them to me. They are from his local course at Moullie Point in South Africa.

The Putt-Putt miniature golf course in Three Anchor Bay in Moullie Point / Sea Point, Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals

Some of my cousins have visited the course too.

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Putt-Putt's birthday

Today marks 66 years since the world's first Putt-Putt miniature golf course opened.

The first Putt-Putt Golf course was set-up by Don Clayton in Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA back in 1954.

Putt-Putt miniature golf is 66 years old today

Today marks 66 years since the world's first Putt-Putt course opened.

The very first Putt-Putt Golf course was created by Don Clayton in Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA back in 1954.

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 South Africa, Australia and Japan. There were also courses in the UK, the first of which opened in Sunderland in 1968. Others followed at Flamingo Land in Yorkshire and in Buxton, Derbyshire. However, information on these UK courses is limited.

You can read the Putt-Putt story on the Putt-Putt Fun Centres website.

Tournament Putt-Putt

On the competitive side of the game, official Putt-Putt tournaments have been played since 1959. The first local competition took place in 1955. You can read about the history of the PPA and APA on the Professional Putters Association website.

Televised events

The game has been televised quite a bit over the years, with ESPN in the USA carrying tournaments. Every year they air repeats of Putt-Putt tournaments as part of ESPN 8: The Ocho's programming.

You can watch a number of events from the 1970s to the 2000s on the Putt-Putt Funhouse YouTube Channel.

Playing Putt-Putt

The closest Emily and I have got to being at a Putt-Putt course are some postcards, game tokens, a jigsaw puzzle and a photo one of my family took at a course while in South Africa.

Saying that however, I did win a free round at Putt-Putt of Warren in Ohio last month. I'm looking forward to playing there in the future.

A Putt-Putt postcard from South Africa

I do have some Putt-Putt tokens in my collection. I'm always on the lookout for more though

A look at Putt-Putt courses in the USA and South Africa

Luckily some of our fellow miniature golf enthusiasts, bloggers, minigolf rivals and friends have shared photos of some of their favourite Putt-Putt courses with us.

Putt Putt in Richmond, Indiana. Photo by Tom and Robin at A Couple of Putts

The Putt-Putt Fun Center course in Hickory, North Carolina photographed by Pat Sheridan of The Putting Penguin minigolf website

Pro Putter Matt Bellner playing the Putt-Putt course in Arlington, Texas

  

The Putt-Putt miniature golf course in Three Anchor Bay in Moullie Point / Sea Point, Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals

Find out more

Check out the Putt-Putt Golf website for more information on Putt-Putt brand minigolf. You can find out more information about Putt-Putt tournaments on the Professional Putters Association (PPA) website.

NO GOLF in Hawk Green, Marple

We saw this NO GOLF sign on our daily walk on The Green in Hawk Green, Marple, Stockport.

Petanque at the Memorial Park in Marple

A look at the Petanque piste at Memorial Park in Marple, Stockport.

We found another Petanque piste while out on our daily walk on Friday. It's at Memorial Park in Marple, Stockport.

It's in a nice setting

We're looking forward to playing Petanque on the piste in the future. We haven't had a game in a while

Last month we saw a sign for a Boules area at Bramhall Park. But couldn't find any trace of the terrain itself.

We play for the Woodstock Petanque Club at Alexandra Park in Edgeley, Stockport.

Blockbuster Crazy Golf

A look at the Blockbuster Video minigolf hole at Ghetto Golf in Birmingham.

I revisited the site of the last Blockbuster Video store in Manchester last Sunday. I'd first seen the old shop at Fallowfield Retail Park last October.

Interestingly there is still another 'Blockbuster' store in the UK. It's part of the Ghetto Golf indoor crazy golf course at The Custard Factory in Digbeth, Birmingham.

Jaws Crazy Golf

Jaws is 45 years old today.

Playing the Jaws hole at Teezers Retro Golf in Coventry

It's one of my all-time favourite films.

Jaws Crazy Golf

I always enjoy seeing shark obstacles at minigolf courses we visit.

Adventure Golf at Fairhaven Lake in Lytham St Annes

A new Adventure Golf course is being built at Fairhaven Lake in Lytham St Annes on the Fylde coast.

The course is being created by the team at Greenspan Projects.

The new Adventure Golf layout replaces the Crazy Golf course at Fairhaven Lake.

In June 2017 that course became the 436th course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

A view of the Crazy Golf course in August 2018

Stonehenge Big Mini Golf

Happy Summer Solstice.

Did you know there's a Stonehenge-themed minigolf course in Hemsby, Norfolk?

We played there in June 2010.

Picture Postcard Magic - Abingdon-on-Thames

Check out my latest guest post on the Picture Postcard Magic blog from Reflections of a Bygone Age. It's about my home town of Abingdon.

Jaws 45

Jaws was released on this day in 1975.

It's one of my favourite films.

I always enjoy seeing shark obstacles at minigolf courses we visit.