A return to the Leopoldpark minigolf courses in Blankenberge

A revisit to the Mini Golf courses at the Leopoldpark in Blankenberge, Belgium.

Emily recently returned to Blankenberge in Belgium she noticed there was a large Christmas decoration still standing next to the miniature golf courses at the Leopoldpark.

Not a wacky waving inflatable, but a decent looking snowman Christmas decoration

You can see the snowman to the left of the snookergolf course

While there Emily also took a few more snaps of the colourful minigolf, crazy golf and snooker golf courses at the Leopoldpark. They do look marvellous and we can't wait to return and actually play them!

The Blankenberge Crazy Golf course

Hole 1 of the Mini Golf course at the Leopoldpark

 

The Snookergolf layout

The three 18-hole courses at Leopoldpark became the 710th, 711th and 712th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Another view of the Snookergolf course. It looks like a brilliant game

On her last visit Emily spotted there was also a Petanque terrain at the Leopoldpark. This time she spotted there are some undercover pistes there too. Looks like a great spot to play some boules.

The uncovered Petanque pistes

The undercover Boulodrome

Visit the Leopoldpark website for more information about the courses, opening times and prices.

Related blog posts:
- Minigolf at Leopoldpark in Blankenberge
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

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.

Crazy Golf in London

Details of Crazy Golf, Minigolf and Adventure Golf courses in London.

Since our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour began in 2006 we've played a number of Crazy Golf courses in London. Up until a few years ago there was a real dearth of courses to play in the capital, but recently the London minigolf scene has changed quite dramatically with a number of late night, indoor Crazy Golf pop-ups and permanent venues opening.

You can't get much more of a London-scene than this. Sadly this Crazy Golf course in Chiswick closed a few years ago

Where to play Crazy Golf in London

Acton - Putt in the Park at Acton Park
Arkley (near Elstree and Borehamwood) - Dinosaur Safari Adventure Golf at the A1 Driving Range
Barnet Copthall/Hendon - Captain's Bay Adventure Golf at Metro Golf Centre
Battersea - Plonk Golf at the Four Thieves Pub
Battersea - Putt in the Park at Battersea Park
Beckenham - Championship Miniature Golf at Kelsey Park
Brentwood - Rascal Bay Adventure Golf at Brentwood Golf Centre
Brick Lane - Junkyard Golf Club at the Old Truman Brewery
Brixton - Plonk Golf at the Duke of Edinburgh pub
Camden - Crazy Golf at Clarence Way Housing Estate
Carshalton - Crazy Golf at The Grove Park
Chingford/Waltham Forest - Jurassic Falls Adventure Golf
City of London EC3A - Swingers Crazy Golf Club at Brown's Buildings
Croydon - Dragon Quest Adventure Golf at World of Golf
Dalston - Plonk Golf at Efes Snooker Hall
Edgware - Lost Jungle London Adventure Golf
Greenwich - CrazyPutt Adventure Golf at the Greenwich Peninsula Golf Range - under construction as at November 2017
Hackney - Plonk Golf at Victoria Park
Harrow - Mini Majors Adventure Golf at Northwick Park
Hyde Park - Grass Putting Green at Hyde Park Sports Centre
London Fields - Plonk Golf and Plonk Golf's Crazy Golf Puzzle Room
Merton/Motspur Park - Mini Golf at Sir Joseph Hood Memorial Playing Fields
Mill Hill - Crazy Golf at Mill Hill Park
New Malden - Jurassic Encounter Adventure Golf at World of Golf
Northolt - Dinosaur Adventure Golf at West London Golf Centre
Romford - Moby Adventure Golf at Golf Kingdon
Shepherd's Bush - Puttshack at Westfield London (opening March 2018)
Sidcup/Chiselhurst - Mr Mulligan's Dino Adventure Golf at Sidcup Family Golf Centre
Southgate - Adventure Golf at Broomfield Park
Southgate - Jungle Falls Adventure Golf at Trent Park Public Golf Course
Sparrows Den, West Wickham, Bromley - Enchanted Village Adventure Golf
Sparrows Den, West Wickham, Bromley - Pitch & Putt
Staines-on-Thames - Golden Putter Mini Golf at Lammas Park
Stratford - Birdies Crazy Golf Club is reopening at Roof East in May 2017
Upminster - Crazy Golf at Hall Lane Miniature Golf
Walthamstow - Plonk Golf at The Chequers
Wandsworth - Putt in the Park at Wandsworth Park
Wandsworth - Adventure Putting at the Central London Golf Centre
West Horndon, near Brentwood - Miniature Golf at Dunton Hills Golf Course
Wimbledon - Crazy Golf at Wimbledon Park

Playing Moby Adventure Golf at Golf Kingdon, Romford in June 2014

Perhaps the strangest minigolf course we found in London is the excellent Putting Green tucked away in Hyde Park. It's well worth a visit. You can see a walk around the course on my YouTube Channel.

The Hyde Park course is a mixture of grass Putting with some Crazy Golf obstacle elements

Other courses that have been - and gone - include the sporting themed pop-up course created by our friends at the London-based minigolf specialists UrbanCrazy for the JW3 Jewish Community Centre. This layout looked great, but unfortunately we didn't have the opportunity to get along for a game. Hopefully a similar course will be created in the future.

Playing at the Brewmaster's Open Crazy Golf tournament at the Camden Town Brewery in 2012

You can view the original Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in and around London blog post to see further photos and details of the Adventure Golf, Crazy Golf, Minigolf and Golf Putting Green courses we've visited and played in and around London since July 2008. Some of the forty-plus courses we've visited have sadly closed down, or were temporary pop-up courses. But on the plus side there are lots of new, fun and wacky Crazy Golf courses still to play in London.

Putting on the green of a crashed plane at the Golf Apocalypse of 2012

Related blog posts:

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

- Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in and around London

- London

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.

The first minigolf course visit of 2017

The first minigolf course visit of 2017 was made by Emily as she spotted a Putting Green on her spa break at Luton Hoo at the weekend.

The Golf Practice Area at Luton Hoo on the 6th January

The course became the 721st visited on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since September 2006.

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Luton

Link:
- Luton Hoo

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.

The last minigolf course visit of 2016

The last minigolf course visit of 2016 was made by Emily on her shopping trip to the Trafford Centre in Manchester on New Year's Eve.

There's some great theming at Paradise Island Adventure Golf

The Paradise Island Adventure Golf courses were originally the 85th and 86th courses visited on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in April 2009.

Now we live locally we'll hopefully get along for more rounds on the 36-hole indoor Adventure Golf layout.

Paradise Island Adventure Golf have other jungle themed courses at Cheshire Oaks, Glasgow, Livingston and Sheffield. With a new course planned to open in Derby later this year.

We played the Glasgow courses a few years ago and the Sheffield centre was the first we visited in 2016.

Head to the Paradise Island Adventure Golf website for more information on the venues, opening times and prices.

Related blog posts:
- Paradise Island Adventure Golf in Manchester
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Links:
- Paradise Island Adventure Golf
- Trafford Centre

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.

The UK's first Roundabout

Driving around the UK's first Roundabout.

The UK's first Roundabout as it was in 2010

While back down south at the weekend we visited Letchworth Garden City. It's home to the UK's first roundabout and I can never resist having a drive round it.



Kevin Beresford, a fellow member of the Dull Men's Club, runs the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society. Check out his website for more info.

Related blog posts:
- Letchworth Garden City
- Dull Men's Club

Links:
- UK Roundabout Appreciation Society
- Dull Men's Club website

Adventure Golf scorecards from the USA

Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf course scorecards from the USA now in the Crazy Golf Museum.

The Crazy Golf Museum recently received a kind donation from minigolfer Jon Angel. During a bit of a recent tidy up the former British Minigolf Champion discovered two scorecards from a visit to the Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf courses in New York State back in September 2007!

They are a fine pair of Adventure Golf scorecards and with the addition of the receipts and ink stamps make brilliant additions to the Crazy Golf Museum's archives of the game.

The Pirate's Cove Original Adventure Golf empire spans a large amount of courses in the USA. Check out the Pirate's Cove Original Adventure Golf website for details.

In 2015 fellow minigolfer Mark Swain sent over a selection of scorecards from his US holiday. One of these was from Pirate's Cove Original Adventure Golf in Wisconsin Dells where there are FIVE courses!

Over the years the museum has received a number of excellent minigolf scorecards from the USA via Pat Sheridan of the Putting Penguin website.

Visit the Crazy Golf Museum website and check out the museum's Twitter and Facebook pages for more snaps of scorecards, postcards and miniature golf ephemera.

Related blog posts:
- Crazy Golf Museum
- Jon Angel
- USA

Links:
- Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf
- Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf, Lake George, NY
- Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf, Lake Placid, NY
- Crazy Golf Museum website
- UrbanCrazy

The first blog post of the year

It's a new minigolf year, so we've put together a list of resources that you may find useful and interesting throughout 2017 and beyond.

Emily playing the 700th minigolf course we've visited - at Vickersway Park in Northwich

Visiting 720 minigolf courses in ten years we've seen and done a lot and we hope our adventures might inspire you to get out and explore the marvelous world of miniature golf too.

The views from the Putting courses at Looe Bowling Club in Cornwall are some of the finest we've seen

Useful and interesting websites
The number one minigolf course review site in the world can be found at the Putting Penguin. The US-based team have written and posted reviews of 281 courses in 35 US States and ten countries.

Playing the Putt in the Park mini golf course in London as Pat Sheridan from the Putting Penguin looks on

Also over in the USA our friends Tom and Robin aka A Couple of Putts are on a similar mission to us - if they see a minigolf course they have to play and review it. They've certainly played some wonderful layouts - the hot dog hole they played in Minneapolis immediately springs to mind!

Matt 'Mattie 5' Bellner is a real minigolf character. The Putt Putt Pro built a miniature golf hole on his balcony for the Christmas season and his antics on social media and beyond are well worth following.

In 2016 Minigolfnews.com was relaunched and as well as carrying results and interviews from the competitive side of the sport, the site publishes articles from the quirky and fun side of the game too.

Minigolf 'Days'
There are two quasi-official annual 'days' when you can celebrate the game.

Emily playing the Putt in the Park mini golf course in Battersea Park, London on Miniature Golf Day 2015

- National Miniature Golf Day falls on the second Saturday in May. In 2017 this will be on Saturday 13th May.

- Miniature Golf Day is always on the 21st of September, which is on a Thursday in 2017.

#MiniGolfMonday
Every Monday is #MiniGolfMonday on Twitter. Do get involved by posting your tweets, pics and videos using the hashtag. Don't forget to add #minigolf to all of your minigolf-related tweets. It'd be great to get minigolf trending in 2017.

Trying to trend in 2011 - Minigolf Bloggers Seth 'Sethers' Thomas (l), 'Squire' Richard Gottfried (r) and Oliver 'The Machine' Florence (lurking in the background) at Dorridge

Minigolf turns 150 years old in 2017
2017 sees the 150th anniversary of the world's first Miniature Golf course. The Himalayas Putting Course at St Andrews in Scotland is still open today and we visited the Links Minigolf landmark in 2012. It's a brilliant course to play.

Playing The Himalayas in 2012

Don't forget to check out The Crazy Golf Museum - home to a range of artifacts and memorabilia from the game.

The Original Crazy Golf course in Skegness turned 90 last year

Competitions
If you've got a competitive nature you may be interested in entering a serious minigolf tournament.

The World Minigolf Sport Federation is the umbrella organisation of 62 Minigolf sports associations worldwide. There are more than 38,000 competitive minigolf players registered with the WMF via the 62 member nations, with 900-plus clubs between them. Over 1,000 courses are approved for official competitions and over 1,500 minigolf tournaments are held each year.

We've competed in numerous domestic tournaments as well as representing Great Britain in competitions in Finland and Sweden

The British Minigolf Association, the UK governing body for minigolf sport, organises a number of events throughout the year. In 2017 there will be minigolf competitions held in England and Wales.

Course suppliers
There are a number of minigolf course suppliers, designers and builders in the UK and around the world.

Putting on an UrbanCrazy layout. A Crazy Golf course in a London back garden!

Check out the links below for more info on our friends in the business world of minigolf:
- UrbanCrazy
- Putterfingers.co.uk
- Castle Golf (UK and Europe)
- Castle Golf (USA)

- 3D Minigolf

- Funsports
- City Golf
- HM Adventure Golf
- Putting Edge

Courses around the UK
After hitting our landmark 600th and 700th course visits we had a rough guesstimate that there were about 50 left for us to visit. But with new courses opening up all the time this figure is certainly a movable feast! We've always been fans of buffet minigolf so there's no problem there.

The 400th course we played was at Les Mielles in Jersey in 2016

If you find a new (or old/abandoned) course do let us know as we'd love to get along for a game, or just some photos.

Wherever you play and whatever you get up to we wish you all the very best for the year ahead.

Related blog posts:
- The last blog post of the year
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

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.

The last blog post of the year

What a year 2016 has been!

This year has seen some BIG milestones in the world of Mini Golf including the 90th anniversary of England's first Crazy Golf course opening in Skegness. There's still a course on the same spot today.

A lovely bit of minigolf history

2016 saw the tenth birthday of our Ham and Egger Files blog, ten years of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and ten years since we played our tenth course. We've now visited 720 courses in total.

We had great fun playing the Southend Pier Crazy Golf course in the summer. The layout is 1.3 miles out to sea!

We also made a HUGE change in our lives, moving from Luton to live in Cheadle Hulme. We also found that we now live less than a mile away from a miniature golf Putting course, although it's one we're likely to never play.

There's a miniature golf course at the Park Square office complex in Cheadle Heath

On the very bright side moving north has opened up a large number of courses to visit (and old ones to revisit) on our tour. The latest course played in Greater Manchester was the wonderful Lost Valley Adventure Golf at Amazonia in Bolton.

The Lost Valley Adventure Golf course is well worth a play

The first course we played in 2016 was at Paradise Island Adventure Golf in Sheffield - that seems so long ago now!

We've played one of the two Adventure Golf courses in Sheffield

In 2016 we visited 47 courses, posted 204 blog posts (205 with this one - and 2394 in total since 2006) and went over the one million page views mark on the Ham & Egger Files.

2017 will see the 150th anniversary of the world's first Miniature Golf course. The Himalayas Putting Course at St Andrews in Scotland is still there today. We visited the Links Minigolf course in April 2012. It's a real pleasure to play.

The world's first miniature golf course

Thank you to everyone who has continued to support us. We look forward to sharing more minigolf fun in 2017.

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.

Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea

A revisit to Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea for the tenth anniversary of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

On the 30th September 2016 we returned to Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea to celebrate our BIG minigolf milestone of ten years of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Our friends John 'Big Al' Moore and Cat 'Helter Skelter' Patterson joined us to mark the occasion with a round on the Victory Trail and Warrior Trail pirate themed Adventure Golf courses.

A view of the Treasure Island Adventure Golf layout in Southsea

Playing hole 1 of the Victory Trail

Emily playing hole 1 of the Victory Trail

Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour began back in 2006 while we were in Southsea visiting my brother Christopher. We decided to have a round on the Victory Trail Adventure Golf course and at the end of the 9-holes I managed to fire the cannon on the Lucky Last Hole to win a FREE GAME card. We returned to play the Warrior Trail the next day and our minigolfing adventures went on from there.

One of the crocodiles (or alligators) lurking on the course

After our round on the Victory Trail we all stepped up to play the Lucky Last Hole and unbelievably I won another FREE GAME!

Another FREE GAME CARD added to the collection

I also won a FREE GAME when we revisited the course on the fifth anniversary of our tour on the 30th September 2011, as well as on the 7th August 2015!

A look inside the Lucky Last Hole

Following our game on the Warrior Trail we tried our luck for another FREE GAME and this time Emily played the shot correctly to win a pass!

Emily about to win

In the tenth anniversary competition on the Victory Trail I picked up the win with a round of 20. Emily was second on 23, with John Moore third on 25. Cat shot a 31.

About to ace the eighth hole on the Victory Trail - Rusty Anchor

Emily putting

John Moore in action

In the round on the Warrior Trail John Moore took the win with a score of 23. Emily and I tied on 29, with Cat scoring a 37.

John Moore was victorious to win a knitted clown trophy

In the overall rankings John won the title and 'trophy' with a combined score of 48. I was one shot back on 49, with Emily finishing third on a total of 53. Cat scored a total of 68 to pick up the wooden spoon.

The minigolfers on the podium. In an incorrect order

The two 9-hole Adventure Golf courses at Treasure Island are well worth a visit and play. We know we'll be heading back for more games in the future.

Another alligator (or crocodile)

A view of the Treasure Island course

Emily playing at Treasure Island

Holing out

Check out the Treasure Island Adventure Golf website for opening times and prices.

Link:
- Treasure Island Adventure Golf

Related blog posts:
- From the Vault - Southsea Minigolf 2006
- Five years of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Nine years of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Southsea

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.

Santa's Stockport Grotto

Over the past month or so I've seen some pretty dreary Christmas trees, but while having a wander down Prince's Street in Stockport I spotted what must rank as the worst looking festive thing ever!

Grotty more like it!

Related blog posts:
- Christmas
- The worst Christmas trees of 2016