Happy National Fried Chicken Day

Today is National Fried Chicken Day.

We've seen a lot of different chicken shops on our travels including a few alternate KFCs

New minigolf courses in the UK

A look at new miniature golf courses in the UK.

There are a number of new minigolf courses being built, in development or planned to open in the UK.

It's great to see that the game's popularity is continuing. Before the coronavirus pandemic minigolf was booming, with new courses opening up every month.

Over the last few months we've found out about the following minigolf courses:

• Wolverhampton Adventure Golf, an 18-hole dinosaur-themed adventure golf course at Perton Park Golf Club in Wolverhampton. It was the first brand new course to open during the pandemic.
• Mini Golf at Sea Acres Holiday Park at Kennack Sands in Cornwall. This is a Swedish Felt type of course.
• Crazy Golf at Ighton Leigh Social Club in Burnley.
• Adventure Golf at Fairhaven Lake in Lytham St Annes on the Fylde coast.
• Adventure Golf at China Fleet Country Club in Saltash, Cornwall.
• A new Crazy Golf course is planed to open at the Filwood Community Centre in Knowle West, Bristol. They have a Putt at Home Crazy Golf Club in the meantime.
• The new Roxy Ball Room at Withy Grove in Manchester will include minigolf among the games on offer.
• Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf are creating a course in Putney, London.
• A new Caddyshackers Crazy Golf bar could be heading to Nottingham.
• Work will soon be underway again at the Princess Parade Crazy Golf course in Blackpool.
• There are plans for a new Ghetto Golf venue in Sheffield
• An indoor Adventure Golf centre is planned for Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre
• A Crazy Golf course is planned to open at Kingsway West Retail Park in Dundee
• A new Adventure Golf course is planned to replace the old layout in Andover, Hampshire.
• Work is also almost complete at the new Crazy Golf course at Pembrey Country Park in Wales.
• Boom Battle Bar will have a minigolf course when it opens in Norwich.
• The new Gravity venue in Northampton was completed just as lockdown was announced and is ready to play when it is safe to reopen.

If you know of any other new minigolf courses opening, or are planning to create one please do get in touch.

Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Before the 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're now up to 949 course visits as we found a Pitch & Putt course on one of our daily walks last month.

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

Who knows where and when our 950th course visit will be...?

Links:

• New courses
• Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

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With over twenty years of marketing and sales experience each we offer consultancy services to people and businesses looking to set-up miniature golf courses, review their operations, hole designs, contests, tournaments and more.

Do get in touch for a chat to see how we can help and work together.

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Minigolfing in Worthing a decade ago

A look back at Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing's Denton Gardens as it was ten years ago.

Playing hole 13 ten years ago today

This is how the hole looked in April last year.

Take a look at the history of miniature golf in Worthing's Denton Gardens in this blog post. The game has been played there for 96 years.

New Crazy Golf course at Ighten Leigh Social Club in Burnley

Ighten Leigh Social Club in Burnley has a new Crazy Golf course.

Hopefully we'll get to play the layout in the future. Burnley isn't too far from us and we're looking forward to visiting the town again when it's safe for us to do so.

It'll be interesting to see what the Ighten Leigh Social Club Crazy Golf course layout looks like.

New miniature golf courses in the UK

It's the second brand new minigolf course in the UK to open its doors for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic. The first was the 18-hole dinosaur-themed adventure golf course at Perton Park Golf Club in Wolverhampton.

A new Mini Golf course has also been installed at Sea Acres Holiday Park at Kennack Sands in Cornwall.

There are a number of new minigolf courses also being built, in development or planned.

A new adventure golf course is under construction at Fairhaven Lake in Lytham St Annes on the Fylde coast. A new adventure golf layout is nearing completion at China Fleet Country Club in Saltash, Cornwall. The Filwood Community Centre in Knowle West, Bristol is planning a new Crazy Golf course and have a Putt at Home Club in the meantime. The new Roxy Ball Room at Withy Grove in Manchester will include minigolf among the games on offer. Work will soon be underway again at the Princess Parade Crazy Golf course in Blackpool. There are plans for a new Ghetto Golf venue in Sheffield, an adventure golf centre at Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre, a crazy golf course at Kingsway West Retail Park in Dundee and an adventure golf course in Andover, Hampshire. Work is also almost complete at the new Crazy Golf course at Pembrey Country Park in Wales and Boom Battle Bar in Norwich. While the new Gravity venue in Northampton was completed just as lockdown was announced.

Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

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're now up to 949 course visits as we found a Pitch & Putt course on one of our daily walks last month.

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

Who knows where and when course visit number 950 will be...?

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Check out the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour Newsletter archive and sign-up to receive future editions

Resident Needle

I don't think I could've seen a better business name, sign and shopfront during my pandemic lockdown daily outdoor exercise than this one in Woodley Precinct, Stockport!

What voice would you use to say this shop name out loud?

Link:
- Resident Needle Tattoo Studio

Back to the Future is 35

Back to the Future was released in the USA on this day in 1985!

On Friday 13th March I managed to see a Back to the Future DeLorean at Media City in Salford.

It was brilliant to tick that off my bucket list.

Putt-Putt tokens from the USA

A look at some 1980's Putt-Putt tokens from the USA.

From the Crazy Golf Museum's collection.

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

Do you know of any courses that still have tokens?

NO GOLF in Compstall, Stockport

We saw this NO GOLF sign on our daily outdoor walk at Pleasant View in Compstall, Stockport.

No horses allowed either

How to play mini golf (in Swedish)

A look at a minigolf guide in Sweden.

We saw this minigolf instructions sign at Solna Bangolfklubb while on a trip to Sweden in February 2018.

Så här spelar vi bangolf

"Så här spelar vi bangolf" translates as "This is how we play golf".

During that trip we managed to visit nine minigolf courses in 42 hours!

Unfortunately the outdoor minigolf courses at at Solna Bangolfklubb were closed as it was out-of-season and they were covered in snow.

Related blog posts:
- How to play mini golf (on Southend Pier)
- How to play mini golf (in three languages)

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A look back at July 2017

A look back at the 2017 Dull Men's Club calendar.

We featured in the Dull Men's Club calendar for 2017 where our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour was highlighted for the month of July.

July 2017

What a year. Halcyon days.

The dullest people in the UK in 2017

The 2017 Dull Men’s Club calendar celebrated the men and women who were born to be mild

The Dull Men's Club is where dull men, and women who appreciate dull men, share thoughts and experiences about ordinary things. Visit the Dull Men's Club website for more information.

Check out the latest blog post on the Dull Men's Club website, it's about us and how we've been coping during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

I've spoken at Dull Men's Club conferences and events in Preston and Manchester.

Related blog posts:
- Calendar
- Dull Men's Club

Happy National Hot Dog Month

July is National Hot Dog Month.

This year National Hot Dog Day is on Wednesday 22nd July.

Find out more about National Hot Dog Month and National Hot Dog Day on the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council website.

Minigolf in the Boondocks

A look back at my trip to play miniature golf at Boondocks Fun Center in Northglenn, Colorado.

I travelled to Denver, Colorado, USA back in March 2009 to attend a week-long sports conference in the city. During some down time I travelled outside the city limits to play miniature golf in the Boondocks. Boondocks Fun Center in Northglenn to be precise.

Located at Boondocks Fun Center in the town of Northglenn, Colorado are two 18-hole courses - the Caverns Mill and Hillbilly Hallow - that sit next to Interstate-25.

That's I-25 to the right of the course

As it was '$12 Tuesday' I had unlimited play on the minigolf courses and managed to fit in three rounds on the two layouts.

They were the 82nd and 83rd courses played on my Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Find out more

Visit the Boondocks Fun Center website for more information, opening times and prices.

Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

We've now been to 949 courses since September 2006.

We've visited 39 courses in eleven overseas countries:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Finland
- Hong Kong
- New Zealand
- Poland
- Singapore
- Spain
- Sweden
- USA

We've visited 910 courses in the British Isles:
- England
- Wales
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
- Jersey
- Isle of Man

Links:

- Boondocks Food & Fun
- Boondocks Northglenn

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A scorecard from Blackbeard's Adventure Golf in Hunstanton

A look at a minigolf scorecard from Blackbeard's Adventure Golf in Hunstanton, Norfolk.

Many thanks to my friend and minigolf rival Steve Lovell for sending me this scorecard from Blackbeard's Adventure Golf in Hunstanton, Norfolk.

He played a few rounds there pre-pandemic.

When we visited Blackbeard's Adventure Golf in May 2011 the two 9-hole courses were called The Aztec Trail & Blackbeard's Adventure. On the recent scorecard they are named Pirates Course and Aztec Course.

A view of the Aztec course from our visit in 2011

I always thought it was a curious mixture of two adventure golf themes as you tend to find one or other, rather than both together.

Putting on a pirate ship

The Aztec course was the 246th played and the Pirate course was number 247 on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The holes leading to the ruins of an Aztec temple

For more information visit Blackbeard's Adventure Golf website and Facebook Page.

We're looking forward to a return to the east coast resort that faces west in the future.

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Pirate Island Adventure Golf in the Forest of Dean

A look at the social distancing measures in place on the Pirate Island Adventure Golf course in the Forest of Dean.

A view of the Pirate Island Adventure Golf course in the Forest of Dean

The team at Pirate Island Adventure Golf in the Forest of Dean have kindly sent over some photos of the social distancing measures in place on their course.

Find out more

For more information, opening times, booking details and prices visit the Pirate Island Adventure Golf website and Facebook Page.

Playing Pirate Island Adventure Golf

We played at Pirate Island Adventure Golf in the Forest of Dean back in October 2017. It doesn't seem that long ago!

Playing the course in 2017

We had a very close game on the tricky 12-hole course. Emily scored 37, while I shot a game winning 36.

The course was the 786th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We've now been to a total of 949 courses since September 2006.

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How to play mini golf

Do you know how to play mini golf?

This City Golf Group scorecard holder gives instructions on how to play mini golf.

This was at the Swedish Felt Mini Golf course on Southend Pier in Essex in 2016.

Related blog posts:
- How to play minigolf - in three languages
- City Golf
- Swedish Felt

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Championship Miniature Golf at Kelsey Park in Beckenham

A look back at our visit to the Kelsey Park minigolf course in Beckenham, Kent.

We visited the Championship Miniature Golf course at Kelsey Park in Beckenham back in March 2013.

The 18-hole layout is one of the few Eternit-type Miniature Golf courses more commonly found in Continental Europe.

The course has had a number of modifications made to it. For a start it's not normally covered in felt. And the pyramid obstacles usually appear on hole (lane) 1

The Miniature Golf course at Kelsey Park in Beckenham was the 525th course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Hole 1

Hole 2

Hole 3

Hole 4

Hole 5

Hole 6

Hole 7

Hole 8

Hole 9

Hole 10

Hole 11

Hole 12

Hole 13

Hole 14

Hole 15

Hole 16

Hole 17

  

Hole 18

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