Minigolf around the world - Bali Mini Golf in Indonesia

A look at the Bali Mini Golf course at Luwak Coffee Garden in Indonesia.

Bali Mini Golf at Luwak Coffee Garden in Indonesia. Photo by Christopher Gottfried, October 2018

My brother Christopher, a charter member of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour swung by the Bali Mini Golf course at Luwak Coffee Garden in Bali, Indonesia while on holiday in 2018.

Bali Mini Golf at Luwak Coffee Garden in Indonesia. Photo by Christopher Gottfried, October 2018

Bali Mini Golf at Luwak Coffee Garden in Indonesia. Photo by Christopher Gottfried, October 2018

Bali Mini Golf at Luwak Coffee Garden in Indonesia. Photo by Christopher Gottfried, October 2018

You can find minigolf courses - and interesting business combinations - around the world!

The Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Since 2006 Emily and I have visited 1,044 miniature golf courses around the UK and overseas on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. As well as playing minigolf in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Jersey and the Isle of Man we’ve travelled to minigolf courses in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain (including Lanzarote and Majorca), Sweden and the USA.

When added to the courses Christopher and his family have visited around the British Isles and Turkey, Spain (Majorca), Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Indonesia, Croatia and the USA, the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour stands at a combined 1,091 courses visited!

The Mini Masters miniature golf tournament in Manchester

Looking back at the 'Mini Masters' miniature golf tournament in Manchester.

I won the Mini Masters miniature golf tournament in Manchester back on the 11th April 2009. Time certainly flies!

Mini Master

The Mini Masters was the first of two tournaments I won on the 9-hole Championship Miniature Golf course at what was then Playgolf Manchester. The second event being the Miniature Open in July 2009.

Lining up a big minigolf win

I won the Mini Masters with a three round total of 81 (-24) after scoring 26, 27, and 28.

A long tee-shot over and past several obstacles!

The course was the 84th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. Back then the course wasn't one of our local layouts as we still lived in Luton, Bedfordshire and travelled up for the events.

Emily putting on the big miniature golf course

The Championship Miniature Golf course is no longer at the centre, but you can find an expanded Championship Miniature Golf layout with two 18-hole courses in New Brighton. We've played both layouts there.

The location is no longer a Playgolf venue either. It's now known as the Trafford Golf Centre and is home to two 18-hole dinosaur adventure golf courses. I won the Dino Falls Masters Adventure Golf competition there in 2018 too!

Visit the Trafford Golf Centre website for more information.

Cumberland Golf planning a tour of Cumbria

Mini Golf Cumberland Edition will soon close at The Beacon Museum in Whitehaven, Cumbria. But there are plans for it to move to a new location, or locations in the future.

The Mini Golf course opened at The Beacon Museum in Whitehaven, Cumbria last October and closes on Sunday 14th April.

Mini Golf Cumberland is a 9-hole layout, with obstacles themed on Cumberland landmarks.

Visit The Beacon Museum website for more information.

As Curators of The Crazy Golf Museum it was nice to see another museum including minigolf as an interactive exhibit to facilitate learning.

We visited Cumbria last year, but didn't have time to visit Whitehaven.

Hopefully we'll get to have a game on the Mini Golf Cumberland Edition course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future.

New Golf Fang opening in Bristol

A new Golf Fang indoor minigolf venue is planned to open in Bristol in 2024.

There are plans for three new Golf Fang venues to open in London, Bristol and Nottingham this year.

You can currently find Golf Fang indoor crazy golf venues in Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Sheffield and Cardiff.

Visit the Golf Fang and Big Fang Collective websites for more information.

The new locations will be new places to check out on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The Dino Falls Masters Adventure Golf competition in Manchester

Looking back at the Dino Falls Masters Adventure Golf competition at the Trafford Golf Centre in Manchester.

Playing Dino Falls Adventure Golf in Manchester

I competed in the first-ever Dino Falls Masters Adventure Golf competition at the Trafford Golf Centre in Manchester on the 6th April 2018 - and won it!

Playing Dino Falls Adventure Golf in Manchester

The event saw hundreds of players compete.

The venue has been a good spot for me and our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, as I also won the Mini Masters and Mini Open there in 2009, as well as a Midlands Minigolf Club Invitational Tournament, also in April 2008.

At Dino Falls Adventure Golf in Manchester

The Trafford Golf Centre is home to two 18-hole adventure golf courses. Check out Trafford Golf Centre and Dino Falls Adventure Golf websites for more information on the courses.

Teezers Retro Golf in Coventry

A look back at our visit to Teezers Retro Golf in Coventry.

We visited and played a round at Teezers Retro Golf in Coventry on Easter Sunday back in 2019. Those last five years since then have been crazy!

The 18-hole indoor Crazy Golf course at Teezers Retro Golf opened in 2018 and was the 507th course played, and 865th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour at that time.

We were still friends after our minigolf match-up

In our match-up on the intriguing layout I defeated Emily with a score of 48 to 56.

I didn't hit the bulllseye on this hole, scoring a 3 

Playing the 16th hole

Check out the Teezers Retro Golf & Cocktails website for more information, opening times and prices.

Happy National Pencil Day

Today is National Pencil Day.

Minigolf pencils from our travels

Here's a selection of minigolf pencils we've collected over years.

We enjoy visiting courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and it's marvellous when we find one that has a branded pencil to score the game with.

Pencils and promotional scratchcards from Congo River Golf in Orlando, Florida, USA

It's a superb bit of minigolf marketing too.

A minigolf pencil from Christopher Gottfried's Crazy World of Minigolf Tour trip to Magic Carpet Golf in Galveston, Texas, USA

We've seen several minigolf courses switching to virtual scorecards (and scoreboards), and app-based scorecards. Others are using a mixture.

We think, and hope, there's space and a place for all methods of scoring to continue in the game.

Our friend Pat Sheridan from The Putting Penguin minigolf review website (among his many other hats in the game) has contributed quite a few pencils and scorecards to the Crazy Golf Museum that he's picked up on his own minigolf adventures.

One of the most peculiar minigolf pencils we've seen is this one Pat sent a snap of, as it's a real life pencil for a virtual minigolf game!

A pencil from the Walkabout Mini Golf VR game

If you'd like your minigolf course pencil (or other items of merch and ephemera) displayed and archived in the Crazy Golf Museum please do get in touch.

Just one of the many minigolf pencils in the Crazy Golf Museum - from the Wye Valley Miniatvre Golf course in Symonds Yat West

You can see more miniature golf course pens and pencils on the Crazy Golf Museum website.

A scorecard and pencils from Disney's Winter Summerland Miniature Golf in Orlando, Florida, USA from our friend Shelley Barrett

Arnold Palmer Putting Courses Crazy Golf pencils from the course in Prestatyn

A pencil from Lumberjax Mini Golf in New Zealand from our friend James Astrop

A pencil from Urban Putt in San Francisco from our friend and minigolf rival (and sometimes team-mate) Kevin Moseley

A pencil from Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf

A minigolf pencil from Swing by Golfbaren in Stockholm, Sweden 

A pencil from Swingers Crazy Golf in London

A pencil from the CLUB GOLF crazy golf pop-up at Coal Drops Yard in King's Cross, London. This was the last course I played before the UK went into coronavirus pandemic lockdown / quarantine

A pencil from the Putt 18 indoor putting game - we played a lot of this during the pandemic

Mini Golf at Hollywood Bowl Stockton

A new Mini Golf course is now open at the Hollywood Bowl at Teesside Park in Stockton-on-Tees.

The 12-hole indoor Mini Golf course has opened as part of an expanded Hollywood Bowl centre.

Visit the Hollywood Bowl website for more information.

We've played one of the Hollywood Bowl mini golf courses before, and been to Teesside Retail Park - but not done both together. We visited the old Toys R Us store there in April 2021.

It's another new course for us to check out on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The Minigolf-Atlas

Check out the Minigolf-Atlas - a map listing miniature golf courses in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

I recently found out about the Minigolf-Atlas, a project to map all of the minigolf courses in Germany and surrounding countries!

The project is run by the team at Miniatur-Golf-Club Wetzlar eV. They are based in central Germany and created the project to record all the minigolf facilities throughout Germany. This includes locations where clubs are based and tournaments take place, as well as the many course locations where no competitions are held.

It's brilliant to see the efforts put into the project, and it'll be an excellent resource for people to get out and play for leisure, fun, and for competition and club play.

The Minigolf-Atlas team are putting together lists of courses in other countries, and it'll be interesting to see the website develop over time.

Take a look at the Minigolf-Atlas website for more information.

It'll be a handy resource if we can find the time to visit Germany again in the future! There are still some minigolf systems, including Cobi Golf and Star Golf that we haven't yet played, and these are localised in Germany (Cobi Golf) and Germany & Austria (Star Golf).

I've played Felt Golf in Vienna, Austria at the Askoe Wien Wasserpark. That was an incredibly tough course, and the longest Swedish Felt course in Europe!

The Askoe Wien Swedish Felt Minigolf course in Vienna, Austria

I didn't get a chance to play the 'Eternit' aka Miniature Golf course there as it was out of season.

The Askoe Wien Eternit Miniature Golf course in Vienna, Austria

It was also the first place I saw the minigolf/snooker hybrid game of Pit-Pat.

Pit-Pat in Vienna, Austria

My brother Christopher, a charter member of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, and his family have visited a few courses in Germany and one in Luxembourg on their branch of the tour:

• Nittel, Germany - Minigolf
• Zeltingen-Rachtig, Germany - Beton Minigolf

Minigolf in Zeltingen-Rachtig, Germany. Photo by Christopher Gottfried

• Traben-Trarbach, Germany - Eternit Miniature Golf
• Kobern-Gondorf, Germany - Abenteuergolf
• Kobern-Gondorf, Germany - Eternit Miniature Golf

Miniature Golf in Kobern-Gondorf, Germany. Photo by Christopher Gottfried

• Bernkastel-Kues, Germany - Minigolf

Minigolf in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany. Photo by Christopher Gottfried

• Gutach, Germany (Adventuregolf Gutach) - Adventure Golf
• Sasbachwalden, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany (Höfner Stübl Minigolf) - Eternit Miniature Golf

Höfner Stübl Miniature Golf in Sasbachwalden, Germany. Photo by Christopher Gottfried

• Remich, Luxembourg - Eternit Miniature Golf

Miniature Golf in Remich, Luxembourg. Photo by Christopher Gottfried 

To date, we've visited 1,044 miniature golf courses. 997 of those have been in the British Isles, while 47 have been in overseas countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain (& Lanzarote, Canary Islands), Sweden and the USA. When we began our travels there were around 600 courses in the UK. There are now more than 1,000, with new courses opening all the time.

Japanese-themed mini golf course planned for London

A new indoor mini golf venue could be opening on Fleet Street in London.

Tokyo Hit is planned to be a Japanese-themed mini golf course, complete with bars and food served in an immersive Tokyo environment.

Emily has been to Japan before and I'm hoping to visit one day too. In the mean-time Tokyo Hit sounds like it could be really cool.

It'll be interesting to visit on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

A minigolf move in Basingstoke

There are plans for a new Great Wolf resort in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

The proposed Great Wolf resort in Basingstoke would be created on the site of Basingstoke Golf Centre.

The new Great Wolf resort is an indoor water park - that would also feature a mini golf course as one of the activities.

Basingstoke Golf Centre is home to a Knights Realm Adventure Golf course. We haven't played the Knights Realm course yet, but did play the course it replaced several times, including some tournaments.

Visit the Basingstoke Golf Centre and Great Wolf Lodge resort websites for more information.

Hopefully we get back to Basingstoke to play the Knights Realm Adventure Golf course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour before it is removed. And we'll have to return again to have a game on the new Great Wolf mini golf course when that opens in the future.

Work is underway on the first Great Wolf Lodge in the UK that is set to open in Chesterton, Bicester, Oxfordshire. Like the US locations, that site looks set to be home to a miniature golf course too.

Pop-Up Crazy Golf in Bishop's Stortford

A free Crazy Golf course will be available to play in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire this Easter.

The 9-hole layout is free to play, but donations to the East Herts Chairman’s chosen charity, Isabel Hospice, are welcome.

You can play a game of Crazy Golf on Thursday 4th, Friday 5th and Saturday 6th April.

Visit the East Herts Council website for more information.

The Putting Shed Mini Golf at Twenty Pence Garden Centre in Wilburton

There's a mini golf course at the Twenty Pence Garden Centre in Wilburton, Cambridgeshire.

Many thanks to our friend and minigolf rival Steve 'Sheila' Lovell for letting us know about the The Putting Shed Mini Golf course at Twenty Pence Garden Centre in Wilburton, Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Looking at the garden centre's website and YouTube video of the course it opened around 2021.

 

It's another new course for us to visit on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa

A look at the Kleine Hazen Putting Park miniature golf course at Hazendal in South Africa.

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

A big thank you to my friend PJ Goedhals for sending me these photos of the 27-hole Kleine Hazen adventure putting park at the Hazendal wine estate.

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

Hazendal is a wine estate located in the Stellenbosch winelands, 30 minutes from Cape Town.

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

Visit the Hazendal website for more information.

Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

It was also very kind of PJ to post me a copy of the scorecard and golf ball for inclusion in the Crazy Golf Museum.

A scorecard from the Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

A scorecard from the Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023

A golf ball from the Kleine Hazen Putting Park at Hazendal in South Africa. Photo by PJ Goedhals, 2023