Denton Gardens in Worthing, West Sussex is 100 years old today. There has been minigolf of one kind or another there for many of those years.
Playing Splash Point Mini Golf in 2019 |
A blog about our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. With a sprinkling of nostalgia and urban exploration for good measure.
Playing Splash Point Mini Golf in 2019 |
Post Card - Jekyll Island, Gergia. Golf House and miniature golf course. Marsh Post Card Service. Postally unused, undated |
Post Card - South of the Border. South Carolina at the N.C. - S.C. Border. ACE-HI ADVERTISING, INC. Postally unused, undated |
Post Card. Grand Haven State Park, Grand Haven, Michigan. Water Wonderland Card Company. Postally unused, undated |
Butlinland Skegness – Putting Green and Monorail by John Hinde Studios. Sent on 4 Aug 1980 |
Bridlington Princes Parade. The Spa Boating Lake. Photochrom Co. Ltd. |
Crazy Golf, North Shore, Blackpool. 50. Bamforth Post Card. Unposted. Undated |
A Weetabix Gang Crazy Mini Golf Weeta-Card postcard from 1983 |
Pat Regan's Putting Green in Broadstairs - postcard. Undated |
Miniature Golf Links, Brighton. Postally used 29 August 1927 |
One of two postcard designs you can find at Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing |
Worthing, Denton Gardens, Putting Green. The Photochrom Co Ltd. Posted to Birchington, Kent on 30 July 1928 |
Putting Green, Great Yarmouth. Postcard postally used on the 11th November 1927. Publisher unknown |
BURGH HALL COUNTRY CLUB postcard. Posted 24 May 1977 |
PONTIN'S HOLIDAY VILLAGE, HEMSBY, NORFOLK R5713 by Photo Precision Limited, St Ives. Unposted, undated |
Putting Green, Great Yarmouth. Postcard postally used on the 11th November 1927 |
Castaway Island Adventure Golf on Marine Parade in Great Yarmouth in 2016 |
Playing the Arnold Palmer Putting Course on Marine Parade in Great Yarmouth in June 2011 |
Picture Postcard Annual 2022 |
Butlinland Skegness – Putting Green and Monorail by John Hinde Studios. Sent on 4 Aug 1980 |
The front nine |
The back nine |
Worthing, Denton Gardens, Putting Green. The Photochrom Co Ltd. Posted to Birchington, Kent on 30 July 1928 |
Many thanks to our friends Tom & Robin at A Couple of Putts for sending us this ace new miniature golf postcard.
The minigolfing duo are seeing in the New Year by posting a hole-in-one video from a different course each day throughout January to #Make2021aHoleInOne.
Happy New Year! We’re feeling hopeful about 2021 and we’re kicking it off with some fun. Let’s have an ace of a new year!
Posted by A Couple of Putts on Thursday, 31 December 2020
I managed to find these nice Blockbuster Entertainment postcards by Boomerang earlier this year. I think they sum up 2020 nicely.
Picture Postcard Magic 31st October 2020 with Richard Gottfried What have you been watching during lockdown? With 2020...
Posted by Reflections of a Bygone Age on Saturday, 31 October 2020
The postcard is likely to be from the late 1970s |
This advertising postcard from 1983 shows the Weetabix Gang playing a game of minigolf and is one of a set. Other activities the gang get up to include playing cricket on the beach, building a sandcastle, playing a test-of-strength machine and fishing on a pier.
A Weetabix Gang Crazy Mini Golf Weeta-Card postcard from 1983 |
The Weeta-Card was used to enter a Golf Video Giveaway and posted from Reading, Berkshire to Leatherhead, Surrey. Unfortunately the postmark cancellation is too feint to make out the date of posting.
The Weetabix Gang consisted of Brian, Bixie, Brains, Crunch and Dunc. The Crazy Golf Weeta-Card shows Bixie playing the minigolf hole, Brian as her opponent, with Dunc and Crunch looking on. I don't know what Brains was up to as he's nowhere to be seen.
Related blog posts:
- Minigolf
- Cereals
Link:
- Weetabix
This old postcard showing the Putting Green at the North Shore in Blackpool was posted on the 10th of October 1938.
This old minigolf postcard by Photo Precision Limited shows the South Shore Baths and Promenade in Blackpool.
I'd say the prominent feature on the card is the crazy golf course in the foreground |
It was posted on the 17th September 1980. A month before I was born.
Last year I had my family's cinefilm converted and was amazed to see my parents playing crazy golf in Blackpool in August 1980. That round was on the course at Princess Parade on the North Shore.
The South Shore Crazy Golf course was located right outside the Pleasure Beach. It was removed in 2008 and replaced by an Adventure Golf layout. I won the Pleasure Beach Open tournament on that course in 2009.
The 2021 Picture Postcard Annual is now available from Reflections of a Bygone Age.
The annual includes 65 features on picture postcards on a wide range of topics. I'm happy to say minigolf is well covered.
It's been brilliant to contribute to the Picture Postcard Magic blog from Reflections of a Bygone Age this year. Check out my guest posts in the links below:
- Minigolf postcards from Bournemouth
- My home town of Abingdon-on-Thames
- What have you been watching during lockdown?
Links:
Picture Postcard Magic 31st October 2020 with Richard Gottfried What have you been watching during lockdown? With 2020...
Posted by Reflections of a Bygone Age on Saturday, 31 October 2020
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 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 prize 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
Check out the Crazy Golf Museum website for more details of minigolf history.