JD Golf Dome, Seaton Carew, Hartlepool

We took a trip to Seaton Carew on the Tees coast today. It's a seaside town that both of us had been to before, when we were kids, and we went back today for Glenda's birthday day out. Much fun was had including a chippy lunch in a great pub (The Marine Hotel) on the sea front and an ice-cream to follow, eaten by the magnificent, wide beach.

We also checked out the JD golf dome which we'd found about online.

It probably goes down as one of the most bizarre crazy golf experiences we've ever had - and we mean that in a good way, of course!

The golf dome is a short walk along the sea-front from central Seaton Carew. You can't miss it, it's huge. Inside, the crazy golf course, or golf trail as it's officially known, it was £4 each to play 10 holes.

The greenery isn't real, it's all plastic and the turf is artificial too. But it's a great surface to play on and being in the huge dome made the whole experience something very special indeed, if not a little odd. It was great fun with some tricky holes.

Each hole had two ways to play them - the easy way or the hard way, indicated by a yellow and blue dot at the start of each hole. 

We were also offered, when we went in, the choice of left or right handed clubs! This is something we've never been offered before, and was a first for us both.

All in all, a good game. The staff member was really friendly and helpful and there's a bar inside the dome too.

Final scores?  It was a rare win for Glenda with 31, Barry was on 33.

The website to find out more is at http://www.thesportsdomes.co.uk/thegolfdome/
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Putting it Together - a story of crazy golf

Glenda has a short story published in this week's The People's Friend magazine, on sale Weds 17 August 2016.

The story is called A Crazy Idea and it's about a woman who sets up her own crazy golf course on a patch of land she's been left in her uncle's will. 

It's a fun story that she really enjoyed writing and hopes you will enjoy reading it too.

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A trip to Great Yarmouth

We've just had a few days in Norfolk and had a couple of trips to Great Yarmouth. It's absolutely great for fans of Crazy Golf. We counted 4 different courses open but we only had time to play 3 of them. There was a course on the caravan site we were staying on in Belton too.

First up was Pirate's Cove.

What a fantastic course. We were a little put off at first by the price, £7 per adult, but that's for 18 holes and the course is huge. We soon realised that it was good value. It stared off with a chance to select your favourite colour of ball from a dispenser using a token from the sales desk.

Then, if you thought your ball was a bit dirty there was a ball washing machine. Flaming Nora loved this and it was hard to drag her away to get started on the round. Each hole is quite long and several of them use different levels with one of them having 3. There's plenty of water flowing around; small plaques with snippets of information about pirates, so it's educational too; the holes are in excellent condition with a lovely playing surface; and it's beautifully landscaped with hardly a weed in sight. Check out their website for pictures.

In our last post Flaming Nora wrote about what her fantasy course would be like and this course ticked a lot of those boxes. We both agreed that it was probably the finest course we've ever played.

Next we went to Pirate's Cove's sister course further along the prom: Castaway Island.

This is a very similar course to Pirate's Cove but a little smaller and consequently only cost £6 per adult. My brother-in-law informed me later that it is built on the site that up until last year housed an old Arnold Palmer course. It's a shame that another Arnold Palmer has gone but its replacement is still good.

Unfortunately we didn't take any photographs but there are some on their website.

The last course we played in Great Yarmouth was in Merrivale Model Village.

The model village is a wonderful attraction on the seafront and well worth a visit in its own right but included in the price is the use of their own crazy golf course. It's not the greatest course you'll ever play but once you've paid your admission to the village there's nothing to stop you playing again and again and the whole family had a great time. There are lots of pictures on their website.

Unfortunately we felt a little golfed out by this point and so didn't try the Adventure Golf course in the Pleasure Beach Gardens.

Finally, we stayed at the Wild Duck caravan park in Belton which has its very own mini golf course. It's a private site so I don't think you can play on the course unless you're staying there. To be honest you're not missing much. It's in need of a little care and attention and at £4 per adult for 9 holes it's a bit overpriced and they don't even give you a scorecard.

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My fantasy crazy golf course - what would it contain?

Yesterday we played a game of pirate crazy golf at South Shields. It's a course we have played many times before and we had a good time.  The score, as you can see, was very close indeed.

South Shields - Smugglers Cove Adventure Golf, May 28 2016

While we were playing this course, I started thinking about the best bits of all the crazy golf courses I've ever played.  Putting all my favourite bits from all my favourite courses together would create my fantasy crazy golf course.

What would it contain?  Well...

1. Music
A catchy tune that jingles its way out of hidden speakers around the course and will ear-worm you forever. There's one of these at the Pirate crazy golf course in Scarborough.
"Yo-ho, Yo-ho, Yo-ho, Yo-ho; A pirate's life for me!"

2. Surprise

The course at Tynemouth has surprise water sprays on some of the holes. Always gets a good laugh - when you get sprayed yourself. Gets an even bigger laugh when you watch someone else get sprayed.

3. Seats

Somewhere to sit and wait while you're stuck in a traffic-jam queue on a course.

4. A bar

Tenerife, 2015

Having somewhere to sit, preferably with a beer, before or after you've played.  A lovely addition to a mini golf course but one we've only ever seen before abroad - in both Belgium and Tenerife.

5. A free game 

Saltburn, 2016

Whether it's making the bell ring at the end of a game, or some other way of rewarding a good final shot well played, there's a lot of fun in winning a voucher for a free game.

6. No concreteThere's not much I dislike about crazy golf, but playing on a concrete course is less than ideal. It puts me off so much that I would choose not to play a concrete course. The ball just runs, and runs and runs.

7. Water

Tynemouth 2015

I love, just love, having water involved in one of the holes.  (Not to be confused with 2 - Surprise above!).  One of the holes at Pirate Golf in Scarborough has running water which transports the ball down a slope and deposits it on the green. Lots of fun.  And if there is a danger of the ball going into a lake or pond on the course, a fishing net to get the ball out of the water is ideal.

8. Uniqueness
There's a crazy golf course at Seahouses in Northumberland. The holes are all, what appear to be, hand-made miniature buildings of local attractions. Much as the pirate-themed adventure golf courses are fun and well made and plastic and bright, I would like more quirkiness please!
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Scarborough - Pirate Crazy Golf

Ahoy me hearties!  To Scarborough for a weekend.  Our favourite crazy golf course in the whole of Scarbados was closed. Instead, we played the Merlin pirate crazy golf. It's one we've played a few times before and know it to be a good course, fun with the rafts and nice holes to play.

It was a bitterly cold day, despite the sun shining.

And here are the scores. SunnyJim won by 4 points. Although, if we had been playinbg by the rules, Flaming Nora (aka me) wouldn't have been allowed to run on hole number one for 10 shots. Instead, this would have been the maximum of 6 shots, bringing my score down by four to meet Sunny Jim's 39.

It was a draw, then, I think!

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Saltburn - So good we played it twice

When we heard that UrbanCrazy were building a new Mini Golf course in Saltburn-by-the Sea we got excited. It's a lovely seaside town with a funicular and a pier and a miniature railway, with a gorgeous long beach and fantastic views. We like the place and it's only a fairly short train ride away from home. So on a sunny but chilly day we headed down there to try out the new course.

The course is down on the seafront just north of the pier and the bottom of the funicular. It's new, it's clean and it's a great deal of fun.

There's even a shed, or is it a beach hut?

As you can see from the pictures there are lots of curves. This means that bouncing off the edge of the holes can be a but unpredictable and you can easily end up back where you started.

As it's so new, the greens are very fast too so even a perfectly aimed shot can go bouncing over the hole if you're not careful.

And at the end there's a chance to win a free round. There's no skill involved, just get the ball up the slope and then watch it bounce around in the box and hope it lands in the part which makes the bell ring.

Here are the scores from the 1st round: Barry won and Glenda won a free round.

But that wasn't the end of it. After a walk along the beach, a pint at The Ship and some Fish & Chips, we went back for another game. This time Glenda won. Neither of us won a free round this time but we don't need that as an excuse to go back, just some free time and a sunny day.

To find out more about the course, check it out on Facebook.
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Saltburn Mini Golf

It's Sunny Jim's birthday this coming weekend. And as a birthday day out we're heading to Saltburn to play on the new minigolf course there.

We will be blogging after we've played the new course and will be tweeting on the day too.

You can find out more about the new Saltburn MiniGolf here.
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