Crazy Golf in Seaburn, Sunderland

As part of Sunderland's annual illuminations each autumn, a mini-fairground has set up in Cliffe Park in Seaburn, which is just a few minutes walk from our house.  And this year, along with the big sightseeing wheel and kiddies rides, a mini golf course has opened up too. Of course, we had to go and take a look!

It's a really nicely constructed course. It's called Golden Putter and there are 18 holes. 

Based on the seafront it's in a lovely location tour. 

It's a temporary course for the duration of the illuminations and so there was a bit of an uneven playing surface on many of the holes but that really didn't matter.  It felt new and fresh, it was clean and inviting and at only £4 a game for adults, it was good value for money too.

You can see the portable course, that's currently in Seaburn, on the Golden Putter website where there's a hole by hole breakdown.   It's here.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable game to play with some tricky holes.

Final scores: Sunny Jim 53 and Flaming Nora 62.
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Crazy golf in Benidorm, Costa Blanca, Spain

Just back from a wonderful few days holiday spent in Alicante, Spain. 

As we were on the same Costa as the city of Benidorn, which we'd never visited before, we thought we'd make a day of it. Off we headed on the tram down the coast to Benidorm and had our eyes opened to the place. Far cleaner, happier and much more Spanish than we ever thought it could be, we can see what all the fuss is about now around having a holiday to "Benny".

And although we weren't looking for it, we found a mini golf course too!

Benidorm Mini Golf has its own facebook page here.

It was a nicely kept course in a shaded spot under trees, in a street just one step back from the main drag.

And the scores were in - a draw!

You can also read about a course we played in Alicante too.
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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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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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Ahoy me hearties! Pirate golf in South Shields

To South Shields for a game of adventure golf at the Smugglers Cove on the sea-front. It's a game we've reviewed on our website and one that we've played many times before.  It's the closest mini-golf game to our home, so as it was a nice sunny day today we thought we'd make the most of it and set out on the bus for the 20 minute ride. 

It's a 12 hole game, costing £4 per person (£3 for children and OAPs).  It's in a lovely spot right near the sea and opposite North Marine park which is worth a look in and if it's running, a ride on the mini steam train that runs around the park too.

The game is pirate-themed (why are so many crazy golf courses pirate themed? anyone know?). The course itself appeared to have been relaid with a new surface on each hole. This felt like walking on new carpet, quite spongy underfoot. It also meant that the playing surface was quite slow and it took a little bit of getting used to.

Most of the holes aren't particularly difficult but there are a couple of nasty things which can slow down play such as banks that you think the ball will go up more easily than it does!  Definitely a good course and one we'll be back to play next year when it reopens after the winter.

Scores:
Sunny Jim 34.
Flaming Nora 38.
Loser bought fish and chips.
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Crazy golf in Sunderland - Roker sea front

There's a new, albeit temporary, mini-golf course on the Roker seafront in Sunderland.  You can find out all about it in this news item from The Sunderland Echo.

The news article says it's open every day until the end of August unless it's raining.

Well, it wasn't raining today so we walked down to have a game and do a review for the blog.

Sadly, this is what we found. It was shut.

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Lost World Adventure Golf - The Scores

You've probably already read the description of the course here but what about the result?

We played the red course first. It's par 23 and Glenda went round in 28, Barry in 30. Glenda got a hole in one on hole 9.

Next the par 28 blue course. Glenda scored 32 and Barry 24 and we both got a hole in one.

SO, Glenda won on the red course and Barry won on the blue course,If we look at this as one 18 hole round then Barry wins 54 to Glenda's 60. But let's just call it a draw.
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Lost World Adventure Golf in Tynemouth

To the Lost World Adventure Golf in Tynemouth Today. If you can manage to push your way through the buggies and yummy mummies in the cafe, it's a cracking course of two seperate nine hole courses, so you can either play one nine hole course or a full 18 holes. We did them all!

 

The course is in a lovely position in Tynemouth Park and just off the sea-front.  The cost was £4.50 per adult for the whole 18 holes or £3 per adult for 9 holes. 

  

All the water warnings were there... but I still managed to get a good soaking. And judging by the screams from the other golfers around the course, I wasn't the only one. It all added to the fun.

Here's Barry being, er, attacked by an, er, dinosaur. Note the orange fluoro ball!

Yes, that's Barry's orange fluoro ball in the water. We both ended up with our balls in the water (and that's not a euphemism) on different holes and there were lots of fishing nets to get the balls out of the ponds.

Roar! More scary dinosaurs.

At the end of the course there was a 'get the ball in the hole to win a prize' final hole.  My ball went awol but Barry won.

And all the winners then get to spin the wheel to determine what kind of prize you are awarded. Barry won a 4th place prize...

And the prize was a plastic dinosaur!  Worn out by all that crazy golf we headed back to North Shields and a lovely pint in The Magnesia Bank.

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Crazy Golf in Ostend, Belgium

In 2009 we visited Ostend in Belgium for a long and lovely weekend. We're big fans of Belgium as well as being big fans of Crazy Golf.

The Crazy Golf course in Ostend is situation in the Leopoldpark and its website is here.

It's a beautiful course, very nicely landscaped in the middle of a pretty park.  And when you've played a round of golf, you can relax and refesh with a Belgian beer in the bar.  Yes, a crazy golf course with a bar. In Belgium. Who could want for more?
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Crazy Golf at South Shields, Sunday 19th April 2015

We went out for our first Crazy Golf game of the year today at Smugglers Cove in South Shields. Barry won.

This is our nearest course and so we've played it quite a few times. It's situated on the sea front at South Shields next to the amusement park and across the road from South Marine Park, famous for its boating pond and miniature railway.

The surface has been renewed quite recently and is still in excellent condition. It's £4 a round for adults and I guess it's cheaper for children but let's face it it's a game for grown ups really.

There are no really tricky holes on it and with a bit of practice and on a good day, 10 or more under par should be possible. There are only a couple of holes which lend themselves to being hole-in-one material.

Two Crazy Golfers - who are we?

This is a new blog by two crazy golf fans, Glenda and Barry who live in the north-east of England.

Glenda blogs at Flaming Nora and is on twitter @flaming_nora. She is also editor of the Coronation Street Blog. She collects sea-glass and makes things with it, follow on twitter @SunSeaGlassArt

(Post blog edit: Glenda is also now a bestselling author published by Headline. Her novel Foul Play at the Seaview Hotel stars a team of obsessive crazy golfers! - find out more at bit.ly/FoulPlayAtTheSeaviewHotel

You can read her blog post all about the crazy golf and mini golf courses in Scarborough.

Barry blogs at Seaside Scenes and is on twitter @SunnyJimBaz.  He also wins almost every crazy golf game we play.