#9 Castaway Island, Great Yarmouth

Type: Crazy
Price: £4 each
Duration: 30 minutes
Rating: 4.5/5

Review
This is a new course that has replaced the Arnold Palmer Putting Course. Poor Arnold must be cutting back. Anyway, it's been replaced by Castaway Island which has a vaguely piratical theme. (What is it with mini golf and pirates, anyway?)

Simple but effective.
(The course, not Rick)

This is a really good course. It's not that challenging, but a lot of fun. There were plenty of hills, lumps & bumps, bunkers (which is just a slightly raised white surface, posts and a few caves to hit the ball through. This simplicity is extremely effective and meant no one got frustrated trying to thread the ball through a tube or anything.

There were 18 holes and each felt different enough to give it variation. It had a great surface, plenty of zip without the ball wandering all over the place trying to settle. The walls weren't even so the ball was a bit unpredictable when bouncing off.

Result
Debs and Stu were joined by Rick and Nicola. Rick's an old hand, but it was a bit new for Nicola who FLUKED three holes in one by smashing it down the middle, bouncing off the back wall and trickling in.

44 - Rick
45 - Stu
48 - Debs
52 - Nicola

Rick scored 2 or 3 on every hole which was good enough to win. Stu scored two 4s on the last few holes which was bad enough to finish second.

Evenly matched

#8 Norfolk Gardens, Littlehampton

Type: Adventure
Price: £3.10 each
Duration: 30 minutes
Rating: 4/5


Review
Whereas the craziness of the last review was in question, the adventurousness of this course was off the scale!


There was only 9 holes but they were the longest holes I've ever seen! The photo to the right shows one good example.Small hill to negotiate, some boxes, then a ramp through a barrel. Get through that, then there's an anchor and chains before you reach the holes.


Unfortunately, there was no par for the course so we didn't really know how well we were doing or what the right approach to the hole would be.


Another unfortunate feature was that most holes were at the bottom of a bit of a well, meaning that once you got to the final section you only had to putt to within two or three feet and the ball would spiral in, which took away a lot of the challenge.


The course was well designed, but a little ragged around the edges in places, though with the summer washout that's understandable.


Decent money had been spent on it, as you can see from the pirate ship! This is a really good course, very different from anything else we've played. It was just the slight wear and tear and the holes at the bottom of the wells that let it down a little.


Result
A hole in one for each of us on hole 7 was about all we had in common, Debs wins with 35 and Stu with 40. The lack of par means we have no idea if we did well!

First get around the gates...

Then over the concrete ramp...

And through the cannon.

And then there's some berk with a golf bat...

#7 Seafront Mini Golf, Bognor Regis

Type: Crazy
Price: £3.25 each
Duration: 30 minutes
Rating: 4/5

Review:


I've classed this as 'Crazy' golf, though to be honest the craziness appeared to be controlled with lots of Valium. There were obstacles, but they were rather meagre and very straightforward.

However, there was a proper windmill hole! I think that's the first I've seen on my adventures. Also, a similar water wheel hole was good fun. Apart from those two and a spiral ramp, the obstacles ranged from a small hill to a small ramp, which was a shame.

Great surface though, well maintained, clean and tidy. There was the usual hole 19 challenge to win a free game which we, as usual, failed.

Very good course, just needs some variety.






Result:
No par, and I missed the scoring on one of the holes! Recorded 50 for Debs and 43 for Stu.

Pretty cool spiral ramp, though you
could just go around it.

Not very challenging holes...

Small bump

Windmill!