#6 Celtic Challenge, Celtic Manor, Newport

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

Review:

This is the second of the courses at Celtic Manor as alluded to in my very first review. This is a crazy golf course, but nowhere near the average quality of other courses. This is a bit of a luxury course, as you might expect from the Celtic Manor, now a world class hotel and golf resort.

Hole 3 - Celtic Roundhouse

The obstacles are straight out of the top drawer including an 8' Celtic Cross, an enormous Celtic calendar and even a roundhouse complete with a thatched roof! Some serious money has been spent here not only on the course decoration, but the course itself is a brilliant smooth surface and very well designed. The holes are tricky enough to be challenging but none are impossible to complete in one or two good shots.

By far the best feature of the course was the two rafts used to get on and off hole 3 "Wales by the Sea".

This is billed as the easier of the two courses, and has a par of 28 as compared to 34 at the Kingdom of Legends. However, we found it far more challenging and had a great time.

This is a briliantly themed and top class course and well worth a trip, expecially with the equally fantastic Kingdom of Legends alongside.


Result:
We were joined by Rick, of Barry Island fame, who hit a 1 over par of 29 along with Stu. Debs was caught out by a few obstacles and scored 34.
We also played the other course as a decider and Rick scored -6, Stu -4 and Debs -2. A hole in one on both courses helped Rick to a famous win!

Hole 8 features the curiously named "Great Rock"

Hole 6 has two full size rafts!

Hole in one!

#5 Arnold Palmer's Putting Course, Great Yarmouth

Type: Crazy
Price: £3.50 each
Duration: 30 minutes
Rating: 3.5/5

CLOSED - REPLACED BY CASTAWAY ISLAND

Review:
I'm not exactly what the link to Arnold Palmer is; Great Yarmouth isn't exactly an international golf hot spot after all... However, this is a very neat little crazy golf course. It's not really the most crazy of crazy golf courses you're likely to come across, but it is called a putting course and it's excellent for practise.




All the holes featured classic crazy golf obstacles such as ramps, posts and a water mill! The odd thing about the obstacles though was that most of them weren't very obstacley.

As you can see on the photo to the left, the 17th and 18th holes have posts and rocks, but they're not actually blocking anything and you simply have to putt straight through. It was the same on most holes which meant the course as a whole didn't have much variation.

 We still enjoyed it as it was a beautiful day and the course was tidy, well maintained with a good surface.




Result:
Neither of us had a great round, with Debs incredibly narrowly missing at least 3 holes in one. On a par 36 course (All the holes were Par 2, boo) Debs scored 51 and I hit 45.

Another obstacle that just needs a straight putt

One ball got stuck on a ramp, poor design!

My single hole in one!

#4 Smuggler's Cove, Barry Island

Type: Adventure
Price: £3 each
Duration: 35 minutes
Rating: 4/5

Review:
This course is a favourite of ours, though it has to be said it's because it's closest to us! On this occasion we were joined by our friend Rick, who is also a keen mini-golfer. This is a classic pirate-themed adventure golf course, though quite why there are pirate themed mini golf courses in the first place, we're just not sure.

This is a fun 12 hole course, but not particularly challenging. The theming is very good, and it includes treasure chests, waterfalls and even the front of a ship! It was very well maintained, with a nice clean surface and no bunkers or stone borders which can easily spoil the course if it's not kept tidy.

However, the main problem with the course was the lack of variety. In general the holes are well designed but there aren't that many obstacles to negotiate, and all the walls are solid so you can bounce the ball around quite easily. It's still a good fun course above the promenade overlooking a big beach. The ice-cream's good too!






Result:
A disappointing round for Debs, ending with a 'Gentleman's Draw' for Rick and Stu on -5.

#3 Sandbanks Crazy Golf

Type: Crazy
Price: approx £4
Duration: 35-40 minutes
Rating: 4.5/5

Review:

It was a slightly miserable blustery day on one of the most expensive places to buy a house in the world, Sandbanks. We found a very well designed course over many levels with 18 holes. This was a crazy golf course, with classic pipes, ramps and bumps to negotiate.


 We found this very enjoyable, and the poor weather meant we were almost alone on the course and could go at our own pace. There was a good variation in the holes and obstacles and our scorecards show a mixture of straightforward and tricky holes.

It was at the upper end of courses in terms of pricing at £4, but for a very well maintained 18 holes we decided it was worth it.

The only reason this course doesn't get 5/5 is holes 16 and 17 which we both maxed out and couldn't complete. We felt they were a bit unrealistic and spoiled the flow of the game.







Result:
Two holes-in-one from Stu couldn't stop a stonking victory for Debs! She won by a huge 7 shots.

#2 Crazy Golf, Saundersfoot

Type: Crazy Golf
Price: £1.50
Duration: 20 minutes
Rating: 1/5

Review:
Saundersfoot Bowls Club is situated just behind the main strip at the harbour front, and tucked around the side is a crazy golf course. It seemed like very much of an afterthought to the Bowls Club and was very poorly maintained. It was a fairly cheap looking 9 hole 'self contained' set added to a patch of grass. The tee-off positions were metal and dented, and the surface was covered in leaves, twigs, tree seeds etc. Even if it was clean, it was a fairly uninspiring 9 holes with obstacles and ramps.


We were very disappointed with it, and wouldn't have been surprised if we were the first people to play on it all week (maybe even longer). The last hole required you to to hit the ball up a ramp, and jump the ball into a small hole in a plastic gorilla's mouth. This was absurd, and we both had about 6 attempts without getting close. The uneven surface and small hole made it impossible, something the man in the hut we gave our clubs back to joked about "I bet you picked it up and dropped it in the monkey's mouth like everyone else didn't you!"

Saying that, it was only £1.50 and was probably only there for a bit of extra income for the bowls club. We still enjoyed it a bit though, but that's just because we probably enjoy mini-golf too much.

Result:
There was no par for this course and we ended up with the same score.

#1 Kingdom of Legends, Celtic Manor, Newport

Type: Mini-golf
Price: £4
Duration: 30 minutes
Rating: 5/5

Review:
This is a brand new course at the now world famous Celtic Manor. There are two 9-hole courses, the 'Celtic Challenge' adventure course and the other that replicates some of the best known real holes from around the world.

There are holes modelled on St Andrews, Pebble Beach and Augusta and some inspired by past Ryder Cup venues such as The Belfry, Valderrama and Valhalla, not forgetting the signature 14th hole on The Twenty Ten Course at Celtic Manor.

We only played the second course as it's more advanced, and we didn't fancy £4 each for each course. The surface was excellent astroturf, very smooth with white astroturf for bunkers. The stream running through meant all the holes had real water hazards, based of course on the real holes. There were ramps for these hazards, which meant some tricky positional shots were needed.

As expected the course design was great, you can hardly argue with that as these holes some of the most famous in the world! We really enjoyed the challenge, but felt £4 was a little steep for 9 holes. However, the course was superbly maintained, which you can expect to continue being a 5 star hotel resort.

Result:
On a par 34 course, Debs won by 3 strokes with a brilliant 4 under par. The hole in one at "Augusta" all but sealed the victory early on!