Crazy Mini Golf Tour

...and now over to our North America correspondent, Lee for an important news update;

Being located on the other side of the pond and unable to compete in the Milton Keynes tournament this weekend, we thought it a good idea to venture down to our nearest mini golf course and play as though we were there! So here goes, not only is this the first international course on the site but it’s also got another special feature...

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you Gophers 'Glow In The Dark' Mini Golf located in Guelph, Ontario in Canada!

What you get
Entrance was about 11 dollars each - that’s around 7 quid in real money - and for that you get your ball a putter and two glow in the dark sticks that can be worn around your wrist and neck if you have no dignity. You get 18 holes on the course and all are par 3 except the final which is a par 2 and it takes about an hour to complete.

The Game
Ann-Marie and I were fairly close for the first 5 - we were just warming up after years of inactivity on the mini golf scene. At hole six though I stepped it up a gear and sunk a birdie while Ann-Marie floundered and hit 2 over. The gap started to increase and on hole 10 it was pretty much game over. A nasty uphill hole littered with seashells and fish was her undoing and the frustration showed. Final count on that one alone was a 12 (in reality, it was probably a whole lot more... we stopped counting) while I hit a 4. Sadly, hole eleven did nothing to help her, another horrible 12 - she was clearly flustered by the 10 year old in front of us hitting par.

The final hole is an uphill polar scene, a large glacier and some traps to catch the ball if it rolls back down the slope. It’s a one shot hole that will make or break a seasoned golfer. We both missed the main hole - I scored a two (the first trap) and Ann-Marie dropped it in for three (the bottom trap).



Final Score (Par is 53)

Ann-Marie - 97

Lee - 66

I'm unsure if this rule applies to the English game but they state on the way out that there is a '6 strike count' which means 6 is the maximum you can count on each hole. Bringing that into play, Ann-Marie ends up with 81 and I come away with 65.

Loser pays for the beer so I'm off to collect my winnings!

(Ann-Marie wants me to say that she did beat me 6-4 at glow in the dark air hockey shortly after the golf...)