Coate Water Mini Golf – a much-loved activity – and not long now to the summer season.
Last summer I had my Surrey-based granddaughter staying with me for a few days. In an action-packed week, we took in the Roman Baths (in Bath #Obvs) Museum and Art Swindon (a big hit) and the mini-golf at Coate Water. The latter only recently re-opened after being closed since the pandemic. And gosh what an excellent pretext for closing, or rather failing to reopen, leisure and cultural facilities that was!
Now, I’ve been in Swindon over thirty years and recall taking my daughter (mummy of said granddaughter) to the self-same mini-golf. And that got me wondering just how old the facility is. A quick tweet (it’s still Twitter to me – and how do you send an X anyway?) to Local Studies produced the answer. They have in their files a copy of Thamesdown News (I love browsing old issues of that now sadly extinct publication) that states that, in 1975, Swindon’s mayor of the time performed the opening ceremony of Swindon’s mini-golf.
So that means that the mini-golf at Coate Water is FIFTY years old this year! That’s surely a cause for cake on the course?!
The photo below, from Local Studies, shows it in its shiny 1970s glory. There’s a couple more images of it here on the Local Studies Flickr site.
What’s in a name?
Quite a lot as it turns out. And what it turns out is that the term ‘crazy-golf’ formed a bone of contention for one Swindonian at least. Back in April of 2011, the Swindon Advertiser reported a council worker feeling aggrieved at the eponymous golf facility now being referred to as ‘crazy’ rather than ‘mini’ golf. His sentiment being, that one might consider the term offensive to those suffering from mental health issues. He told the Adver ‘I was always happy that the council always called its small course ‘mini golf’. All literature concerning this course has always referred to it as ‘mini golf’ in the six years I’ve worked there.
‘I went to work a month ago and found that ‘mini’ had been crossed out on a lot of the signage and ‘crazy’ written in its place. I was offended and insulted by this.
“To say it makes me very sad to see would be an understatement.’
In response, one Basil Jones wrote to the Advertiser:
‘ … I must find words and make a plea for people like me, who for years have innocently referred to their ‘crazy paving’ garden paths.
Not wanting to cause offence to Mr Battman, or anybody else who may have mental health issues, I’ve tried to find appropriate terminology for my botanical pathway.
“Irregularly-shaped” paving should do, I thought. But what about all those sensitive people with irregular physical shapes? …’
The letter continued in that vein.
Arnold Palmer
At this juncture I confess that I use the term ‘crazy golf’. Though interchanged with ‘mini-golf’ as the fancy takes me. It’s a term familiar from seeing the Arnold Palmer crazy golf games on British seafronts.
Anyway, the SBC website refers to it thus: ‘Our 18-hole pitch and putt and 18-hole crazy golf are perfect for a fun round of golf.’
Nomenclature aside, I’m happy to report that the child concerned had a blast playing (for that read cheating) her way around the course. And that despite its lack of Arnold Palmeresque lighthouses and waterwheels. Just goes to show that kids don’t need all the bells and whistles to have a good time.
The course has had a bit of TLC. I recall seeing holes/tears in the tarmac some time ago but they’d been repaired. It costs £4.60 for a round of crazy/mini golf. And – bonus – the hut is now selling ice-cream. Brilliant for a half-way or end of game refreshment if you don’t want to walk all the way down to the café.
How it all began – in the UK at least
So, if ours here in Swindon is pushing half a century, I got to pondering on how old is the oldest mini-golf in the UK. Rather a lot older than I imagined as it happens. This Putterfingers blog informs us that the oldest miniature golf course in existence is at St Andrew’s in Scotland. They formed the Ladies’ Putting Club of St. Andrews in 1867 as a members-only green for women golfers.
The club took this step as they deemed it improper (of course they did) for a lady to ‘take the club back past their shoulder’. But a bit of demure putting was permissible. Not chauvinistic and patronising at all.
Anyway, while this course featured a distinct absence of windmills and other kitsch obstacles this particular green was and still is one of the most prestigious of its kind.
The 1930s saw another early mini-golf course on the rooftop of Selfridge’s department store in London.
Fore (see what I did there?) more detail on the history of miniature golf go here: https://blog.putterfingers.com/minigolf-putted-history/
