This Saturday (March 31st) sees the opening of a new 18-hole mini-golf course in Birmingham’s Cannon Hill Park, located on the site of the former miniature golf course, which closed in 1990s.
Whilst the old course boasted a sign stating ‘crazy golf’, in later years its obstacles amounted to little more than a few bridges. By contrast, although the new facility lacks the challenge of a real crazy golf course, such as steering the ball between the rotating blades of a model windmill or through the legs of Abraham Lincoln (a reference for Simpsons aficionados) there are a few impressive obstacles to manoeuvre before retiring to the nineteenth hole (the park’s nearby tea rooms perhaps?).
There’s a water feature to negotiate, several steep inclines and twisting flats, a ‘wall of death’ and a couple of hump backed bridges. Operated by a private company, Portable Mini Golf, the course has been imported from another of the company’s facilities and assembled on site at Cannon Hill Park. It is being trialled this spring and summer, and if successful there is the possibility of additional courses being laid out in other city parks.
Play begins at 11:00am this Saturday when Cllr. Martin Mullaney, BCC Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture (hopefully wearing plus fours), cuts a ribbon to launch the amenity, following which he is widely expected to tee off the first ball and break a plate glass window in the nearby MAC, or at the very least pitch his ball in the lake.
The first 100 players on Saturday will play for free.