When you visit any major coastal resort in the UK today you will find that most have crazy golf courses where a few hours can be spent having some fun with the family. Not only do these courses prove with their obstacles to be a challenge to children but also to their parents. However, do you know exactly where this sport originates from? In this article we briefly look at the history of crazy golf.
The first type of crazy golf course to open was to be found at St Andrews, Scotland which is also believed to be the birthplace of the game of golf. The 18 hole short putting green course was developed so that women who wished to take part in a game of golf could do so. Unfortunately at its opening in 1867 women were unable to play the proper courses because the social belief at the time was that the movements to swing the club were considered to be unlady like.
It was several more decades before the kinds of crazy golf courses we play on today were being built. Prior to the early 1900's the courses they built were very similar in design to the real ones. But as with the courses today they were much smaller so took up less space and often only a putter is required to play a round on them.
But in the early part of the 1920's things changed dramatically. In 1922 a golf fanatic called Thomas McCulloch Fairbairn created a new material from which the greens of these courses would be constructed. Through mixing together cottonseed hulls, oil, dye and sand greens for such courses could be made quickly and cheaply. From this time onwards this game of golf was not something that only the wealthy could play.
This game was so popular in the 1920's in the USA that tens of thousands of crazy golf courses appeared across it. In New York City for example as space was limited they chose to construct 150 of these courses on building roof tops. However, then things begun to take a turn for the worse during the 1930's as the economy begun to falter. As people didn't have money to spend so a great number of the courses that had opened were then closed or demolished.
But once the economic crisis had passed so the popularity of this sport had begun to increase once more. When you look at the history of crazy golf you will learn that two brothers from Binghamton, New York (Joseph and Robert Taylor) begun to develop and construct courses that were very different from what had been played on previously. They made sure that their courses were more challenging along with having curves, banks and rolls to get past to the hole they put in other obstacles including pipes, wishing wells, castles and windmills.
You can now find crazy golf courses across the UK and they are great fun for the family, however those wanting to take things more seriously are more likely to be found on the greens at places such as St Andrews and the Belfry. Some of the most famous golf trophies in the world are contested for at these venues such as the Ryder Cup and the Scottish Open.