If you’re a fan of adventure golf and enjoy playing courses around the country, then you’ll have noticed there are a number of themes that seem to emerge.
Of course, there are some courses that are one-offs. Stonehenge Mini Golf in Norfolk, Viking Quest in Merseyside, Galloping Mini Golf in Surrey and others are unlikely to replicated on a large scale.
But many others are built around just a handful of different themes. Dinosaurs, pirates and jungles seem to dominate the landscape, so much so that you could spend all your time playing these quite happily and never think about anything else at all.
So which is the most popular of them all? We’ve taken a look through more than 450 courses listed on crazygolfuk.com to find out.
Number 4 – Lost City / Aztec
The abandoned and overgrown jungle city – usually Aztec – makes a few appearances in our list, presumably because who’s going to argue about what’s in there? Waterfalls, jeeps, skulls and mysterious buildings all tend to make an appearance, and why not?
Throw in a few parrot noises and some unidentifiable jungle shrieks, and you’ve got yourself an atmosphere. Deep in the jungle everything’s quite gloomy, too – which saves on lighting bills, at least.
Number 3 – Dinosaur
If you’d asked us before we looked into this, we’d have said dinosaurs would be number one. Jurassic Cove, Dino Islands, Dinosaur Islands, Dinosaur Escape – there are loads of these. But no, they only come in at number three.
It’s easy to see why they get chosen. Kids love dinos. They love dinos that roar every five minutes or so even more. And they love erupting volcanoes – of which there were apparently a remarkably high number in Jurassic times – even more than that. On the negative side, you do tend to get the same earworm soundtrack playing over and over again at dinosaur-themed courses.
Number 2 – Jungle / safari
A surprise entry at number two, perhaps, but this is quite a broad category. Basically, if a course is set in – or at least appears to be set in – Africa, then it makes it into this category. So anything with lions, gorillas, giraffes or zebras is in.
Congo Falls, Jungle Creek, Jungle Rumble and Jungle Safari are just some of the courses which make up this section. And, like the Aztec section, there’s always a good excuse to throw in a waterfall or three.
Number 1 – Pirates
Pirates in olden days plundered, fought and murdered. Pirates of modern times kidnap, extort and murder. So they are an obvious choice to be the most popular theme for a fun family game which involves using a stick to knock a ball into a hole.
There are more pirate-themed courses in the UK than there are of all the other categories on this list put together, from Smugglers Cove and Pirate’s Landing to Treasure Island and Pirate Bay. If you want to blame anyone, blame Johnny Depp.