Words by Mr. Tee on New Year’s Day 2024

2023 was a sublime year of playing mini golf for the two of us. It’s hard to wrap my head around all the new places we visited and the special experiences we’ve had putting across the globe. Combined we visited and/or played over sixty different facilities for the first time during the past year. Wow!!

Here are a few highlights of our massive year:

• Traveled to 60 different new facilities that were home to at least one course and in several cases, 4 different courses
• More than 20 of those courses were indoors
• About 1/3 of those courses were less than 18 holes with a slight majority of those shorter courses being indoors
• Played at least 13 new courses in each of Sweden and the United Kingdom along with 3 different locations in Paris
• First-time playing courses by well-known US and international chains including Popstroke, Puttshack, Golfbaren (Sweden), Puttstars, Junkyard, Plonk, ParTee Shack, The Puttery, Birdies (London), and Ripley’s.
• Tom (and sometimes Robin) played or competed on a wide variety of European standard, traditional, and modern courses used in competition including Putt-Putt, CityGolf, Arnold Palmer, Poptroke, Eternit/miniaturegolf, Beton/concrete, Swedish Felt, Putt-Putt, and PuttTek

Our exploration of the game of minigolf in all its forms took us all over the place to play, research, and compete. As the game continues to be in a renaissance, we’ve seen quite a few businesses open multiple mini golf course locations both within a city and across the globe. We found courses that utilized technology in new ways, immersed you in themed environments, and got creative in gameplay design. Mini golf continues to evolve and affirm our belief that the game contains multitudes for EVERYONE.

With playing these new courses, we wanted to create a top 10 (in no particular order) of the courses/facilities that stood out, especially since we’re slowly moving through our backlog of detailed course reviews. You’ll note that we’ve only formally reviewed two of these courses but expect tons of words and images related to these courses in the coming year(s). Within our top 10, there are some interesting notes. Four of our top courses feature less than 18 holes and only two of the top 10 are located in the United States. Without further ado…

2023 Top  New Courses Played 

Birdies (Angel) – London, United Kingdom – Easily our favorite course in London. The pop-art-influenced environments are coupled with immersive spaces, unique gameplay, and some of the coolest holes we’ve played to date.

Craig & Karl Mini Golf – London, UK – On top of being colorful and well-designed, this pop-up course in the heart of London’s Canary Wharf was free for visitors during the summers of 2022 and 2023. We had this high on our list to visit and loved everything about this smart and fun course.

Group Therapy – Greenville, South Carolina – This course has the most Instagrammable environments we’ve seen of any course. You’ll putt and pose through these massive spaces with iconic pop culture references from the past 50+ years.

Hastings Adventure Golf – Hastings, United Kingdom – Three full 18-hole courses located on the seafront of Hastings. We competed and had an epic amount of fun on the traditional Arnold Palmer course that is home to the annual World Crazy Golf Championships and had a blast venturing through the Pirate and Adventure-themed courses. 100% we will make the long trip to return for the people, location, and courses.

Minigolf Parc Floral – Paris, France – A Paris-themed course that includes landmarks of the city in an open-air park with nearby ponds, playgrounds, and plant life. The best part is that the course is laid out in a way that all of the features look and are laid out similar to the way they exist in real life. Loved exploring one of the best cities in the world with our putters and balls.

Popstroke (Waterford) – Orlando, Florida – The growing Tiger Woods owned franchises, Popstroke, had a big year in high-stakes competitive mini golf and you can see why when you play these challenging courses. The facilities are fantastic for people who want to test their putting skills plus the food and ambiance are well above par for mini golf courses.

Puttshack (Bank) – London, United Kingdom – We were eager to play this fast-growing high-tech and heavily gamified mini golf chain that launched in the UK pre-COVID and thrilled to play in the city where it all began.  After playing the Bank location, we understood the wild popularity of these courses. The interactivity along with fun design and gameplay make this a no-brainer for the public at large. Most locations feature multiple 9-hole courses.

Sundbyberg Bangolfklubb – Sundbyberg, Sweden – Just a few minutes outside of Stockholm, you’ll find this idyllic mini golf club in a sports park that has an incredible CityGolf-designed adventure golf course as well as a traditional 18-hole felt golf course. Played here for the CityGolf tour in 2023 and got to experience a truly special competitive adventure golf course with some of the top players in the world.

Swing by Golfbaren – Stockholm, Sweden – A must-play if you’re in Stockholm. All of the Golfbaren locations I visited, including Signal and Nacka Strand, featured smart design, good vibes, and hole-in-one friendly gameplay but Swing takes it to another level. The historical artifacts of the game of mini golf and the high-quality food make it a truly special place. If you love mini golf, this should be on your bucket list.

Uppsala Bangolfklubb – Uppsala, Sweden – Four entirely different competitive courses in this massive facility that has hosted numerous international competitions including the 2023 World Championships. One of the oldest clubs in Sweden with a storied history you can find throughout the clubhouse. You wanna play indoor and outdoor CityGolf-designed adventure golf courses and standard felt and eternit courses all in one place? This is the spot for you. I spent 6 hours here and it wasn’t nearly enough time.

There were a lot of special and unique courses that we played and didn’t make this list like Stroke in Charlotte, ParTee Shack in Greensboro, Puttstars in Harrow, Mad Golf in Paris, Highpoint Putt-Putt, O’Leary’s in Sweden, or any of the other Golfbaren locations (Nacka Strand and Signal). In this exceptional year of mini golf, we’d highly recommend all of them as well and hope to visit each of them again ourselves.