Reviewed by Mr. Tee with special guests & putting pals Seve Kukielka (UK), Andrew Edmonds (UK/Czechia) and Vojta Mikšovský (Czechia)
Played April 22, 2023
My travel companions in Sweden and I had just played a round of feltgolf at the Sundbyberg course with Swedish mini golf legend Ricard Lockner right after we all played the two-day CityGolf Tour tournament. Ricard saw that we were eager to discover and play as many courses as possible on our trip to the greater Stockholm area so he mentioned that there was yet another club not too far away. Of course there was! It felt like minigolf was everywhere I turned in Sweden. How could we resist something close by? Seve, Vojta, Andrew, and I jumped in our rental car and headed to the nearby Solna Bangolfklubb. The facilities were undergoing repairs and construction. The entrance to the area with the courses appeared open so we walked inside to explore. We happened to arrive when some of the club owners and staff were working on fixing the place up. We asked them kindly if we could play the courses as we weren’t sure when we would be back in Sweden again. Fortunately, we were given access to play with the caveat that we should understand that some of the lanes are either actively under repair and/or broken. With this knowledge, we took the limited amount of minigolf balls our crew had on hand and took a lap around the 18 competitive Eternit miniaturegolf lanes.
Rating
Eternit miniaturegolf is fairly consistent across any competition-approved course you’ll play because these courses are designed to have standard obstacles, lengths, and layouts with an intentionally limited variety of types of holes (also called lanes or bana in Sweden). The goal is that nearly all of those types of courses are nearly identical in the same way that you’d expect a basketball hoop to be at the same height at all public parks and a baseball pitcher’s mound set up at the same distance from the plate. The primary goal of this style of course is competitive play. If you can learn how to play and/or master a course in one facility, you’ll likely be able to quickly learn other courses of that type of course in different locations inside and outside of your home country. In the US, we play on Minigolf Open Standard (MOS) courses that have a wide variety of course designs and layouts that usually benefit competitive players who have regular access to those specific courses. In Europe, they play on standard courses that tend to reduce the home course advantage and it comes down to the player’s mastery of the game and knowledge of how to use specialized minigolf balls on each different lane. All of the holes/lanes are meant to be aced (aka hole-in-one) and top players in major tournaments will regularly achieve a perfect round. You NEVER stand or walk on these lanes.
The Solna club is one of the older Swedish minigolf clubs and it’s quite clear that this eternit course is an older build and actively being repaired. Some would see it as a negative to share photos of a course in disrepair but I appreciate that this club putting effort into the upkeep and maintenance of the course. It’s less common than you think. I am eager to see the whole facility again on a future trip to Sweden. I’m not aware of the current state of the course for competitive play but if anyone has any updates, send them our way!
Vintervägen 45, 169 54 Solna, Sweden
Comments
Classic Bangolf (Swedish name for the standard minigolf courses played primarily in Europe) club
Eternit style designed course. These courses are also called miniaturegolf
One of the 3 standard competitive styles of mini golf courses along with concrete and feltgolf
Charming looking clubhouse
Under construction during our visit and not sure of the current state of the facility. Did not find results for events there in 2023 & 2024
Love seeing courses/clubs doing work in the offseason to remodel their courses
Nerdy Notes
- 18 lanes/holes. Par 36.
- The facility also has a feltgolf course
- DO NOT STAND ON ETERNIT/MINIATUREGOLF lanes/holes. All holes are meant to be played standing next to but not on the surfaces.
- Short distance from the Sundbyberg BGK and Westfield Mall of Scandinavia
- New food amenities added in 2023 after the beginning of the season
- Founded in 1947 and one of Sweden’s oldest minigolf clubs
- SEK 80 (~7 USD) for players aged 6-18 | SEK 110 for adults 18-65 | SEK 80 for players over 65 years of age | SEK 290 for the whole family
- Club membership is available for individuals or families. 1200 SEK (~110 USD) for a family for a season. Membership includes free play and ability to play in club events
- Top score I could find for an event in 2022 was a round of 23. A perfect round of 18 is not uncommon in major competitions on these types of courses.
