Miniature Golf is a popular pastime today with places like Cardiff featuring a number of venues such as Golf Fang and Par 59 and it's been enjoyed in placed like the UK and USA for over a century. But when did it arrive in Newport?
I won’t get into the history of miniature golf (it’s not entirely clear how it started but you can read about it here) but it was gaining commercial traction in the USA in the 1920s and was soon to become popular in the UK.
Miniature Golf and Newport
Allt-yr-Yn Hospital
Early references to ‘miniature golf‘ are mentioned in December 1925 when there’s a suggestion of adding a miniature golf course to Allt-yr-Yn hospital.
A joint report by the Borough Engineer and Borough Architect has been submitted to the Health (Hospitals) Committee of Newport Corporation, together with a rough plan of a nine-hole miniature golf course, which it is suggested could be laid out adjoining Allt-yr-Yn Hopsital. The estimated cost, including a wooden golf house is £500. The scheme has been provisionally approved if the cost does not exceed £400.
— South Wales Argus, Saturday 5th December, 1925
Based on the date and the location, it was just a 9-hole golf course and likely classed as ‘miniature’ based on it not being an 18-hole golf course.
Reading more into the proposal, there were some objections to the course. Mr Robjent opposed the layout and said he could have understood “if the suggestion had come from the Mental Hospital”.
The Lighthouse
The following year, there is a mention of a ‘miniature golf’ course being established at the Lighthouse.
It is interesting to note in view of recent discussions at the Newport Council that a miniature golf course has been established at the Lighthouse. This additional pastime, at what may be described as Newport by the Sea, should prove highly popular with many visitors who favour the sport, and may lead to a similar development in Newport itself.
— South Wales Argus, Friday 20th August, 1926
Much like the proposal at Allt-yr-Yn Hospital, it’s not known if this was a miniature golf course as we know it today.
‘Tom Thumb Golf’
On August 19th, 1930, the South Wales Argus published an article mentioning an American businessman forming a company to exploit the miniature golf craze which is sweeping America and was threatening cinemas.
‘Bolf’
In late August, 1930, what is likely the first miniature golf course opens in Newport although it was advertised differently.
BOLF must not be confused with the small, irritating courses, but is a completely new game, which is half-way between billiards and golf and is quite easy to play.
On September 1st, 1930, a South Wales Argus reporter visited for a game and the description is more akin to what you‘d expected miniature golf to be so not quite sure how ‘Bolf’ differs.
“Have a shot,” invited a smiling gentleman with horn-rimmed spectacles.
A South Wales Argus reporter whose knowledge of gold was nil plucked at the proferred putter and strode on to ‘Salisbury Plain’.
Confused by the information that ‘Bolf’ is an aunt of golf and a first-cousin to billiards, he lay flat on his stomach and cued the golf ball up on the ‘plain’. an interested crowd gathered. Someone in plus fours began to read from the first chapter of a book entitled, ‘How to Hole out in One”.
Then the gentleman with horn-rimmed spectacles came to the rescue. He contributed some enlightening hints on Bolf, and gave it to be understood that Capitol Park (Newport’s new name For Batchelor’s Yard) is not a sun-bathing resort.
After that, everything went as well as the sun would permit.
There were 18 cemented miniature courses and the reporter finished in 88 strokes. The Mayor Newport (Councillor W.H. Brinsmead Williams) went round in 58.
Miniature golf is all the rage in American and when Mr H Tinley, temporarily relieved from direct association with the cinema business, arrived in the States he said, “this is just the thing for Newport.”
One day a super-cinema will spring from Capitol Park, but for the moment golf must have its way.
More fascinating than golf, superior to midget golf, more intriguing than clock golf, it seems likely to capture the affections and fire the imaginations of young and old. Children were playing on Saturday; old men perspired — but played on. No wonder it’s a craze in America. If you like golf You will like this; if you don’t like golf, you won’t dislike Bolf.
— South Wales Argus, Monday 1st September, 1830.
Bolf was regularly advertised in the South Wales Argus and was described as being lit by electric light, ‘the finest and largest Miniature Golf Course’ in the country and having free parking for ‘Bolfers’.
Newport’s First Indoor Miniature Golf Course
Not long after ‘Bolf’ opened, Newport’s first indoor miniature golf course opened on East Usk Road (opposite the cenotaph). It was opened by the Mayor of Newport on Monday 20th October, 1930 and the course is described as ‘the fine as, if not finer than, any other in the country’. The whole of the first day‘s trading was given to the Royal Gwent Hospital.
According to the article about the opening day, the 18-hole course was installed in the premises formerly occupied by a garage, and the walls have been transformed from the ‘drab to the beautiful’.
It is indeed a gold course in miniature, with some of the putts as much as 30 feet in length. Around the walls one sees a countryside, with tree, fields, flowers, and an illuminated rockery. And delicate lighting arrangements, chairs, small tables and a refreshment stall make it quite a delightful place to have a little fun.
— South Wales Argus, Monday 20th October, 1930
A Second Indoor Course
Hot on the tails of the course on East Usk Road, a second course opened in Forte at the Savoy Buildings on Wednesday 29th October.
It appeals strongly both to the best golfers and to beginners. The playing surface is of a specially manufactured British material, green, and with a pile surface which gives the necessary pull on the ball. This is the nearest approach to a grass surface so far obtained.
The holes are well planned with new and original hazards, and the greens are octagonal in shape and constructed in the same manner as fairways. There are 18 holes, each of which offers a particular attraction.
One of the holes is known as the “Billow Wave”, being an undulating fairway with elevated hole. Another is the “Serpent”, coiled round a tree trunk. Another is the “Gun” the ball being driven up the timber of a 6in howitzer. There are also the “Dual Stream,” the “Water Jump”, the “Speedway,” and the “Switchback” hazards which together with the rest of the 18 holes ensure the fullest possible measure of continuous interest and fun.
— South Wales Argus, Thursday 30th October, 1930
Apart from a 'miniature golf course' opening at Tredegar Park in 1933 (spread over 2 acres so likely not to be like a true miniature golf course), nothing appeared to open in the few years after Bolf made an appearance.
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