Putt in the Park – Crazy (mini) golf at Wandsworth Park

When our friends invited us to play crazy golf, I didn’t quite know what to expect at first. At some point I figured out that crazy golf meant the same as what I’m used to being called as mini golf. Golfing at Putt in the Park’s Wandsworth Park course is not your ordinary mini golf though – I was amazed of how versatile the course is! The only thing missing was a working windmill obstacle that I’ve seen in some movies (or cartoons…).

Mini golfing at the Wandsworth Park course is really fun – you have your hills, your rocks, your bunkers, your rough grass areas AND your water hazards, which I was particularly impressed by! At one point you need to hit your ball even over a small river to an island surrounded by water! The course is open from 9 am until dusk and no booking is required, you can just turn up and play – but on a very sunny day you may need to prepare yourself for some queuing. Usually the queues go quite quickly though – unless you get stuck behind a pre-school group with all the kids hitting and rummaging their balls around the course at the same time. If this happens, and otherwise as well, you can get some (alcoholic) drinks from the café to ease the wait.

The cost of a club and a ball is around £5. The course has altogether 12 holes and a par of 27 meaning most holes are par 2 or 3. With the water hazards it is very difficult to get close to the par though – I certainly have never succeeded. If you want to strategise and rehearse your putting virtually beforehand, you can go through the course online with google maps (Wandsworth 360 Course Tour).

The Wandsworth Park course opened in August 2013 and around August 2015 they opened another 12-hole course in Battersea Park – the golfers there, however, seemed to be mostly children (they especially advertise the café, pizzeria and bar located next to the course to be child friendly so that may be why).

By the way, a word of caution – some of the adult golfers in London have apparently never heard of mini golf before and hit the ball (especially over the water hazards) like they were on a proper normal sized golf course. Additionally, not being familiar with golf, they do not know the word “fore!” either, so if someone starts randomly shouting on the course it’s safest to duck down just in case anyway.