First Ever Welsh Open Crazy Golf Championship to be Held in Newport!

In the year when the Ryder Cup comes to Newport, the city will also host the first ever Welsh Open Crazy Golf Championship. It will be held on Friday 3 September from 6.00-8.30pm, is open to 50 teams of two representing local workplaces. The crazy golf course will also be open daily from 11am until 6pm for the general public to hit the greens. Big Splash organisers have also set up this special tournament, aimed at local businesses who will compete to win the first ever Welsh Open Crazy Golf trophy.

The Championship will be played on the world’s finest portable crazy golf course which is coming to the city as part of The Big Splash festival from Saturday August 28 – Sunday 5 September. The Big Splash will take place on the banks of the River Usk and the area surrounding The Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre.

The nine-hole course, built by the newly established Crazy Golf Company, will be situated by the River Usk in central Newport, opposite The Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre. It includes over £10,000 worth of astro turf, and holes created by top-notch designers including a scaled-down copy of a hole from the Celtic Manor Ryder Cup course. Other challenges on the course include the Amazing Green Pinball Machine, Heartbreak Hill, Duck of Doom, Pot the Pink and The Devil’s Saucepan.

The course was developed over three years at the annual Shambala festival, and has just been previewed at The Harbour Festival in Bristol before a final revamp. The Big Splash is its first outing in its perfected form.

"We believe that we are bringing crazy golf into the 21st century, with new concepts never seen before: ramps, transitions, pinball machines and true miniature copies,” said Dave Lovatt of the Crazy Golf Company. "No one will have seen anything quite like this before!”

Each pair will go round the course once and the two pairs with the lowest combined score will face each other in the craziest three-hole play-off ever. Entry fee is £5 per pair. To enter, simply ring The Riverfront Box Office on 01633 656679 with the names of the two players plus the business/company you are representing; you will be given a tee-off time then. Bookings must be received by 1 September.

For more information on all Big Splash events, visit the website www.newport.gov.uk/bigsplash or ring 01633 656757. You can follow The Big Splash online via Twitter, Facebook and the online diary, thebigsplashdiary.wordpress.com.