NUTS ABOUT GOLF
Meet the nation’s ‘craziest’ putting couple – a pair on a mission to set a new Guinness World Record
Meet Mr & Mrs Gottfried, the craziest crazy golfers in the United Kingdom.
Richard and Emily Gottfried appear to be just like any normal golfing couple. They play most weekends, and are so competitive that they no longer team up in doubles competition because they bicker so much. But what makes them so unique is that neither owns a full set of golf clubs, nor a golf club membership.
The pair can count on one hand how many times they’ve played a regular round of golf, and yet they need a spreadsheet to keep track of all the crazy golf courses they’ve been to. It’s an obsession which started in 2006, when they bought their first car and decided to visit as many seaside towns as they could.
“The first course we played was in Southsea, and we were hooked straight away,” explains Richard. “We found a list of all 600 crazy golf courses in the British Isles soon after, and we’ve been trying to tick off every single one ever since…”
Despite working full-time, there are only 40 courses on the original list that Richard, 40, and Emily, 39, haven’t played. So far, they’ve visited far-flung places such as the Isle of Man and Great Cumbrae, an island in the Firth of Clyde, and even managed to play 20 times in as many days at the start of 2020.
“Since 2006, we’ve been away most weekends travelling, meeting up with friends and playing tournaments,” says Richard. “When we went on a road trip to the south west of England, we played 62 courses in two weeks. Then another time, in 2012, we went to play the Himalayas putting course at St Andrews and we visited 47 courses along the way.”
Richard currently documents their ‘Crazy World of Minigolf Tour’ on a blog called The Ham and Egger Files, which reviews every course they’ve ever played. “At current count, we’ve visited 917 courses,” he smiles, “but that doesn’t include repeat visits or the 39 courses we’ve played in 11 other countries.”
Despite ticking off 82 courses in 2019, they’ve still got “at least another 200” to go to complete their record-breaking quest to play every crazy course in the UK. Once they’ve done that, they’re hoping to book a trip to Myrtle Beach, in South Carolina, which has another 60-plus courses to experience.
“The only problem with that is there are new courses opening up here all the time,” he laughs. “With the amount of money we’ve spent, we probably could have bought a nice car, or even a house. It is crazy and people may view it as a novelty, but we’ve visited some incredible places, and made loads of memories. We wouldn’t change it for anything.”