Satisfying My Inner Child at Junkyard Golf in Manchester
As a child, there was nothing I loved more than a game of crazy golf. On our annual family summer holiday, my parents would allow my brother and me to each decide the itinerary for a day. This has lead to some interesting experiences, the most memorable being a highly entertaining horse riding trek in Crete where I’ve never seen my dad look as uncomfortable as he did in the saddle that day. However I remember lots of occasions where I picked crazy adventure golf as part of my day! So, ever since I learnt of Junkyard Golf in Manchester last year, I’ve wanted to go!
I’ve played so many crazy golf courses over the years that a lot of them merge into each other. Unfortunately today they just don’t seem to be as popular and so many of them haven’t been up kept or been left to ruin. Back when I was a child, I remember them being such colourful and fun places. As regular holiday destinations of my childhood, Fitz and Hope parks in Keswick (Cumbria) and Scarborough beach front and Peasholm Park were amongst my favourite crazy golf courses.
More recently, as an adult, I’ve had fun at Centreparcs adventure golf courses as well as an epic one in Orlando, Florida at the beginning of the year called Jungle Golf. These are amazing courses and the UK could really learn a lot from how to design adventure golf!
Table of Contents
Junkyard Golf in Manchester
When I learnt that Junkyard Golf had reopened in a Covid-secure manner, Mr TJG and I decided to have a date day out in Manchester. So, alongside our afternoon tea at The Lowry Hotel we decided to book one of the Junkyard Golf courses.
There are three different 9-hole golf courses at Junkyard Golf each with a different theme.
“Gary” is the traditional scrapyard/junkyard course where you’ll find yourself playing amongst a whole array of car parts, written-off cars and putting through tyres.
“Bozo” is Junkyard Golf’s homage to all things carnival and features freaky clowns and dark fairground settings.
“Pablo” sends you into a jungle of polluted tropical madness.
One thing that all three courses have in common though is that they are played in the dark, lit by jazzy neon UV lights. Each course cleverly winds around itself on multi-levels and the crosses on the floor mark the starting point (the tee) for each hole.
On this occasion, we decided to play Gary as it was our first time there and it seemed a good plan to go with the original junkyard theme.
Covid-19 Procedures at Junkyard Golf
Like with most places these days, you need to book in advance to reserve your slot on the course. Junkyard Golf have worked out a lesser capacity to allow for suitable social distancing around the course and in the bar area. When I visited, they seemed to allow a group onto each course every 10 minutes.
When you arrive you’ll be shown to a table in the bar. You are still required to wear a face mask at all times when you are not sat at a table. (I visited before this was necessary so could go round the course without a mask on.)
At the table there is a QR code which links to their drinks menu and you order drinks online through clicking the link in the QR reader/camera app. Junkyard Golf offers a variety of beers/lagers, cocktails and soft drinks, all of which are served in colourful party cups. Some of the cocktails even come with a mini bag of pick ‘n’ mix sweets. You can view the drinks menu here.
You pay through your phone too and drinks are delivered to your table in a crate. From here you lift them out yourself which keeps contact with staff to a minimum. Junkyard Golf is a cashless venue so you can only pay through the App on your phone or via the QR code link.
When the course is ready for you, a staff member will come get you. You can take your drinks around the course with you as at the start of each hole there is a table for putting them on.
At the entrance to the course you help yourself to a putter and ball which have been cleaned and sanitised ready for use. Don’t forget to pick up a score card as we forgot one of these till we were well on our way. Luckily Mr TJG has a great memory for numbers so memorised our scores all the way round.
Junkyard Golf’s “Gary” Course
On the Gary course, the drinks tables come in the form of an oil drum and half way round the there was another bar too should you want more drinks. I’m not sure if this is the same for other courses.
Gary was a great little course and I loved the way it utilised different levels. I wasn’t sure if it was just the ball that was supposed to go down the slide in Hole 1, or whether you were meant to follow. As I was dressed for a smart afternoon tea though, I decided against what would surely have become an unladylike Bridget Jones-esque descent and retraced my steps back down instead.
Throughout the course, you regularly lose sight of the ball, constantly wondering where it will pop out. This doesn’t make deciding how hard to hit the ball any easier but ramps up the level of fun and intrigue.
At Hole 3 you definitely learn that there’s a fine line between hitting the ball too hard and it going out of bounds and too softly and it comes straight back down the ramp at you. That’s assuming you got it up the ramp in the first place which is not necessarily a given! This was the case at Hole 3 where the ball shoots out through that letter box shaped hole in the car door and through several attempts it bounced way out of play.
Hole 6 certainly lived up to its title: Tiresome Fury, where I massively dropped back in strokes as it took me 3 attempts of trying to get my ball to follow the loop-the-loop tyre path before giving up and going the other way. (You can see both route options shown by the arrows in the image below.) It took me 6 shots to do this hole… and Mr TJG levelled up on strokes as I was leading up to this point.
At Hole 9 we learnt there was no point aiming for a specific coloured hole based on where you want the ball to come out, as the coloured hole that the ball disappears through does not correspond to the matching coloured ramp that it comes out on, which is what you kind of assume when eyeing it up to start with! Hole 9 is definitely one of pure luck!
I have to say, walking around the course, not being able to see where the next hole goes reminds me of a giant fun house full of obstacles. In fact, if you stuck a combination of Pat Sharp’s ‘Fun House’ and the theme park amusements at the end of the film ‘Grease’ into the dark and lit it with neon lights, it would look something a lot like Junkyard Golf!
But – Most Importantly, Who Won?
Well, it depends whether you’re counting number of holes or number of strokes. On strokes, I beat Mr TJG hands down, but he did win one more hole than me! So yeah – I won where it matters, right?!!
Handy Information for Visiting Junkyard Golf in Manchester
Prices
Junkyard Golf costs £10 per person per course on peak days Friday and Saturday and £8.50 per person per course during off-peak days Sunday – Thursday.
Under-18’s are only allowed on off-peak days before 7pm (last bookable time slot of 6pm) and must be accompanied by an adult.
Maximum number of players per time slot is 6.
Opening hours (updated: August 2021)
Monday – Wednesday: 4 pm – midnight
Thursday: 2 pm – midnight
Friday – Saturday: 12 noon – 1 am
Sunday: 12 noon – 10 pm
Location
Manchester’s Junkyard Golf is part of the new First Street re-development project, located along Whitworth Street West half way between Oxford Road and Deansgate railway stations. Both are just a 5 minute walk from Junkyard Golf.
There is also a large new multi-storey car park which has amazingly been built with today’s larger cars in mind so we were delighted to find much wider ramps and spaces than the typical multi-storey. Fantastic for city centre car-parking!
Also in the First Street area there are numerous bars and restaurants and a contemporary cinema, theatre and exhibition space at HOME, so there’s plenty to see in the area.
Manchester is not the only place you can experience Junkyard Golf. There are also outlets in London, Oxford, Leeds and Liverpool.
Health Note:
Junkyard Golf contains flashing lights, UV lights and loud music. The courses are super fun, but not for the faint-hearted!
So, does this look like a really cool crazy golf to you? And can you recommend any other epic adventure golf courses in the UK? I’m always on the lookout for great ones to experience in my travels! Drop me a line in the comments below and let me know. I’d love to hear from you.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this, please subscribe to my blog via email over on my profile page or through Bloglovin’. Then head on over to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to keep up with all my travel related news. Hope to see you there.
Further Reading
Here’s some of my other Manchester posts:
Check out the time when Manchester hosted Dino Kingdom and the Snowman Sculpture Trail.
How cool was the Manchester Ice Cavern?
Take a walk around Pennington Flash Country Park or Dunham Massey
Take a peek at my Cheshire blog posts, and where to see the best autumn colour in the UK.
PIN FOR LATER!
Share this:
4 COMMENTS
Leave A Comment
Sophie | 25th Oct 20
Oh, I love a crazy golf course. This one looks epic with all the UV lights and neon and the theme is really cool too.
But, you’re so right about other golf courses being a little worse for wear. I think it is slowly making a comeback.
I went to a few mini golf courses in the USA and they are larger than life – kind of like your Gary course. It was pirate-themed and it had so many animatronics etc.!
I’ll definitely have to check this out next time in Manchester ways.
Sophie x
Tilly Horseman | 3rd Nov 20
Yes, the lighting, setting and obstacles really makes Junkyard Golf fun!
You’re right – the U.S. certainly know how to ‘do’ adventure golf! We could certainly learn a thing or too! 😉
When you are next in the Manc area, we’ll have to go play Junkyard Golf together! Stay safe Soph xx
Eunice Ratcliffe | 23rd Oct 20
Wow, I’ve never heard of this before but it looks like a whole lot of fun. I used to love crazy golf at seaside resorts when I was a kid/teenager, they always had such great obstacles like windmills and lighthouses to get the ball under/through/round/over but courses these days have nothing like that and seem so tame they are hardly worth playing. I’ll make a note of this one and once it’s possible to go mask free I’ll certainly consider going 🙂
Tilly Horseman | 3rd Nov 20
Yes, that’s exactly what I remember from my childhood days of playing crazy golf! I really wish they would do up such courses again!
Definitely keep Junkyard Golf in mind should you find yourself in the vicinity. It really is a lot of fun!
It’s just typical that the day I posted this, Junkyard Golf had to close due to Manchester going into the Covid tier 3. Fingers crossed it won’t be too long before it opens safely again!