The ‘spiritual home of mini golf’ on Hastings seafront will be hosting World Crazy Golf Championships this summer for the 17th year in a row.

Entry is now open for the event which, for the first time in its history, is including a new junior competition just for children.

Taking place at Hastings Adventure Golf from June 7th to the 9th, the Championships boast a £4,500 prize fund.

The new junior category is open to those aged eight to 14 and will be played on Friday 7th at 5.30pm. The novice competition category, introduced two years ago, will be played on the Saturday while the crazy golf professional category is played over both Saturday and Sunday.

Simon Tompkins of Hastings Adventure Golf said: “We are thrilled to introduce the junior category to this year’s championships. The three separate competitive categories; professional, novice and junior, help make the championships even more inclusive.

“The novice category was established two years to give non-professionals an event of their own. Now the addition of the junior category makes the Championships an open playing field for younger players too.”

Each category competes for a separate prize fund too. A £3,000 prize fund is allocated to the professional category with the overall winner scooping £1,000 – the largest prize fund in mini golf. A separate prize fund of £1,500 is allocated to the novice category. There are also opportunities for team entries in both the novice and professional categories. The junior category will have awards for first, second and third place.

All competitors must beat the windmill and watermill as well as negotiate the bends, twists and ramps on the traditional course in Hastings that has been dubbed the UK’s ‘spiritual home of mini golf’.

Following last year’s fantastic efforts, there will again be prizes for ‘best dressed’ and ‘personality of the competition’ this year.

The event is now seen as the pinnacle competition for crazy golfers in the UK and beyond. Last year saw the largest number of competitors in the field since 2005, with Marc Chapman from Kent being crowned the World Crazy Golf Champion. His score was 226, 26 under par, beating the 2017 top score of 235 by Olivia Prokopova of the Czech Republic.

Marc said: “It felt amazing to finally become the World Crazy Golf Champion! It was a great personal ambition of mine to win the event and I had been close to it a few times before which made the win even more amazing!”

Adam Kelly took runner-up prize of £750 and Michael Smith, former World Champion, took home £500 for third place. The novice title and £500 went to Russell Smith from Tunbridge Wells. The runner-up Chris Horn took home £300, while third place went to Italian Mark Berezicki who won £200.

Competitors can enter via the Hastings Adventure Golf website: www.hastingsadventuregolf.com/book