Adventure Golf, a £500,000, 12-hole crazy golf course located in Flagstaff Gardens, opened yesterday with a huge competition – the Pleasure Beach Open – to putt it firmly on the map.

The state-of-the-art course boasts bridges, waterfalls and streams as well as the UK's first, figure of eight-shaped hole.

There are also water hazards on holes six and 11 and the course even its very own clubhouse.

Members of the British Mini Golf Association (BMGA), were also on hand with their putters at the ready and said they were impressed by the course.

One of their members, England international player, Richard Gottfried, 27, from Luton, said:" First impressions are that it's a good course in a good location.

"There are some quite tricky holes on here but we've found that most of them we can get round in two.

"We've had a few holes in one too. The toughest hole, we think is the twelfth hole which has got a really big hill on it. It should certainly be very playable for beginners and casual players too."

Pleasure Beach bosses are now hoping that the serious players from the BMGA will come back and are keen to attract more mini golf tournaments to the new greens.

Deputy managing director, Nick Thompson, said: "We've been planning a new adventure golf course for quite a few years. This year we got the go ahead and brought in a Scandinavian company who designed the holes along with our team here and now we've got one of the nicest adventure golf courses in Europe, I think. From what I've heard people think it's fantastic and from speaking to the national team players here they seem to like it too. It's a dramatic improvement to what was here before and it's great for all our visitors.

The new course is open on weekends initially and costs £3.75 or £2.50 for children and £10 for a family of four.