I was 3rd at World Crazy Golf Championships 2009 in Hastings on 24-25 October. My wife didn't want to visit England in the cold and rainy season, so she and our baby took a flight to more sunny Ukraine instead. I promised to my wife that I will win this competition and bring home the 1100 EUR first prize. But I brought home only the 3rd prize 550 EUR (which is the biggest prize money in my playing career anyway), a bottle of Czech beer (which I drank on the way home), and a small window cleaner. The window cleaner was a joke from the organizer, because I was more active than other players to wipe the minigolf lanes dry before each shot, during the rainy Saturday.

I played the competition in ice hockey dress (shirt, helmet and shin pads), and I used a 2-piece putter that fits in a suitcase, when the two pieces are detached from each other. Unfortunately I forgot the other half of the putter at the hotel, as I packed my luggage in the hotel lobby after check-out. I must be the first player in minigolf history who forgot half of his putter at the hotel.

Yep this was a crazy tournament. And the big media loved it. I have never seen such media interest for minigolf. WCGC seems to be the most widely televised and reported minigolf competition in the world during year 2009. In a world where soapy shows like Big Brother are on top of television viewer ratings, the big media companies are more interested in a fast and funny crazy golf tournament (shot time limit 30 seconds) than in twice slower and less entertaining WMF style of minigolf. I didn't even win the competition, and yet I appeared in the sport news of satellite television stations such as Sky Sport, CNN and BBC. Not to mention all the newspapers and golf magazines which reported the competition. I expect to see myself in Today's Golfer magazine quite soon, with my putting maps and 2-piece putter.

Foreign players have never won the WCGC tournament in Hastings. But if you go to any other minigolf course in the world, British players are in big trouble against all foreign players. A British player has never won even the British Open, which is played on adventure golf courses. So what is the secret behind the British success in Hastings? I think that I know the answer. If you want to win WCGC, you need just four things: player 1, player 2, player 3 and player 4. If you have a team, then you can win the tournament. But if you travel to Hastings alone, you will probably lose, just like other foreign players have lost there.

The unique thing in Hastings, compared to other competition courses, is the fact that the Hastings Seafront courses are located on the sea shore, without much of any bushes protecting the minigolf courses from strong winds coming from the sea. If the wind blows from the left, you must aim 5 cm (or 10 cm, or 20 cm) more to the left than you would normally aim. This is why you need to have the players 1, 2, 3 and 4: if a player in your team misses the hole 5 cm to the left, because the wind has changed its direction or force, he can tell the other team members to aim 5 cm more to the right. You will receive updated aiming adjustment information from the previous players, who played the lane just 15 or 30 minutes ago. But if you play the competition alone, your only source of aiming adjustment information is your shot in the previous round, maybe 4 hours ago, which is quite useless data if the wind has changed since then.

Hastings has also another unique thing: the Mini course, which usually hosted 3 of the seven tournament rounds of WCGC, as the Crazy course hosted the other 4 rounds. The Mini course will not be used in WCGC 2010, because this minigolf course will be demolished soon. What is so special about the Mini course? Many players, including me, have confessed that it was the most horrifying minigolf course that they ever saw in their lives. A haunted place where you fear your every shot and every putt, no matter how short, more than you ever feared any difficult Fishbone on felt or crooked Window on eternite.

The Mini course (may its soul soon rest in peace), was designed like a golf course in miniature size. A wide open area without really any obstacles, where you can easily putt the ball towards the hole. Sounds nice and easy, in theory. But the carpet of this course was quite hard and fast, and many of the greens had volcano centers or strong slopes, and the strong winds were always around to push your ball to places far away from the hole. Missing a putt didn't mean 3 points on this course. It often meant hoping for 4 points and fearing for 7 points.

Such was the World Crazy Golf Championships of Hastings, in its golden age of British domination 2003 – 2009. The British crazy golf empire will probably have a hard time defending the WCGC trophy against foreign conquerors in future years, if the competition will use minigolf courses that are better protected from the wind, and the horrors of the Mini course are no longer haunting the souls of unsuspecting visitors.» results of the competition