12 January 2023 , 11:00
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A couple that love crazy golf have completed more than 1,000 courses across the world - but they're not stopping until they've ticked off their entire bucket list. Richard, 42, and Emily Gottfried, 41, have smashed their way through an astonishing 1,011 courses across 11 countries including the UK, USA, Finland and Sweden.
The couple has spent at least £50,000 on their hobby - with this including travel between courses, hotels to stay in overnight and entry fees for mini golf tournaments. Richard, from Southport, said: "We stopped topping it [the cost] up. We thought if we kept a full count of it, we'd probably have said 'Let's stop and be sensible and buy a house or something like that'. It has become an absolute addiction."
They started their crazy golf challenge in 2006 (Richard and Emily Gottfried)While they have putt their way around almost all of the country's traditional courses, they still have around 50 more to go until they've ticked off all those included on their original list.
He added: "Even with 1,000 courses, you'd think we've done every course in the country - but there's still hundreds more.
"Every major town and city, pretty much, now has an indoor course opening up.
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"When we started, there were 600 courses around the UK coast. Now, there's probably 300 or so indoor courses that are new.
They have completed all but 50 courses on their original list (Richard and Emily Gottfried)"We still have 50 or so from the original list to still tick off - but they're in far away places such as hidden coastal towns down in Cumbria. It would take us hours to get there but we will eventually do it.
"[There's others] in Scotland where it would just have to be a trip there to play the course and then home."
While Richard and Emily have always enjoyed mini golf, they never intended to take on such a mammoth challenge lasting almost two decades.
"It was in 2006 when we bought our first car, we said we should travel around and thought 'Let's see how many seasides we can go to'," he said.
They have spent at least £50,000 on their hobby to date (Richard and Emily Gottfried)"Emily and I have always been very competitive with each other. At the first seaside, where my brother lived in Southsea, we played adventure golf.
"We had a fun game and at the end of the round, they gave us the chance to win a free game on the lucky last hole.
"I won the free game and thought 'This is quite good - you win free stuff and we're going to go to lots of seasides anyway'."
Since then, the couple has ventured to almost every seaside across the UK and have come up with a list of their favourite courses.
Richard and Emily are very competitive with each other (Richard and Emily Gottfried)For Richard, he would argue the Lost World Adventure Golf in Hemsby, Great Yarmouth, is the best course in the entire country, followed by Prestatyn Crazy Golf, in Denbighshire, Wales, and Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire.
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He added: "There's no place better in the world to play crazy golf than the British seaside. We have got such a variety of courses.
"There's no other country that has this many courses in their seaside towns and cities. I would strongly argue the UK has got better courses than anywhere else."
The couple aim to complete as many courses as possible this year after the Covid-19 pandemic slowed their progress - and hope to start chipping away at the 50 still sat on their to do list.