Our history
The history of Pitch&Putt
From a seaside course in Portsmouth to an international sport: how the short game grew into Pitch&Putt.
1914
Southsea Golf Links, Portsmouth
Pitch&Putt is born in April 1914 in Portsmouth, England, with the opening of the Southsea Golf Links. This first public course, with nine short par 3s between 50 and 91 metres, is the cradle of the game as we know it today, although at the time it was still called "miniature golf". The course is still very popular and belongs to Portsmouth City Council.
1920s–1930s
Seaside courses in England
Between the two World Wars, courses spread along the English coast, mainly to entertain holidaymakers who were not golfers when the English summer spoiled a day at the beach. Golf enthusiasts built small replicas of the big courses to keep playing on holiday. The mix of occasional players and golfers led many golfers to lose interest, and in England Pitch&Putt stopped being taken seriously.
1930
Jones Beach, United States
The first documented Pitch&Putt course in the United States dates back to 1930, at Jones Beach on Long Island, New York: an 18-hole course in a park for working families created by Robert Moses in 1927. It is still open today. With the golf boom, resorts and wealthy landowners on the west coast and in Florida built short courses too, but as traditional golf became more organised they were seen as a fad and Pitch&Putt slowly declined.
1932
Stanley Park, Vancouver
The exact date is unknown, but Pitch&Putt in Canada is thought to have begun in the early 1930s. One of the oldest courses, if not the oldest, is Stanley Park in Vancouver, opened in 1932 and still very active today.
1937
Fountainstown, Ireland
This is the year when Pitch&Putt began to develop in an organised way. W.A. Collins, then manager of the National Bank in Cork, saw how many members used the 18-hole putting green of the Fountainstown Sports Club, in a small village on Cork Bay, and suggested building a nine-hole Pitch&Putt course. Fountainstown Pitch&Putt Club, the first course in Ireland, opened in the middle of 1937.
1939–1945
The short game flourishes
In the war years, travel was restricted and golf clubs and balls were scarce, so the short game thrived. Pitch&Putt spread across the Cork region, with courses in tennis clubs, in a factory ground, in a golfer's back garden and on land next to an army barracks. In the early 1940s the Irish Tourist Association toured the Cork courses to develop the sport at seaside and other resorts, which it quickly did at Tramore and Killarney. Politicians praised the small amount of land a course needs and a game within reach of the average citizen.
1944
The first national union
In December 1944 the Irish Amateur Pitch and Putt Union was founded under the presidency of W.A. Collins, with its registered office in Cork.
1960
Pitch and Putt Union of Ireland
The Pitch and Putt Union of Ireland (PPUI) was founded in 1960 and has developed the game steadily ever since: today it has more than 125 affiliated clubs in 19 counties and more than 12,000 players. From the start it promoted the international development of the game and kept in touch with courses and players in the UK and elsewhere.
1989
Australia and Spain
This exchange of experiences led Sean Lynch and Ron Wilson to found the Australian Pitch and Putt Association in 1989, taking the game to Oceania; the first championship between Ireland and Australia followed in 1993. In 1989 the game also reached Catalonia, in Spain, where Martin Whitelaw, an Irishman living in Girona, built the Solius course. Catalonia is now one of the world's leading Pitch&Putt regions, with 42 courses and more than 16,000 players.
1998–2004
Across Europe
The game quickly spread through Europe: Italy in 1998; France, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands in 1999; Portugal in 2001; Norway in 2004, among others.
2009
IPPA is founded
On 2 April 2009, in Madrid, representatives of France, Italy, San Marino, Denmark, Spain and Portugal founded the International Pitch and Putt Association (IPPA), with one federation per country, golf federations included. Many other countries have joined since, mostly through their national golf federations.
A curious note
Scotland, 1457
In 1457 the Scottish Parliament of James II banned golf, along with football, to protect the skills of archery needed for the wars against the English. Golf was also forbidden on Sundays, when church attendance was compulsory.
Small courses were then built inside church enclosures to get round the law, with holes of 45 to 90 metres played with a single club. Strangely similar to today’s Pitch&Putt standards.