LESS than four months after it was all-but-washed away in December’s storm, New Brighton’s miniature golf course is back on track, with its owners setting their sights on expanding the business.

The Championship Adventure Golf Course looked more like a swimming pool when last year’s tidal surge left it submerged under two million gallons of the Irish Sea.

Started on two former council tennis courts on King’s Parade, the 18-hole course had only been eight months when it forced to close.

But after undertaking a mammoth task to pump out the water and refurbish the course, Championship Adventure Golf Course is now fully reopen and its owner, Nick Ashfield, has even started work on creating a second course next door.

Wirral Globe:

Owner Nick Ashfield at the flooded course in December.

“It was always in our plans to have two courses,” said Nick, who spent last month working on a course in Portugal.

“We are going to get started on that next week and hopefully it will be a two month build. We’re going to try and get ready for June – we are excited about it.”

Wirral Globe:

Owner Nick Ashfield at the newly refurbished golf course in New Brighton.

The course will be known as Landmark Adventure Golf and whereas the existing course is based on famous holes from some of the world’s top golfing venues, it will pay tribute to some of Wirral’s finest landmarks, both past and present.

Nick explained: “The second course will feature holes inspired by Wirral’s landmarks and structures including the outdoor lido, New Brighton pier, Birkenhead Priory, Fort Perch, Mother Redcaps and the smugglers history, Vale Park and Birkenhead Park.”

Wirral Globe:

The golf course looked more like a swimming pool when it was submerged under two million gallons of water in December.

Despite the problems the December 5 surge caused, it also had its benefits for Nick who took the opportunity to “tweak” some of the holes.

“We had a rebuild on one corner of the course and the rest of it was just covered in everything that was in the Irish Sea,” said Nick.

“It was a huge clean-up operation and we spent four weeks just pumping out water because it had nowhere to go - we estimate we had to remove around two million gallons of water.

“Fortunately that is all in the past now and we are back as good as new.”

Nick added: “I spent last year seeing how the course played and how people played on it so I wanted to put in a few small tweaks to make the course play a bit better.

“Hopefully it will make the customer experience even better.”