Rumble over mini-golf’s shameful ‘death’ hole

By Paul Eddison

CONTROVERSIAL mini- golf artist Doug Fishbone has come under fire once again – for his creation of a course featuring a replica of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which capsized and led to the deaths of 32 people in 2012.

The incident led to captain Francesco Schettino being jailed for 16 years for manslaughter, causing shipwreck and abandoning his passengers.

However, American artist Fishbone has used the incident as inspiration for one of the holes on his course at the Quad in Derby’s Market Place in an attempt to convey a message about capitalism.

He explained: “The modern cruise ship embodies the messy contradictions at work in capitalism’s production and delivery of the leisure experience – class divisions, out-of-touch leadership that falls apart in a crisis and impact on the environment.”

Peter Bonnell, senior curator of the golf course, added: “The Costa Concordia hole is about cruise ships and capitalism and is by Doug Fishbone himself, who is a very funny artist. Each hole has a message.”

While Fishbone and Bonnell insist there is an underlying theme, the response from the public has not been entirely positive.

Full-time mum Sarah Edwards, 42, told The Daily Mirror: “I think it’s really twisted.

“I’m taking my kids on a ferry to France in the summer. The last thing I want them to see is a model of a ship which sunk and left 30-odd people drowned.

“For the organisers to say it’s ‘funny’ is just outrageous and deeply insulting to those who died.”

By contrast, chef Jamie Smith, 32, said: “I don’t think anything should be off limits.

“It’s great, because it gets people thinking about serious questions while having a good time. I don’t think that’s disrespectful at all.”

It is not the first time Fishbone has courted controversy, having already designed a course three years ago that featured both Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein.

On that occasion he was criticised for a hole where players could make a Hitler model perform a Nazi salute and shout “nein, nein, nein”, while another hole featured a statue of the former Iraqi dictator.