Top 10 Strangest Golf Courses You Won’t Believe Exist!
Trying to convince anyone that golf is an extreme sport might require some form of mind control. The leisurely low-risk nature of the game played in scenic yet ordinary locations is the first proof that hardly any extremes are taken in the sport. Yet, there are some locations around the world where simplicity is frowned upon and the extreme is embraced. Pete Dye, a renowned golf course designer, famously said, “The ardent golfer would play Mount Everest if somebody put a flag stick on top.” The courses we’ll talk about in this video embraced DY sentiments perhaps a little too much. Here they are. Earth is for amateurs. February 1971 became a famous time in golf history after Alan Shepard took a swing on the moon. Yes, you heard right. Someone played lunar golf. No, you weren’t blindsided. There are no golf courses on the moon. But that didn’t stop Shepard from sneaking a modified club in his suit during a mission with Apollo 14. He struck two shorts. the only game of golf to ever be played on the moon. The astronaut’s swings were nothing spectacular. In fact, he scuffed the first and only managed to drive the ball 40 yards on the second try. A far cry from the miles and miles and miles he claimed upon returning to Earth. However, Shepherd’s Fear remains one of the most iconic moments of golf, transcending its typical courses for a different, arguably extreme stage. With neither wind nor erosion in space, both balls have remained in the same spot, frozen in time for the better part of half a century. There is no indication that the situation will change in the foreseeable future. According to Brian Odum, NASA’s chief historian, maybe one day we’ll have colonies on the moon. And it’s like Stonehenge. We don’t want to be messing around in the Apollo landing sites. I think they the balls are where they need to stay and we must ensure they’re preserved as they were. Length doesn’t matter. Nullerbore links Australia is considered the longest golf course in the world. It changes the meaning of playing the long game because you will. It’s just 18 holes, but you have only 863 mi to go after making the first one. Sounds swell. The course stretches from the western city of Seduna across the Air Highway and ends in Calgori, also in the west. Playing around on the course means making each hole, which cuts across surrounding roadouses and towns and could take days to complete. Extreme as it seems, Nuller Links has become a bucket list favorite for many golfers around the world. The course has latched on to this hype, creating the Chasing the Sun Tournament, an annual event for golfers to play the entire course. Golf and a Ride. The Legend Golf and Safari Resort in the Limpopo province of South Africa takes golfing to another level. Each of its 18 holes was designed by a different professional golfer and features stunning views. The experience is taken to another level when players make a hole. While typical golf courses have clubous for players to retire to after each hole, the Legend Golf and Safari Resort has a waiting helicopter instead. So, golfers fly to what is called the longest par three hole in the world. This is where things get more extreme because the aptly named the extreme 19th Tox hangs 4,500 ft above sea level on the tip of a cliff face on Hanglet Mountain, some 400 m above and 361 m away from a green in the shape of the African continent. At this level, most drives stay in the air for over half a minute or more. And the best tracking technology and cameras are used to spot balls. As you can imagine, this course’s extreness has made it an appealing location for celebrities and some of the best golfers around. For instance, the actor Morgan Freeman is one of the few players to record an ore on the hole. That record can be found on the official tourism site of South Africa. On the other hand, Franklin Stevenson, the ex-barbados cricketer, was the first to make a birdie. But not all celebrity records there are good though. Remember Phil Collins, the musician? Well, he helped himself to a double bogey. Peace and quiet is overrated. If you’ve ever watched professional golf events in person, you will find stewards around with signs requesting decorum from the spectators. That’s hardly for show. Golf is a sport that requires focus and mental calculation, and players value the quiet of contemplating every shot. In Bangkok, however, the Contou Golf Course thinks silence is unnecessary for golf. Why else is it located next to an airport and not just to one side either, but on both sides? Airplanes are constantly taking off on either side of the course, which sits daintily between the two runways of Asia’s oldest active airport, Don Miang International. The 18-hole PAR 72 course was designed in 1952 by the Royal Thai Air Force. It was the first golf course built in the country’s capital and the second after Huah Hin Royal Golf Course. Thankfully, this course isn’t used for tour events, but that doesn’t mean golfers don’t flock there for a game. On the courses website, a weekday round could set you back 300 bot or $862. On the other hand, Air Force personnel get a heavily discounted price of 100 bot, around $2.87. For these amounts, what’s a little jet engine threatening to explode your eardrums? Of course, it’s in Russia. A yearly golf tournament hosted on the deepest lake in the world is way beyond the pay grade of a Florida man. But for Russians, it’s just another Tuesday. While ice is considered necessary for sports like ice hockey or figure skating, golf organizers in Siberia think golf is the best sport to play. Lake Ball in Siberia is their course of choice for this event. Every March, the Ball Prize Open is hosted on a frozen lake where players turn up in their warmest gloves and coats. The balls used in the event are exclusively bright colored, yellow, orange, or red, making them easier to spot on the endless sheets of ice and snow surrounding the vicinity. The holes are even bigger to accommodate the unusual conditions of the course. In 2020, Lake Bal played host to the World Ice Golf Championship, a tournament typically held in Uman, Greenland. Gator Golf. Although this sounds like the average course in Florida, Kiawa Island Golf Resort is actually located in South Carolina. If the course wasn’t already famously challenging enough, players must also be wary of the area’s primary residents, alligators. Despite the obvious presence of wildlife, professional events are still being held on the course, like the RDER Cup in 1991 and the PGA Championship in 2012. And if you think gators are the only animals about, think again. You can also find bobcats, dolphins, and turtles around. It’s like playing golf in a zoo. The aquatic animals are mostly found in the water hazards, while those that can handle land come onto the course to sunbathe. You’d think the reptiles might try to snag a bite from a golfer or two, but they are mostly shy and require little management. Well, at least according to a resort official, Brian Hunter, in his words, “Really, there’s not much to manage as long as people respect the alligators and don’t feed or harass them,” Hunter said, adding that anyone caught aggravating them is hit with a $2,000 fine. Feeding them is equally bad, as they soon learn to associate people with food, which is not a good combination, obviously. So really, the key is to observe and appreciate them from a distance. They’re truly remarkable creatures and play a vital role in the ecology of the island. It makes sense why this course isn’t in Florida. Golf with a side of lava. Have you ever felt like the stakes in golf could be higher? If yes, you’d absolutely love the volcano golf course in Hawaii. Perhaps it’s a dormant volcano. According to a report by the US Geological Survey, Kalawia ranks among the world’s most active volcanoes and may even top the list. Sounds swell because the first thing you want to see as you make birdie is a pile of ash shooting out of the mount of a mountain. If the course wasn’t oddly located enough, it sits just shy of the crater rim of the southeastern most volcano in Hawaii. Talk about playing with fire. Sitting 4,000 ft above sea level, golfers and spectators can distract themselves from the looming danger of the world’s largest active volcano with scenic views of Mount Aloa and Mount Aaya. At some point, people on the court could watch Kalawia and Monaloa erupt. These eruptions have been relatively recent, too, with Kalawia going off in 2018 and destroying surrounding homes. However, the eruption in 2021 was quite smaller and only reached the Summit Crater. So, let the Gulf continue. Jaws 18. Attack the golf. Of course, we return to Australia for this course. At the Carbrook Golf Club in Queensland, driving your ball into a water hazard could mean deciding between losing your ball and a piece of yourself. And I mean that literally. For years, rumors of sharks infesting the course’s water hazards were, well, rumors that soon developed into local legends. However, in 2011, those rumors gained new life as reality when Scott Wagstaff, the general manager, uploaded footage to YouTube of a Finn resident catching some sun off the green. Upon further investigation, it was decided that the sharks arrived on the course during a heavy flooding incident in the mid 1990s. The nearby Logan River overflowed during the flood, and the sharks entered the course’s lake, which has remained there ever since. But it’s not just any species of shark. It’s bull sharks, you know, the most aggressive of the species. The course has since embraced sharks as part of its identity, featuring them in its logo and programs, including the youth program called the Junior Shark Academy. In fact, the course also hosts a monthly tournament, the Shark Lake Challenge. Which one of these courses would you like to play on? Leave your answers in the comments. In doing so, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to the channel to get more interesting videos like these. Till we meet again.
Top 10 Strangest Golf Courses You Won’t Believe Exist!
🎯 Presented by The Golf Matrix
Think you’ve seen it all in golf? Think again! From frozen fairways in the Arctic to courses built on active volcanoes, The Golf Matrix takes you on a wild ride through the Top 10 Strangest Golf Courses You Won’t Believe Exist. These insane and unusual golf destinations will leave you speechless!
🏌️♂️ Featuring:
Ice golf in Greenland
A course that crosses international borders
Desert golf with no grass in sight
And many more jaw-dropping locations!
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