Golf is a simple game. To play you only some clubs, a couple of balls and a few hours of your life which you don’t mind giving up walking around behind a ball. I enjoy the odd round of golf and the following are some of the strangest gold courses which it would be fun to play on.
The Island Golf Course
In the Maldives they have built the most the most expensive golf course on the planet. Or maybe they haven’t. News stories from a couple of years ago claimed that they were building a series of manmade island with a hole on each and underwater tunnels linking them. It was meant to open this year and the lack of current news stories make me think that the project fell through or that it was all a big joke in the first place. But who would make a lame joke like that?
The Snowy Golf Course
Greenland isn’t the sort of place you automatically associate with playing golf, is it? You never hear of the big stars battling it out for the Greenland Open, for example. However, if you want to negotiate icebergs and frostbite on vital body parts instead of sand traps and rough this is the place to go. The entire course is covered in snow and red balls are used. This is where the World Ice Golf Championship is held.
The Floating 14th Green
If you are ever in Idaho be sure to check out the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course. This isn’t the strangest golf course around but they have taken the slightly unusual step of including a floating green. The 14th hole is the one is question and you need to take the wonderfully named Putter Boat Shuttle out there.
The Dangerous Golf Course
So, you want a frisson of excitement and a whiff of danger with your golf playing, do you? Get yourself over to South Korea then, you mad, irresponsible fool you. The course at Camp Bonifas is next to land with a load of land mines and has been described as the most dangerous golf course around. Thankfully there is only one hole of nerve shredding danger to negotiate.
The High Altitude Golf Course
La Paz in Bolivia is a pretty cool place to go to but you will probably be busier eating llama meat, coping with altitude sickness and negotiating wild traffic than hitting gold balls. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Here, you will find the highest golf course in the world (10,650 feet above sea level). It is surrounded by eroded, moon like scenery and circling condors. Apparently the thin air makes the ball fly further and truer here.
The Moon
If La Paz isn’t high enough for you then what about heading up to the moon for a round of golf? Why would you do a wacky thing like that? Well, despite the lack of strange golf courses up there you could still hit the best shot of your life. In fact, it has been said that astronaut Alan Shepard’s one handed 6 iron shot up there might have been the furthest a human has ever whacked a golf ball. The only problem with playing on a golf course on the Moon is that the ball could travel miles and take more than a minute to land after each shot. This means that every round could take you the best part of a day to complete.
