Golf even offers a therapeutic effect for high cholesterol or high blood pressure. But: Golf is absolutely good for mind and body, but it can also be stressful. This is the case when a golfer faces extreme challenges on the course. But if “only” the placement of the flag, surrounding the green with sand holes and tricky water holes or a tree-lined narrow fairway was the challenge, then there is actually nothing exciting about it. Because there are golf courses with bizarre and really crazy (and difficult) golf holes spread all over the world.
The Elfego Baca Shootout in Socorro, New Mexico (USA)
Hole in and win, seems almost hopeless on this course. Because it is littered with all kinds of cacti. For the annual one-hole shooting, the players are driven to Socorro Peak in four-wheel drive vehicles. This is a 2,208-metre-high mountain peak from which the course is driven down the hill: The ball has to fly onto a “green” with a diameter of 15 meters, which is located on the grounds of the Technical University. That’s just 780 meters below and almost five kilometers away. The players are allowed to hit each ball off the tee again, but many players have already seen one or two mountain lions along with rattlesnakes.
7th hole 1 at the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, Waterford (Ireland)
Ireland’s most unique hole (7th) is embedded on a floating green at the Cliff House Hotel. Here you tee off from the Golf-Tee-Box terrace to meet the floating pontoon in the middle of Ardmore Bay. Those who miss their target need not worry about the ball: they are produced in an environmentally friendly way as food for the fish, are biodegradable within a few hours and make the Ardmore fish happy.
Nullarbor Links Golf Course in Australia
The longest golf course in the world is of course in Australia. For a round of golf one should take four days here. While some are driven to the golf holes with a golf caddy, others with a 4×4 vehicle, on the Nullarbor Links Golf Course one could also be transported by plane. The 18-hole, par-73 golf course stretches over 1,300 kilometres and the tees are between ten and 180 kilometres apart – always in a different one of the eighteen different cities. The golf course stretches from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to Ceduna in South Australia, including holes in the Nullarbor Desert. Wild Australian animals are among the companions of the travelling golfers.
Hole 19 at the Legend Golf & Safari Resort in Waterberg, South Africa
Hole in for a million dollars – challenge enough? If you want to treat yourself to the extra par-3 hole on this 18-hole golf course, get into the helicopter and hit the ball off a cliff on Hanglip Mountain – more than 400 metres above the green. Luck plays a big role here, as the distance to the flag, which is located on a green shaped like the African continent, is more than 380 meters.
Hole 14, Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course in Idaho (USA)
The most famous hole of this golf course is located on a floating par-3 golf island. Nearly 1,400 square metres of green, which lie 140 metres from the lake shore in the water, have been challenging golf professionals and amateurs for two decades. The ball is teeled off and then (once the green has been hit) the players board a shuttle boat to putt the ball in. No matter how the round of golf ends, everyone receives a certificate with the number of strokes, name and date.
Indoor Ghetto Golf in Liverpool (England)
And if all these holes and golf courses are not crazy enough for you, you should travel to Liverpool. Because completely crazy and extraordinary there is the ghetto course in an old brewery with 18 holes, combined with bars and a street food stand. Here you will find, among other things, an old sailing boat, a hippie caravan and a big house, through which the ball must be hit into the hole. From a tree house DJ’s are playing on the course.
Worldwide biggest golf club (China)
China once again lives up to its reputation as a “land of superlatives”: The Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen is the largest golf course in the world and was included in the “Guinness Book of Records” on 26 May 2004. In a festive ceremony, Stewart Newport, representative of Guinness World Records Limited, presented the certificate to Dr. David Shu JP, Chairman of the Mission Hills Group. Mission Hills replaces Pinehurst Club as record holder.
The Mission Hills Golf Club combines ten 18-hole courses – no other golf facility in the world has more courses. Mission Hills replaces the previous record holder American Pinehurst Club with a total of eight courses. Only two years after the founding of Mission Hills, the first course designed by Jack Nicklaus was completed. The inauguration of the tenth and newest course took place in April 2004 in the presence of golf icon Greg Norman. Mission Hills Golf Club – located about 30 minutes from Hong Kong – is the heart of the Mission Hills Leisure and Recreation Resort, one of the most popular tourist destinations in China. Mission Hills is now the benchmark for a burgeoning industry that provides some 5,000 jobs and has an investment of more than $400 million.