Unique Golf Courses I

Asia

Want some different golf?

Can you find a greater challenge than one the soldiers who golf at Camp Bonifas on the North-South Korean border in Panmunjom? The "course"--a single 192-yard, par 3 hole--is ringed by minefields, one of which is active. Tours go from Seoul, but civilian duffers aren't allowed near the course; an errant drive could start a war.

According to North Korean government sources (official propaganda), the country's leader Kim Jong Il is a golf convert and he shot a 38-under-par 34 at Pyongyang Golf Club, shaving 25 strokes off the single-round world record set in 1977 by U.S. pro Al Geiberger. Kim nailed five holes-in-one.

The Nichigo Resort, a former sugar-cane plantation set along the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi, Thailand is split into three nine-hole adventures named Land, Water and Mountains in keeping with the principles of Feng Shui. It is like playing in a Japanese garden but a garden that was the site of a battle between Thai forces and Burmese invaders. over 200 years ago.

The Monu Valley Golf Club in northern Bangladesh offers a little danger with your game. Set amid the sedate paddies, banyan trees and rubber groves of the Shumshernugger Tea Estate, Bengal tigers have been known to stalk across the fairways. No golfers have been reported loss in the course's 100 year history.

On the 9 hole Aranda course, part of Singapore's Orchid Country Club, the 4th hole has its own traffic light. Since the drive from the 4th tee is blind, obscured by a hill, you have to wait for a green light before teeing off.

Wild boar, elephants and deer are protected on the Soi Dao Highlands course in Bangladesh, 30 km north of Chanthaburi on the border with Cambodia. Villagers fish in the streams and lakes that surround the course and forage for food in the virginal forest surrounding the area.

Four holes on Sri Lanka's Royal Colombo Golf Club, founded in 1879, are traversed by the Kelani Valley steam railroad; golfers are advised to give way. A free drop is permitted if your drive lands on the tracks.

The world's highest course, the Government Golf Course Gulmarg in Kashmir, opened in 1904 and is 3,730 m above sea level. The area is known as the meadow of flowers and sits in a saucer-shaped valley you can ski down in the winter months. The thin air can mean shortness of breath, though drives tend to carry.

At the Royal Bhutan Golf Club at Thimphu,maps of individual holes are carved in slate on the tees, and the course includes several chortens--small stone structures with religious artifacts inside that are receptacles for offerings. Players who are struggling with their games can always consider a donation.

There appears to be no place that is to be spared from golf developers. The Japanese, having long recognized the potential of golf on the moon, have actually drawn up plans to build lunar resorts replete with tennis courts and a golf course. Of course they have yet to deal with the killer gamma rays on the moon. That is the ultimate hazard.