[wsmorrison]

A fellow gave me this book the other day.  Here are a few of the extreme golf courses in the world:

Most Southerly Golf Course:  Ushuaia GC is a 9-holer on the tip of Tierra del Fuego, 55 degrees south.  The course is 4 miles south of the world's southernmost city and a mere 730 miles north of the Antarctic.  Fried penguin is offered in the clubhouse.

Highest Golf Course:  La Paz GC (1912) at 10,650 feet above sea level (1150 feet below the capital city).  The former record holder was Tuctu, a 9-holer in Peru at 14,440, but that is NLE.

Lowest Golf Course:  Furnace Creek Resort at 214 feet below sea level in Death Valley, CA.  The golf course is in fact 68 feet higher than the lowest point in America, nearby Badwater.  The area gets only 1.6 inches of rainfall a year.  In the height of the summer, they use a million gallons of water a day (that's got to be a huge waste) and on average use 200,000 gallons.  The record ground temperature recorded on the property was an amazing 201*F in 1972.  The golf course was built for the employees of US Pacific Coast Borax Company with three holes in 1927, nine holes in the 1930s and 18 in the 1950s.

Hottest Golf Course:  Alice Springs GC in Northern Territory, Australia, about 200 miles from Ayers Rock.  It gets so hot that roads melt.  Temperatures as high as 126*F have been recorded.  Makes Tulsa in August seem temperate!

Coldest Golf Course:  North Star GC in Fairbanks, Alaska.  The lowest temperature ever recorded there was -62*F with an average snowfall of 10 inches per month from Oct to Feb.

Most Northerly Golf Course:  North Cape GC in Lakselv, Norway.  Latitude 70, 300 miles inside the Arctic Circle.  There are only 6 holes with a portacabin for a clubhouse.  There is no greenskeeper, the locals care for the course.  The course is open only four months a year but there is 24 hour a day golf from May 17 to Aug 27.  During the summer months, golfers must beware of the Arctic mosquitoes.  Apparently they are huge.

[JSlonis]

Wayne,

It's surprising that ECO-friendly California allows that type of water use for the course in Death Valley.  Seems to be a huge waste of resources on a course that should not really be there.

[wsmorrison]

No kidding, Jamie.  I find it hard to believe that much water is used on a golf course.  Maybe we should have J.J. Gittes look into it.  I bet Noah Cross was on the inside of that water deal  

[Dan Kelly]

"This is not a lending library, sir."

[Steve Lapper]

Wayne,

It's surprising that ECO-friendly California allows that type of water use for the course in Death Valley.  Seems to be a huge waste of resources on a course that should not really be there.

Perhaps they have a deep ground well? In many High Desert sites reasonably close by, they are the primary H20 sources. Highly innovative and very deep drilling can handily access water found in thousands of feet underground.

No comment on the waste factor, but I'd ask whether or not delivery/storage of any deep ground water offsite is feasible?

[Kalen Braley]

Wayne,

I stumbled accross that book in Barnes and Noble a few months ago. I liked the makeshift courses they have made including the one played on the ice every year as well as the true desert courses where the par 4s are hundreds of yards long due to roll on the baked out desert floors.  I liked the hazard in Africa as well that had the crocs in it....

Here is the book cover:

[Pat Brockwell]

Let's put the "X" back in golf.  But what about the retail golfer?

[James Bennett]

Hottest Golf Course:  Alice Springs GC in Northern Territory, Australia, about 200 miles from Ayers Rock.  It gets so hot that roads melt.  Temperatures as high as 126*F have been recorded.  Makes Tulsa in August seem temperate!

Wayne

I played there, in December 1991.  First month of summer.  Took six of the club's juniors up there for an event - over 24 hours on the bus to get there!  My wife wanted to fly home, but didn't.

It is a Thomson/Wolveridge/Perrett course.  It had bent grass greens then, but I think they may have changed since to a bermuda type variety.  I think bore water is used, perhaps effluent, but I recall salinity was an issue.

I played in the morning only, and I think I carted (the roof gives you shade) - may have wlked one day and carted the next.  The kids played 36 a day, walking, and were pretty hot and dry when they finished.  Hydration is a big issue there.

Ayers Rock (Uluru) is 'only' 300 miles away from Alice Springs.  The Alice Springs course is definitely worth a game if you are in the area - I guess that makes it a Doak 4 or 5.  It is the only course for hundreds of miles as well.

James B

[Adam_Messix]

Wayne--

This would be a guess on my part, but I think they are using effluents to irrigate the golf course in Death Valley.  I know many courses in California that do this (not sure if it's a state law though) including Cypress Point.

[wsmorrison]

James,

Thanks for the reply.  Amazing that you've been there.  And kids played 36 a day?  Wow.

Adam,

That's 666,667 flushes a day to create 1 million gallons of effluent. Ugh, that's a lot of pee

[James Bennett]

Wayne

the temperature in the shade that week was about 100.  But, there is very little shade on the golf course (very few trees), and a lot of reflected heat from the 'rough' which is not wall-to-wall blue grass.  It is red desert.

The kids had fun.

I recall the round where I walked - my golf was poor on the second nine (heat stress, in the late morning).  Why do I remember - because I played well using the cart.  Probably the only time I have played well with a cart.  I was smart enough not to play in the afternoon.

I think the course was redeveloped by TWP as part of a government grant aimed at developing tourist facilities.  Alice Springs has a population of about 10,000, with no other nearby population centres.

James B

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