St. Helena

[Steve Wilson]

Sometimes for the sheer fun of it, I plan exotic vacations.  Recently, I starting kicking around the notion of going to the island of St. Helena and visiting Longwood where Napoleon spent the last six years of his life.  Minimal research revealed the only regularly scheduled means of reaching the island is the RMS St. Helena  which departs from Capetown.   The round trip takes about three weeks including one spent on the island and can be done (less airfare) for less than $4000.  As intriguing as that sounds, there was this nugget. St. Helena has a golf course.

Which brings me to the point of this topic.  Has anyone on here ever been to St. Helena and if so did you play golf there?
Failing that, does anyone on here know of anyone who has been to St. Helena and if so do you know if they played golf there?
To have played golf at one of the last sites on earth reachable only by sea would a virtual ultimate bragging rights.

One last thing to make the thread relevant from a golf architecture standpoint.  According to the island's tourism website there are tentative plans for a luxury hotel with a golf course.  They might be accepting resumes from GCAs.

[Mark Hissey]

I do know that Tristan da Cunha (which is the world's most remote inhabited island) also has a course of about six holes. It is a dependency of St. Helena.

[Steve Wilson]

Well Mark,

Thanks for that information.  Your news sent me back to research Ascension which is the third island included in the territory.  Guess what?  It has an eighteen hole golf course that was at one time known as the world's worst golf course.  Apparently the greens, described as browns, are made either from sand or volcanic ash.  With a golf course on each island, this could have the makings of the worlds most exotic, expensive and least fulfilling golf trip.

[Steve Wilson]

Bumping this for the day shift.

[Steve Wilson]

Bumping this one more time for the weekend.  I'm somewhat surprised no one on here has ever been to St. Helena.

[Brent Hutto]

Steve,

Heck, I've never been to *Ireland*...

[Steve Wilson]

Brent,

Somehow it seems likely to me that you will be in Ireland before I'm in St. Helena.   There are far too many courses and too many GCAers for you not to find your way to good company on the Emerald Isle.

Come to think of it though, St.  Helena is pretty far south.  Maybe the ne plus ultra of Dixie Cups.  Let's see.  A week  at sea each way from Capetown to St. Helena on board a ship with 32 GCAers.  What could go wrong?   

 

[Brent Hutto]

A week  at sea each way from Capetown to St. Helena on board a ship with 32 GCAers.  What could go wrong?   

What could not go wrong.

[Mark Hissey]

There is a RMS that leaves Cardiff and makes the route from Ascension to St. Helena, to Tristan and then on to Capetown and back.

[Bill_McBride]

Heck, Steve, I just assumed you were talking about St Helena CALIFORNIA!!

Decent golf, great wine.......

[Steve Wilson]

Bill I didn't even know there was a St. Helena California! 

And the idea of riding a RMS from Cardiff to St. Helena. That seems too adventurous even for the payoff of spending time at the site of Napoleon's exile. 

Anyhow, one last bump and then I'll let this sail off into the sunset.

[Mike Hamilton]

For some reason

Come to think of it though, St.  Helena is pretty far south.  Maybe the ne plus ultra of Dixie Cups.  Let's see.  A week  at sea each way from Capetown to St. Helena on board a ship with 32 GCAers.  What could go wrong?   
 

I'm sure that's what Shackleton said just before setting sail on the Endurance

[Steve Wilson]

Mike,

It's virtually certain that any whiskey (or wine or beer) bottles found a hundred years or so later from the GCA Expedition wouldm't be collectors items.  32 GCAers together for seven days with no golf=empties.