Unusual locations for golf courses

[Thomas Dai]

There are links courses by the sea, inland parkland courses, ex-swamp courses, desert courses, mountain courses etc.


Here is an aerial of a course in a rather unusual location.............within the grounds of a walled city...........and in a country not normally known for golf.


Not visited (yet) but it looks to be an amazing spot to visit irrespective of the golf.


https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@21.9858014,96.0983714,17z/data=!3m1!1e3


Amazing where courses are sometimes found.


What are other examples of unusual course locations?


Atb

[Mark_Rowlinson]

So, is that Mandalay, Burma?


There's a course more or less at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, Mena House.


There were some golf courses on military bases in the UK. I don't know if any survives.

[BCrosby]

There was a course (NLE) in St Augustine Florida built around the old Spanish fort. It used several of the fort ramparts as tees.


Bob

[Tony_Muldoon]

“The Sutton Bridge Dock Act was passed in 1875. This authorised the construction of the dock and other necessary works, including connecting the dock to the existing railway. The wet dock was to be some 475 yards (434 m) by 140 yards (130 m) with a lock from the river of 200 feet (61 m) by 50 feet (15 m). The length of the quayside was to be 1,250 yards (1,140 m) with a long timber jetty on the east side. On the west side was to be a coal jetty, equipped with a hydraulic lift to raise coal trucks to tip their loads into ships waiting beneath.”


HOWEVER DUE TO shoddy construction it was soon abandoned and since 1914 has been a 9 hole Golf course.

It’s fun to play up, out and then back into the dock but there’s a reason I’ve only played it once.

http://www.club-noticeboard.co.uk/suttonbridge/

[Thomas Dai]

Adam,


Yes it is Mandalay, Burmah (now Myanmar).


There are/were numerous courses on British military bases not only in the UK but all round the globe. Some of the old 'Royal' clubs overseas were started by the British military, not just the army either, but at naval bases as well and later RAF bases. Days of the Raj and the Empire and all that and unless the regimes that took over since have bulldozed them for other uses they're often still there, sometimes in prime positions. Sometimes the regimes or semi-rulers played golf themselves, which is why I suspect the old Mandalay course may have originated inside the walled city, my speculation though.


Often the old military courses are on nice golfing land, eg Whittington Heath/Barracks in the UK, the army do like their heathlands, and then there's the Army Golf Club at Aldershot, not just the army now, but the name says it all.


BC,


That's an interesting one. Tees on the ramparts. Shame it's NLE. I think I may have seen a routing map of it posted herein at some time.


All,


Here's another interesting one, I imagine ex-British Raj, right in the middle of Kolkata (Calcutta), seat of power of the British in India for a long, long time.


https://www.google.com/maps/@22.5531832,88.3419643,16z/data=!3m1!1e3


Atb

[Thomas Dai]

Tony,


Nice one. Nice old shipping photo on the website as well


Not just the British/US military who like their golf courses either, here's an oiled green special at a remote airbase in northern Aussie -
https://www.google.com/maps/@-14.5048036,132.3899338,17z/data=!3m1!1e3




And as to countries not usually thought of in connection with golf, here's a course pretty adjacent to an old palace in central Thimphu, capital of Bhutan in the Himalayas  - https://www.google.com/maps/@27.4863634,89.6359433,16z/data=!3m1!1e3


Atb

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I once played at RAF Waddington. I was actually in Lincoln to record an organ recital in the Cathedral, but I had written in advance to the station commander wondering if I could play. Permission was given.


When I turned up with my letter of introduction no one had remembered I was coming and the station commander was in London. I was shown into a waiting room, had my car stickered as an official visitor, and eventually three chaps had been taken off their military duties to play with me. One was actually a Boing employee from Seattle, another was an ex-Vulcan pilot, and the third didn't say what he did, spy perhaps?


I was driven across the airfield by one of them, who had his radio in touch with the control tower as it is quite a busy airfield. At that time they were converting to AWACS but a lot of other planes flew in and out, some from Germany and the Netherlands. The golf course was on the far side of the airfield in an area used for crash damage repair and the left side of the 9th and final fairway was a Vulcan bomber. It made a great target and the noise when it was hit was considerable. Unfortunately I haven't a clue where my ball may have bounced. It was a memorable experience.

[Thomas Dai]

Mark,


I recall a relative being stationed there and mentioning the course - https://www.google.com/maps/@53.1671824,-0.5152323,16z/data=!3m1!1e3


Tidworth Garrison GC near Salisbury Plain has, not surprisingly, originally military connections although the current course is by Harry Colt.
 
Atb

[Eric Smith]

Here are two courses at a former phosphate mine

[Will MacEwen]

A couple of lower security prisons in British Columbia used to have courses for the inmates. Ferndale (9 holes) and William Head (6 holes).

[Ben Lovett]

The Royal Palace in Agadir where they have an European Tour event and the Pins don't move until they come back the next year!
A RTJ course within the palace walls and from what I hear a very good golf course

[Ben Hollerbach]

Angola prison in Louisiana has their own 9 hole course. Then there are the race track courses like Brickyard Crossings, Furnace Creek in the middle of death valley, And of course there used to be an 11 hole course on Yanggakdo island in Pyongyang.

[Jim_Kennedy]

A retired friend of mine teaches English in Thailand for some months per year and he said there's a course in an airport.


He's right, the Kantarat Golf Course. It's laid out between two runways.  Don't drive into the exhaust when the Jumbos are taking off.




 

[BCrosby]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the course in the middle of the Indianapolis 500 track (or is the track called something else?).


Bob

[Tom_Doak]

There are lots of courses built around airports [and at palaces], but that one between the runways in Thailand does look "different".


One course I am definitely trying to see for The Confidential Guide is Moundbuilders GC in Newark, Ohio, built on the site of some native American burial mounds -- which are incorporated as features on several holes.

[Brad Tufts]

I remember there being the development of a golf course in India that was inside or partially inside some old palace ruins.  Not sure if it took off or not.


The other one that comes to mind is the golf course that once played through the ramparts of El Morro in San Juan, PR.

[David Davis]

The infamous Dutch Polder (reclaimed land from dredging) course. There are many of them. Muddy every time it rains a little (about 300 days a year) and flat as pancakes and below sea level but full of water hazards. Mostly little canals not quite as sexy as what the Scottish would refer to as a burn.


Then there are the other infamous landfill courses, many of these as well. Hey they are as good a use as any for garbage dumps.


Then there are the hybrids. Incidentally, two of the most interesting are modern private clubs, also the two most expensive clubs in the country to join to my knowledge.


One is located with freeways on two sides and under one of the main runways at Schiphol Airport. The course is a decent modern track, maybe a Doak 4-5 I guess but on I think hole and 6 you have likely never been so close to a landing airplane without being inside it.


The other is located in the middle of the country in a former swamp area with something like peat ground (basically mud) and also flat as a pancake with freeways on two sides.


Not sure what the freeway fetish is but I guess it's just the fact that good ground doesn't really come very readily abundant these days.

[Sven Nilsen]

Governor's Island in NY.


Course played in and around the old fort, with a moat hole as one feature.


Sven

[Rich Goodale]

As Bogey said to Ingrid in Casablanca:

"We'll always have Painswick..."

[Adam Lawrence]

The Royal Palace in Agadir where they have an European Tour event and the Pins don't move until they come back the next year!
A RTJ course within the palace walls and from what I hear a very good golf course

The Trophee Hassan is going back to Royal Golf Daressalam in Rabat this year

[Thomas Dai]

Governor's Island in NY.
Course played in and around the old fort, with a moat hole as one feature.
Sven

Sven,


The green sites etc still seem visible - https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6909419,-74.0159993,18z/data=!3m1!1e3


Atb

[Thomas Dai]

Nuuk GC in Greenland, not alway the probably imagined constant snow and ice.........grass greens. Looks a bit rocky off the fairway though -


https://www.google.com/maps/@64.1888181,-51.6957584,15z/data=!3m1!1e3


Atb

[Ian Mackenzie]

Although (sadly...;-) NLE, there was once a 9-hole PB Dye (par 3)course in the epicenter of downtown Chicago at the foot of a 100 story skyscraper that, at the time, was the 5th tallest building in the world. It was built in the early 90's and it boasted a replica of the 17th at TPC Sawgrass.


In its place now are luxury condos and a park. It was fun urban golf experince for sure, but that land was just too valuable.

[BCowan]

There are lots of courses built around airports [and at palaces], but that one between the runways in Thailand does look "different".


One course I am definitely trying to see for The Confidential Guide is Moundbuilders GC in Newark, Ohio, built on the site of some native American burial mounds -- which are incorporated as features on several holes.

Moundbuilders is a cool course.  Played there in an OH junior event 20 years ago.  It's a fun course, but it's no Ravisloe 
I'd suggest stopping at Sylvania CC and Tiffin Mohawk (back 9 only) on your way down if you are driving. 

[Bill Seitz]

Although (sadly...;-) NLE, there was once a 9-hole PB Dye (par 3)course in the epicenter of downtown Chicago at the foot of a 100 story skyscraper that, at the time, was the 5th tallest building in the world. It was built in the early 90's and it boasted a replica of the 17th at TPC Sawgrass.


In its place now are luxury condos and a park. It was fun urban golf experince for sure, but that land was just too valuable.

I worked in that building (the Aon Center) when the course was still around, but sadly, never played it.  We were on the 74th floor (It's an 80 story building), so there was a great view of it from the east side of the building.