Diego Garcia

[Ronald Montesano]

There is an article on CNN about the island of Diego Garcia.


https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/09/asia/chagos-islands-feature-intl/index.html

Curiosity led me to GMaps, which revealed a place to hack the orb about. Have a look at the wee golf course on Diego Garcia. Doubt any architect makes a claim.


https://www.google.com/maps/place/Diego+Garcia/@-7.2843909,72.3750013,765m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x249273fe6d69b0ad:0x3b3c07570eb0d1c5!8m2!3d-7.3195005!4d72.4228556

[James Brown]

Could possibly be the most remote golf course on Earth?

[Ronald Montesano]

Does Joe Bausch or Jon Cavalier have a photo album?

[Tom_Doak]

I would go for Nuuk, Greenland as the most remote golf course, although the courses in Iceland are closer to Greenland than any other land is to Diego Garcia.

[Thomas Dai]

The most remote inhabited place on the planet, ie the furthest away from any other landmass, is supposedly Tristan de Cunha, a tiny volcanic island in the South Atlantic between South Africa and Argentina. I've seen photos of folks playing golf there although whether formalised or cow pasture fun I'm not sure.
The likes of Diego Garcia and Nuuk are not alone in being remote places with courses though. There are a few on islands and remote places scattered across the globe often associated with current or ex military bases. Ascension Island would be an example. One of the ways the game spread.
Now that St Helena has an airport I wonder how long it'll be before there's a course there? Maybe there is!
atb

[Chris DeNigris]

It's a Navy base, been there for a while. Not a plum duty station. Here's the full story of the course (Coral Sands) and a bonus Bausch photo spread. It might have some original MacKenzie...


The below link appears to be to scale with the island itself...


http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/golf.html

[Jeff Schley]

My friend, who is retired Navy, and doesn't really play golf said this place is great for a week, but after that you earn your money.  This was back in the early 2000's before smart phones/wifi skype/ facetime/ vonage etc.

[Ben Sims]

The fishing on Diego was much better than the golf...as was a whole host of other things. I don’t remember any golf on Ascension.

[John Kirk]

Diego Garcia Station is part of the Air Force Satellite Control Network.  Another AFSCN station is found at Thule Air Force Base in northern Greenland.  I spent three days there once.  It is at 76 degrees North latitude, only about 1000 miles from the North Pole.  A couple of links to photos.  First, the tracking antennae have covers that look like golf balls.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Golf_balls%2C_Thule_Air_Base%2C_Greenland.jpg
Second, do they play golf there?  Well, yeah.
https://www.afspc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/251748/thule-takes-golf-to-extreme/

[Thomas Dai]

I've just discovered that remote St Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic has had a golf course since 1903!
St Helena is of course the small, very hilly island which was, until an airport was built there only a couple of years ago, only reachable by occasional boat visit. It's also the island where Napoleon was finally exiled.


For the golf club see - http://www.shgc.org.sh/Home.php


Looks just the kind of course that should be included in a Confidential Guide or even become the magic number '148' custodian!


atb

[Jim Nugent]

Could possibly be the most remote golf course on Earth?

For most on the GCA forum, the Himalayan Golf Course in Nepal must be awfully remote. 

[Tom_Doak]

Thomas:


I've thought about going to a couple of these places for The Confidential Guide, but it's a long way to go for what's likely a 3 [if that].




Jim N:


Nepal is remote if you don't go anywhere near Asia, but it's not that hard to get to:  lots of Americans visit Nepal each year.  It's not that long of a flight from western China - I flew there direct from Kunming - and several international airlines fly there, including British Airways and Qatar Airways, so you could fly from Chicago with only one stop.

[Thomas Dai]

Thomas:
I've thought about going to a couple of these places for The Confidential Guide, but it's a long way to go for what's likely a 3 [if that].

Be an 'interesting/exciting' flight though, all the way from South Africa and with a famously windy landing!
Below's a now coloured old photo of a lady playing the course in it's early days.
atb