May18 scarycourses
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Golf: A stroll in the park? You’ve got to be joking…
Sure golf courses are usually fun and relaxing places to be – unless you’ve having a total disaster of a round that is. But there are exceptions to the rule and some courses are well capable of potentially turning nasty, very nasty in fact.
Here’s some little beauties, or rather beasts, that can do just that…
* Lost City GC, Sun City, South Africa – the par 3 13th is guarded by a stone pit filled with whopping crocodiles. Could be unlucky 13 in more ways than one…
* Kabul GC, Afghanistan – it’s the middle of a war zone and is plotted on a former minefield. It’s only a nine holer…thank heavens!
* Compton Par 3 GC, Compton, California – it’s heavy man: it’s slap bang in the heart of Los Angeles’s gangs territory. At least you won’t get turned away for sporting dodgy gear.
* Scholl Canyon GC, Glendale, California – sits on a landfill site so you’ll probably end up whacking a buried tyre or three. Watch out for methane gas rising up from the divot holes too.
* Singapore Island Country Club, Singapore – hopefully you won’t witness what Jim Stewart experienced in the 1982 Singapore Open…a whopping cobra. He killed it but reeled back in horror as another snake emerged from its mouth.
* Beachwood GC, Natal, South Africa – a female golfer’s reward for successfully extracting herself from a bunker was to be attacked by a mad monkey which tried to strangle her. Thanks to a quick-thinking caddie it failed…
* Lundin Links, Fife, Scotland – one of Scotland’s finest but not for one unfortunate fellow who was struck by a train when crossing over the railway line behind the 5th green.
* Pelham Bay & Split Rock GC, New York – you could be dead and buried here: Pelham’s remote location has its unsavoury advantages – 13 bodies were unearthed here in a ten-year period.
Elephant Hills CC, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe – beware of some dodgy lies: the fairways are sometimes scarred by craters caused by mortar shells fired across the Zambezi river.
* What’s the scariest course you’ve ever played? Send your best scary courses stories to Courses editor Kevin Brown at: kevin.brown@emap.com
Photo: By Getty Images
