America's northernmost official golf course, the USGA-rated North Star Golf Club in Fairbanks, Alaska, doesn't officially open until mid-May—when the snow has melted and the ground has begun to thaw. But that doesn't mean there aren't a few hardcore Alaskans who head out with their shovels and clubs for a few blustery rounds in the dead of winter. A subterranean layer of permafrost that exists year round in this part of the world makes for a wildly undulating terrain that is perpetually evolving. And a local rule at North Star dictates that if a fox or raven snatches up a golf ball, a replacement ball can be dropped at the scene of the crime, sans penalty.
Coober Pedy Opal Fields Golf Club; Australia
Make your way to the small mining town of Coober Pedy in South Australia, where there's not a blade of grass or a stitch of greenery in sight at the Coober Pedy Opal Fields Golf Club. Opal mining is the chief business here, and most residents live in a subterranean world of tunnels and caves to escape the Outback's searing temperatures. The golf course itself is basically one enormous sand trap that must be oiled with grease lest it blow away in the dry desert winds, and golfers tote swatches of faux grass from hole to ease teeing off.
Mission Hills Golf Club; China
The world's largest golf course complex awaits at Mission Hills Golf Club in China, where 216 holes stretch across territory in Shenzhen and Dongguan. With 12 resort and championship courses designed by the likes of Nick Faldo, Greg Norman and David Duval, Mission Hills is serious sensory overload for golf fanatics. Additionally, there's a five-star resort, scores of tennis courts and fine restaurants.
Rotorua Golf Club; New Zealand
The antithesis of Australia's arid environment awaits across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, where you can slice the Southern Hemisphere skies in the thermal hotspot of Rotorua. The Rotorua Golf Club features an 18-hole, links-style, par-69 course, as well as a nine-hole course where bubbling mud pools, steam vents, steaming creeks and rushing geysers make for otherworldly obstacles.
Lajitas, The Ultimate Hideout; Texas
Lajitas, The Ultimate Hideout—a 25,000-acre resort isolated in western Texas, some 300 miles from El Paso along the banks of the Rio Grande. The 19-hole course dubbed "the Ambush" features four holes set on an island in the Rio Grande and a bonus hole that involves a shot across the mighty river into Mexico—making Lajitas the world's only trans-national golf course.
Nullarbor Links; Australia
Due to open in fall 2008, the 18-hole, par-72 Nullarbor Links golf course, in the Australian Outback, will stretch for roughly 800 miles along the desolate Eyre Highway between Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and Ceduna in South Australia.
Tags:
North Star Golf Club,
Alaska,
Coober Pedy Opal Fields Golf Club,
Australia,
Mission Hills Golf Club, China,
Rotorua Golf Club,
New Zealand,
Lajitas, The Ultimate Hideout,
Texas,
Nullarbor Links,
Australia
Lajitas, The Ultimate Hideout—a 25,000-acre resort isolated in western Texas, some 300 miles from El Paso along the banks of the Rio Grande. The 19-hole course dubbed "the Ambush" features four holes set on an island in the Rio Grande and a bonus hole that involves a shot across the mighty river into Mexico—making Lajitas the world's only trans-national golf course.
