15 Unique, extraordinary and unusual golf courses

Rotorua Golf Club – or to give it its proper name, Arikikapakapa (after the reserve where it is located) is one of New Zealand’s most individual courses. It is built on a unique landscape whose predominant features include bubbling mud pools, sulphur mounds, warm water streams and – next to the 14th hole – a huge thermal crater.

Not only are you playing around some interesting geological features, but the porous pumice stone drains water very quickly, and the par-70 links-style course is back on its feet in no time, even after a heavy downpour.

A major refurb in the 1990s resulted in reconstructed greens at the century-plus-old course and a redesigned par 3 14th – even if the par 3 9th is the most famous (it has featured on a Kiwi postage stamp).

The toughest test is the long par four 3rd, where you drive just short of a hot creek and then fire your longish second into a raised green that slopes viciously to the left. Avoid the thermal trouble and your reward on the 18th is a stunning view from the elevated tee box across the thermal reserve.

The 18 holes at this public course about 20 minutes west of the Vegas Strip are all replicas of holes Jack Nicklaus has designed in other desert locations – Arizona, California, Mexico and elsewhere. With the exception of the fabulous 18th, the holes aren’t a selection of signatures from the other courses, but as a whole they work quite well together and are a wonderful option to the much more expensive courses around the city.

The setup is straightforward, the staff are really friendly and you get to play (bits of) 18 different Nicklaus courses – all in one day.

This brute of a course is the centrepiece of the Mission Hills complex and the best of its 12 courses – if you define ‘best’ by the most challenging. The course is built on black lava rocks and its 7,808 yards carves its way through jungle vegetation, wetlands and mature lychee trees – with multiple elevation changes throughout.

Although designed for tournament play – it has already hosted a series of professional events, including the World Cup of Golf – the good news is that you don’t have to play every inch of it: the forward tees, coupled with the generous fairways, make this an entirely accessible challenge for the mid-handicapper, who might otherwise give up the game through frustration or exhaustion!

The first course to host an official PGA Tour event outside of the United States or Canada, this tree-lined championship course was designed by Greg Norman and makes full use of its natural environment. Like the chameleon in the name, the course changes throughout its routing, weaving its way through dense jungle, mangrove forests and along beautiful stretches of white sand.

Its most distinctive hazards are the cenotes – natural sink holes – and water canals. It’s still the host of the annual Mayakoba Classic – it was here, in 2018, that Matt Kuchar caused a stir when he paid a local caddie a measly $5,000 out of his $1.3m for winning the event. The caddie, David Giral ‘El Toucan’ Ortiz, said he wasn’t too upset, but they did later agree on a better fee.

The clue is in the name: it gets pretty hot here. Although it’s set in a green oasis, don’t let the trees, ponds and greenery fool you.

Sitting 214 feet below sea level (making it the lowest golf course in the world), the searing heat of a Death Valley summer makes heat stroke a very real threat as sweat evaporates from the body before it has time to properly cool you. Keep an eye on the thermometer outside the clubhouse – the average summer temperature sits at around 115°F, or 45°C, and there are days when it tops out at over 130°F.

The course itself is relatively straightforward, although the low elevation, low barometric pressure – and even a coyote or two – can make the ball do unexpected things.

This golf course is all about the setting: in the lake city of Pokhara, framed by the towering Annapurna massif. The course itself sits in a deep canyon, and each hole rises and falls along the contours of the valley. The course was developed gradually – the original nine was expanded to 16, with two more holes added a bit piecemeal to make up 18.

Don’t expect manicured greens or smooth fairways, but the breathtaking setting, coupled with the enthusiastic staff (the caddies are wonderfully friendly and helpful), makes this one of the best golfing experiences you can have.

Set on its own island, this beautiful course is the epitome of a golfing idyll. The island itself – the Ile Aux Cerfs – is impossibly beautiful, a perfect tropical picture of blindingly white sand and lush vegetation framed by aquamarine waters. And it’s here that golf legend Bernhard Langer created a stunner of a championship course

The undulating terrain wends its way through volcanic outcrops, lakes and gullies. Every hole has a view of the Indian Ocean. This is pure golfing indulgence – it’s like playing golf at the private course of a Bond villain (minus the attempts at world domination).

The course is only six holes long – so you play three loops to make up the full 18. It’s not particularly challenging, with each hole laid out pretty much in front of you (although you do have to be straight, as the fairways are lined with tall conifers).

But La Jenny makes the list because it’s the world’s first golf course for naturists. That’s right, nude golf, which means no pockets to keep your tees or ball markers. At least there’s nothing to constrict your swing. But the rules of golf still apply, especially when it comes to loose impediments.

You mightn’t need oxygen masks to play the world’s highest golf course, but a round at La Paz Golf Club might induce altitude sickness.

If you can handle playing shots at over 11,600 feet, your reward is a carefully crafted 18-hole design built into the dramatic landscape of the Valle de la Luna – the valley of the moon. The name is entirely fitting, as the lunar-like landscape, complete with deep valleys, is otherworldly, an eye-catching combination of barren browns and greys peppered with lush fairways and greens that are meticulously maintained.

The golfing challenge is also formidable, with lots of big carries (from the island tee box of the 12th you have to carry it 180 yards onto the fairway), but luckily the thin mountain air means you’ll hit the ball a lot further than you would closer to sea level.

Africa’s longest course is an exercise in excess. The massive, 50,000-acre big game reserve is home to 18 holes, each designed by a different golfer beginning with Trevor Immelman and finishing with the Retief Goosen’s 18th. Each is distinctive in that it reflects the designer’s own personality – from Camillo Villegas’ challenging 8th, to Vijay Singh’s cleverly laid out par-four 15th.

But as interesting as the 18 holes unquestionably are, the real attraction is the additional 19th hole: a par 3 from the top of Hanglip Peak, 470 yards above a huge, Africa-shaped green. You get to the tee by helicopter and hit your shot, which takes more than 20 seconds to reach the ground. Mulligans are allowed, of course – to play this hole alone costs an extra £200.

There’s also a 10-hole par-3 tribute course with some of the world’s most famous short holes.

South Africa’s most exclusive golf course is near Malelane in the heart of Mpumalanaga, on the southern edge of Kruger National Park. It’s commonly referred to as the Augusta of South Africa, and access is just as controlled: unless you’re a member, you can only play it by staying at one of the 15 game lodges in the area.

Once in, though, you’re in for an extraordinary round. The course itself, designed by Gary Player, is challenging enough, but what makes this place special are the occasional spectators – a snorting hippopotamus, a lion lying idly by the fence. Hit a pitch shot over lake full of crocodiles or hit a drive under the watchful gaze of a group of giraffes.

The signature hole is the par-five 13th, with a raised green alongside the Crocodile River and with magnificent views of Kruger: the course and clubhouse might have been built by humans, but this place belongs to the animals.

This tough golf course on Java is laid out on the slopes of one of the island’s most active volcanos, Gunung Merapi, which literally means ‘fire mountain.’ The setting itself is gorgeous: the fairways wend their way over ancient lava tracks and there are repeat views of the volcano.

There are lots of blind shots, and an errant drive will see you hacking through the jungle, but you’ll have to keep an eye on the mountain itself: the last time it erupted was 2010, and three of the holes were covered in ash. (Don’t worry – local seismologists know of any activity well in advanced, so golfers will be forewarned).

How do you play the world’s longest golf course, which stretches a remarkable 850 miles along the desolate Eyre Highway that connects Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and Ceduna in South Australia.

Easy enough, as the 18 holes are made up of regular length par 3s, 4s and 5s. It’s the walk (well, drive) between each hole that’s the real challenge: there’s about 45 miles between each hole; in one case, it’s 120 miles.

The holes are a mix of regular golf holes and others that are, well, industrial: fairways like the surface of Mars and greens made of tattered astroturf.

It’s not golf as you imagine it, but rather a five-day camping trip through red-dirt plains of Nullarbor in which you take a break to hit some golf shots.

The course record incidentally is a remarkable two-under, shot in 2018 by Aussie tour pro Hayley Bettencourt. Her advice on how best to play Nullarbor? ‘Keep it low and let it roll’.

The Skukuza Golf Course is a 9-hole (18-tee) course in the Kruger National Park, the only golf course actually inside the park boundaries. The course isn’t fenced in so there’s plenty of wildlife sightings – a lion once killed a buffalo on the first green; another time, a couple’s golf game was interrupted by a pack of wild dogs chasing an impala across the course.

Thankfully, local staff are on hand to chase the more dangerous animals away, and so far no golfer has ever been actually harmed, but you might have to make do with an audience of warthogs, baboons or even the odd hippo.

The nine-hole course plays as an eighteen, and although there are no bunkers, watch out for ‘aerial bunkers’ among the tree canopy that fringes the course.

You think you’ve played in chilly conditions? Now tee it up at on this small island in Greenland, 350 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Temperatures regularly drop to -45°C; there’s no fairways or bunkers to speak of, and the greens are called ‘whites’ because, yes, you’re playing on a frozen course of snow and ice – that shifts every year.

There are hazards to be avoided, including seal dens, crevasses and even polar bears; players here are given tips on how to spot the early signs of frostbite.

But people still come to play, including the competitors in the World Ice Golf Championships that take place here every year and are open to golfers with a handicap of 36 or better: do you have what it takes to compete over 36 holes? You’ll need a lot of faith – and a lot of fleece.