Archive for the ‘Extreme Golf’ Category

From the fusion of mainstream sports, Olympics and extreme sports the Ultimate Athlete will be found.

Athletes have always been strong, fast, and coordinated, but they are mostly specialized.  In today’s sports’ world that is not enough. The best of the best must also be versatile, daring, and able to adapt to all environments and arenas.  The Ultimate Athlete, the one who will win this event, must also excel at riding, swimming, skiing, surfing, climbing, skating, and much more.

I know we’ve previewed that video before, but it’s time to remind you that the search continues, and time is beginning to run out.

The SFUA U.S. championships start in June 2010. It will be a 6 day event featuring 20 sports and disciplines and will have the best all-around athletes, both male & female, going head to head in the same arena. No age category, no division, no invitation… and only one winner.

And ultimately only 24 athletes will compete in the 20 disciplines to discover who is the ultimate one. As one interested observer says “I just hope they include synchronized swimming. I’m not kidding. When I interned at the US Olympic Committee in college, a man in my office used to say he could be good at any sport – give him time and he could be really good. So one day someone invited him to try synchro. Funniest thing I’ve ever seen..” !!!

However, I’m not sure that sychronised swimming will be on the agenda… as, as far as I know, it has not yet been decided what the 20 sports are going to be, but if you think of the diversity of Oregan and cast your mind even further to the Gorge Games where kiteboarding, windsurfing, open water swimming, kayaking, and climbing were all on the agenda – well, the choice is wide. Add to that the perfect location for the already established and popular  sports of trail running and biking plus, it is being presumed, that the event will also bring in a large number of “traditional” sports such as road racing – on both foot and bike, and such everyday sports as golf, basketball and/or tennis.

The organisers plan to take advantage of Portland’s natural wonders – the Gorge and the Coast to showcase their event.

You are going to have to be an all-rounder to qualify in the last 24…

The prize money? A not to be sniffed at  $100,000.

Of slight concern is that there still does not seem to be a registration form so I do hope this event gets off the ground, but if you are interested, as an athlete, in getting more information you could always try contacting athlete@searchfortheultimateathlete.com

We have recently enjoyed looking at the more off-the-wall end of the golf spectrum and had  a wonderful time researching some of the more extreme golf courses and golf holes in the world.

However, I have long lamented that golf really is not the game to play if you want to get fit or… dare I say it … keep fit. Now you may disagree with me on this one, but a less extreme version of  ‘keep fit’ I can’t imagine. A gentle loiter around a 9- or 18-hole course admiring the scenery and occasionally batting a ball (I’ll be struck down for that terminology) from one end of a fairway to another is not taxing. To the brain perhaps, but not the body… especially when you bring in the current attachment to golf carts…

A good way to keep fit? Hardly…. and as you will have surmised, golf and I don’t suit. It’s the patience I lack perhaps. Now, give me flat-out downhill skiing, kite surfing, rock climbing….. mmm, now you’re talking, but my better half is a keen golfer and for that reason I persevere…

However, that was before I heard about ’speed golf’. Ever heard of it? Well. I think these guys have the answer to a great game and a great way to keep fit.

Speed golf was started in California in 1979 and is now played enthusiastically in America, Japan and  Europe though I have to admit that I don’t think they’ve heard about it down here in the south of France.

Players run between shots and generally carry as few as one or as many as six clubs. Many players carry only one club and a putter. A player’s score is calculated by adding minutes plus strokes, so a round of 90 completed in 50 minutes and 30 seconds would compute to a score of 140:30. The lowest score in competition is believed to have been shot by professional Christopher Smith at the Chicago Speedgolf Classic on October 16, 2005. Smith shot 65 in just 44:06 for a speed golf score of 109:06.

AssociatedPress shows us how it’s done.

Rules and etiquette are generally the same for speed golf and regular golf, with minor exceptions. Speed golfers are allowed to putt with the flagstick left in the hole, but are expected to rake bunkers, fix ball marks and conform to the dress code.

Interestingly, many speed golfers report that their game has improved since they took up speed golf, typically shooting nearly the same scores despite running and using only a few clubs.

Here’s NIKE, in collaboration with UBIK Media’s take on it (jaesoh)

and this is how the New Zealander’s do it (d1kurt):

The pros of this game: fitness and time saving.

The cons: it’s impossible to play when normal golfers play so this sport is a 6 o’clock in the morning affair or last thing in the evening…

And if you’re thinking of taking this game up you might like to know that there is now a backpack type of golf bag that has been designed for just this type of crazy sport. It is ultra, ultra light and will allow you to carry more than one club with ease – no excuses left I’m afraid, we’ll just have to get out there and try it!

Cruising around the internet, looking for something even marginally extreme to talk about, I came across this golf video which just goes to prove that some people have far too much free time on their hands! But hats off to the putters – there are some fairly extreme shots here! Thanks to acdcfreakh2h for the video…

Leif Olsen’s hole-in-one at the 2009 Canadian Open has to be seen to be believed…

How lucky was that? or extreme?

Nice little extreme car to drive away in too…

South Africa has to have it. Have you ever seen anything like this?

Hole 19, or ‘Xtreme 19′, is a par 3 – a par 3 whose tee is atop a cliff on Hanglip Mountain, more than 1,400 feet above a green carved like the continent of Africa.  The 630 yard hole requires a helicopter to reach the teebox.

This magnificent new golf course is in South Africa at the Legends Golf and Safari Resort. 

This is an 18-hole championship course that was designed by 18 different  top flight golfers including  Colin Montgomerie, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, K.J. Choi, Justin Rose, Trevor Immilman and Retief Goosen.  

But it’s the ‘Xtreme 19th’ that has caught and held the world’s attention.You’ve got to take a helicopter to get to the tee box, and from there it’s more than 630 yards to the pin. Golfers have the opportunity of teeing off from one of three tee boxes.  With advanced technology in the form of four separate cameras and the latest tracking equipment, the golfer can follow and capture the tee shot and the flight of the ball.  Once you tee off, it takes nearly 30 seconds for the ball to hit the ground.

Playing all 19 holes will cost about 2,000 South African rand, or about $220 in American dollars, but for that you get the helicopter ride,  a DVD of your shot amongst other things. And, and here’s the teaser, if you get a hole-in-one on the 19th you will also net yourself a cool $1 million bucks – and the right to call yourself the most xtreme golfer on the planet. But what a beautiful green – the whole idea must have been created with a chuckle and a wry grin…

Unlike certain signature holes, you can play just the Xtreme 19th, if you like, without messing with all that full-round business. And for tournaments held at the Legends, it will serve as the playoff hole.

The Legend Gold and Safari Resort is 2 hours north of Johannesburg. The design and layout of the Resort has been done in a way that minimizes the impact of the development on the natural environment. It preserves the pristine bushveld and makes the Resort one of the most environmentally sensitive of its kind in Africa.

So who says golf can’t be extreme? If you’ve seen our past 2 articles (and I’d better warn you that there are likely to be more in the pipeline) you, too, might be revising your opinion of golf and golfers… here’s the last 4 of the 8 most extreme golf courses in the world…

Ushuaia Golf Club, Argentina.

This is the world’s sourthernmost golf course and the tmeperatures reflect this. Ushuaia has a maritime subantarctic climate. Temperatures average 1 °C (33 °F) in the coldest month, and 9 °C (48 °F) in the warmest month. The record low is −20 °C (−4 °F) (July), and record high 31 °C (87.8 °F) (December). The record low ever recorded in summer is −6 °C (21 °F) (February). It is a short, difficult and windy 9-holes links course.  From October to April, days are longer and one can play between 6 AM and 10 PM. It is not a championship course. It is different. Created in 1992, the first 9 holes of the Ushuaia Golf Course are located  at the door of the Lapataia National Natural Park nearby the ancient convict train station on the steep hills along a mountain stream, el Rio Pipo. Between snow-topped mountains and the cold waters of the Beagle Channel, the course ambles from the steep slopes, over the small tumultuous river and back up  and down the hill again. There is a touch of the  wild Scottish Highlands here. The holes are short but not straight with narrow fairways, small greens near the stream and the ever-present winds. There is no sophistication, just a lovely natural place with a warm welcome at the club house.

North Cape Golf Club, Norway.

And once again from once extreme to the other – from the southern-most course to the northern-most one…  this course is 280m north of the Arctic Circle. The typical golfing season in Norway ranges from early May until the snow comes (mid/late November). Golfing in many locations is possible twenty four hours a day between the middle of May until the end of July. A golfer’s paradise? or a non-golfer’s nightmare! This is not a challenging golf course, with its 6-hole course, 2 par 4’s and 4 par 3’s and quantities of mud, but it has one lovely oddity – with the Arctic Circle Norwegians having little sense of territory, and obviously a great sense of sportsmanship, if the ball lands in one of the unfenced gardens that border the course, you are allowed to lob it back into play! Although North Cape is on the list of 8 most extreme golf courses, it is now no longer the most northern -most. It has been superceded by Hammerfest Golf Course – also Norway.

Ko’olau Golf Club, Hawaii.

This is reputably the toughest golf course in the world. Carved out of the topical rainforest on the windward side of the 2,000-foot Ko’olau Ridge mountain range, Ko’olau encompasses three distinct climate zones and features winding ravines, extreme elevation changes, and breathtaking views of cascading waterfalls – all on one golf course!. Situated on eastern Oahu, the rugged landscape of this tropical jungle course uses ravines as the target for holes and boasts lush vegetation and huge sand bunkers. The course was built in 1991 as a private Country Club for the high rollers, located just over the Pali Highway from Honolulu.  You can’t beat this golf course for beautz. It has breathtaking mountain views, spectacular fiarwazs surrounded by rainforest, and dramatic sights of the Pacific Ocean. The rule of thumb here is to bring the same number of balls as your handicap. The 18th hole has two carries over a giant ravine – both the drive and the approach shot… you have been warned!

And last, but not least, the world’s oldest and most famous course: Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland.

If there is a single course in the entire world that most golfers aspire to play just once in their lifetime, it is the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland – a course like no other and an experience like no other. Golf has been played on the Links at St Andrews since around 1400 AD and the Old Course is renowned throughout the world as the Home of Golf. Golf was clearly becoming popular in the middle ages, as the game was banned in 1457 by King James II of Scotland who felt it was distracting young men from archery practice. This ban was repeated by succeeding monarchs until James IV threw in the towel and in 1502 became a golfer himself. As the 600 year history of the Links has unfolded, one simple track hacked through the bushes and heather has developed into six, and now seven with the new Castle Course open, public golf courses, attracting hundreds of thousands of golfing pilgrims from around the globe. St Andrews Links is the largest golfing complex in Europe and all 18 hole courses can be booked in advance. In 1764 the Old Course consisted of 22 holes, 11 out and 11 back, with golfers playing to the same hole going out and in, except for the 11th and 22nd holes. The golfers decided that the first four holes, and therefore also the last four holes, were too short and that they should be made into two holes instead of four. This reduced the number of holes in the round from 22 to 18, and that is how today’s standard round of golf was created.