In this ranking, we present 21 golf courses around the world that are very special in their own way. Some are real classics, others surprise with details that are not usually found on golf courses.

Augusta National Golf Club, USA

The golf club in Augusta in the US state of Georgia is one of the most exclusive private golf clubs in the world. There is virtually no official information and its members are consistently shielded. This arouses covetousness: A 2006 Golf Digest survey revealed that one in three Americans would give up sex for a year if they were allowed to play a round at Augusta Golf Club.

Golf de Sainte-Maxime, France

On this golf course in Sainte-Maxime, nothing works without a cable car. The 11th tee is too high up.

Legend Golf & Safari Resort, South Africa

This course takes you even higher. You need a helicopter to reach the starting point at the 19th hole, as it is half a kilometer above the green. The 1600 square meter green is designed in the shape of the African continent. Whoever makes a ‘hole in one’ here wins a million dollars!

Prison View Golf Course, USA

The course is located on land belonging to the state prison of Lousiana. Prisoners are allowed to work on the course as part of a reintegration program. The club offers nine holes and a beautiful view of the prison. If you want to play, you must present your ID card.

Resort Golf Course, USA

The island green on the 14th hole of this course in Coeur d’Alene (Idaho) can be pulled to different distances from the tee using steel cables. Putting is done by ferry.

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Golf Club, China

At 7726 meters, this course near the city of Lijiang is the longest in the world. At more than 3000 meters, it is so high that the balls fly further than on most other golf courses.

The Himalayan Golf Course, Nepal

The course in Pokhara is the most remote in the world. The journey is usually via Bangkok or Bahrain to Kathmandu and on to Pokhara. If you choose to fly, you have to put up with the airfield at an altitude of 1,000 meters and its flight paths, which are greatly shortened by the nearby mountains. The alternative bus journey takes six to eight hours and is extremely winding.

La Paz Golf Club, Bolivia

At 3342 meters, this course is the highest in the world. “For those who don’t want to travel so far to get a taste of the mountain air while playing golf: Granvalira Golf Soldeu – Europe’s highest course at 2250 meters is also not to be sneezed at,” recommends Marco Paeke from VCG.

Furnace Creek Golf Course, USA

The course in Death Valley is 65 meters below sea level, making it the lowest course in the world.

Liberty National Golf Club, USA

An elite affair. The construction of the course in Jersey City (New Jersey) cost 130 million US dollars. The admission fee is 500,000 dollars. In return, the course offers views of New York landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty as well as heated greens, a harbor and helipads.

Alice Springs Golf Club, Australia

This course is considered to be the hottest in the world: the players brood here at over 50 degrees Celsius.

North Star Golf Club, USA

The counterpart to Alice Springs. The course in Fairbanks, Alaska, is the coldest in the world. Here you have to keep your hands steady at -30 degrees.

Llanymynech Golf Club, Wales

The East Westry Golf Club in the Welsh county of Shropshire sends its players to England during the round. On hole 4, you tee off in Wales and putt in England. You only return to Wales on the 7th tee.

Green Zone Golf Club, Finland/Sweden

Here, too, you gain borderline experience: Nine holes are located in Finland, the other nine holes in Sweden.

Coober Pedy Opal Fields, Australia

This golf course doesn’t have a single blade of grass, instead golfers carry a grass plate around with them from which they hit the ball. To avoid the enormous heat, golfers here usually play at night with glowing balls.

Kabul Golf Course, Afghanistan

Mohammad Afzal Abdul, Afghanistan’s only golf pro and head of the Kabul Golf Club, guarantees that the course is mine-free. However, there is also no grass: the green is brown and consists of a mixture of sand and oil.

Oahu’s Ko’olau Golf Course, USA

This golf course in Hawaii is one of the most beautiful and challenging in the world. The course is located in the tropical rainforest in the middle of the Ko’olau Mountains and offers wonderful views of deep gorges, thundering waterfalls and the deep blue Pacific Ocean. Hole 18 leads over a huge gorge.

Leopard Creek Golf Course, South Africa

Located in the province of Mpumalanga, this course is surrounded by the Crocodile River and the Kruger National Park. Caution is advised throughout the course due to the many wild animals (lions, crocodiles, hippos).

St. Andrews, Scotland

“Golf Digest” voted it the best course in the world. The Old Course has no modern golf course architecture. It is embedded in nature and that is what makes it so unique and difficult at the same time.

Ocean Course, USA

Ten holes of the golf course in South Carolina are located directly on the Atlantic coast, while the remaining eight run parallel to it. Players are at the mercy of the often stormy ocean winds throughout the course. The results of the tournaments are therefore more dependent on the weather than on almost any other golf course.

Lower Saxony Course at the Hardenberg Golf Resort

The users of the Golfamore map voted and chose the golf course in Hardenberg in Lower Saxony for the “Player’s Choice Award”. Hardenberg came first in three out of four categories! And this course is indeed an experience, and not just because of the striking island green in the shape of a boar.

Quirky and crazy golf holes and golf courses

There are golf courses with bizarre and really crazy (and difficult) golf holes all over the world. Here is our overview of these courses

The Elfego Baca Shootout in Socorro, New Mexico (USA)

Getting a hole in and winning seems almost hopeless on this course. It is covered with all kinds of cacti. For the annual one-hole shootout, players are driven to Socorro Peak in four-wheel drive vehicles. This is a 2,208 meter high mountain peak from which the ball is hit down the mountain: The ball has to fly onto a “green” with a diameter of 15 meters, which is located on the grounds of the Technical University. That’s just 780 meters further down and almost five kilometers away. The players are allowed to hit each ball again from the tee, but many players have already seen the odd mountain lion as well as rattlesnakes.

7. Hole 1 at the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, Waterford (Ireland)

Ireland’s most unique hole (7th) is nestled on a floating green at the Cliff House Hotel. Here you tee off from the golf tee box terrace to hit the floating pontoon in the middle of Ardmore Bay. If you miss your target, you don’t need to worry about the ball: they are produced in an environmentally friendly way as food for the fish, biodegrade within a few hours and make the Ardmore fish happy.

Nullarbor Links Golf Course in Australia

The longest golf course in the world is, of course, in Australia. You should allow four days for a round of golf here. While some are driven to the golf holes in a golf caddy, others in a four-wheel drive vehicle, you could also be transported to the Nullarbor Links Golf Course by plane. The 18-hole, par-73 golf course stretches over 1,300 kilometers and the tees are between ten and 180 kilometers apart – always in a different one of the eighteen different towns. The course stretches from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to Ceduna in South Australia, including holes in the Nullarbor Desert. Wild Australian animals are among the traveling golfers’ companions.

Hole 19 at the Legend Golf & Safari Resort in Waterberg, South Africa

Hole-in for a million dollars – challenge enough? If you want to treat yourself to the extra par-3 hole on this 18-hole golf course, you have to get in a helicopter and hit the ball off a cliff on Hanglip Mountain – that’s more than 400 meters above the green. Luck plays a major role here, as the distance to the flag, which is located on a green in the shape of the African continent, is more than 380 meters.

Hole 14, Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course in Idaho (USA)

The most famous hole on this golf course is located on a floating par-3 golf island. Almost 1,400 square meters of green, which lie 140 meters from the lakeshore in the water, have been challenging golf professionals and amateurs for two decades. The ball is teed off and then (once the green has been hit) it goes on board a shuttle boat to hole the ball. Regardless of how the round of golf ends, everyone receives a certificate with their stroke count, name and date.

Indoor Ghetto Golf in Liverpool (England)

And if all these holes and golf courses aren’t crazy enough for you, you should travel to Liverpool. This is because there is a completely crazy and unusual ghetto course in an old brewery with 18 holes, combined with bars and a street food stall. The course features an old sailing boat, a hippy caravan and a large house, through each of which the ball has to be hit into the hole. DJs provide the soundtrack from a tree house.

World’s largest golf club (China)

China once again lives up to its reputation as the “land of superlatives”: the Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen is the largest golf course in the world and was entered into the “Guinness Book of Records” on May 26, 2004. In a festive ceremony, Stewart Newport, representative of Guinness World Records Limited, presented the certificate to Dr. David Shu JP, Chairman of the Mission Hills Group. Mission Hills replaces Pinehurst Club as the record holder.

Mission Hills Golf Club combines ten 18-hole courses – no other golf facility in the world has more courses. Mission Hills replaces the previous record holder American Pinehurst Club with a total of eight courses. The first course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, was completed just two years after Mission Hills was founded. The tenth and newest course was inaugurated in April 2004 in the presence of golf icon Greg Norman. Mission Hills Golf Club – about 30 minutes from Hong Kong – is the centerpiece of the Mission Hills Leisure and Recreation Resort, one of the most popular tourist destinations in China. Mission Hills is now the benchmark for a burgeoning industry that provides around 5,000 jobs and has a capital investment of more than US$400 million.