In a country boasting a million-strong army, almost 50 years of international isolation along with posing the threat of an unprovoked nuclear attack, 30 golfers will get the rare chance to do something that seems unheard of and that is to play golf in North Korea.
England travel company, Lupine Travel has managed to get permission and clearance from one of the world’s most secretive countries to stage the North Korean Amateur Open on the only 18-hole golf course in the country.
The Wigan-based travel agency has led groups to such places as Chernobyl and Serbia but when it was suggested by a client he wanted to go to North Korea, the company ruled it out the thought.
However after much dealings with the North Korean Embassy in London, a group of 30 amateur golfers from the UK, USA, Europe, China and Australia to play in the North Korean Amateur Open, a four-day tournament from April 26th to 30th on the par-72 Pyongyang Golf Club.
The course was constructed in 1987 to celebrate the 75th birthday of former North Korean leader Kim Ill Sung and is laid out over 120 hectares and is located on the banks of Taicheng Lake, some 27 km from Pyongyang City.
It is believed to be the only public golf course in the tightly controlled Communist country.
Described as ‘a manicured shrine to one of sport’s most capitalist pastimes in the world’s most hard-line Stalinist states’, Pyongyang is one of the most exclusive and least crowded golf courses on the planet.
Kim Jong-il, who became the nation’s ‘Dear Leader’ when his father, Kim ill Sung died in 1994, played the first round at the opening of Pyongyang shortly after his father died.
If you can believe reports out of the media strangled nation, its claimed when the course opened, the ‘Dear Leader’ shot a world record 38 under par on his first ever round.
And to remind golfers just where you are, at the club entrance there’s a wall painting of the late ‘Great leader’ with the caption – ‘Generalissimo Kim 11 Sung is the Sun of the 21st Century’.
A film crew has been granted permission to travel with the group while there has been interest from the BBC, CNN and ABC TV in Australia to report on the event.
All amateur golfers with a handicap are eligible for entry.
Entry is £849 that includes visas, tournament entry fee, return air fares from China into North Korea, all meals, 5-star accommodation and a three-day journey of North Korea. You do have to cover your own costs in getting yourself to China.
To enter contact Lupine Travel on info@lupinetravel.co.uk or phone +44 (0) 1942 704525.
