Camp Bonifas: The most dangerous golf course in the world
Sport generally isn’t very dangerous; you might pull a muscle in your five-a-side football game on a Monday night after work, or twist your ankle when you’re on your Sunday morning 5k, but that’s about it.
That’s certainly the case with golf, a sport so safe that it’s the preserve of middle managers and retirees, who spend their mornings strolling around their local club. Bar the wallop that golf does to your wallet, it’s pretty harmless, and as Mark Twain noted, it’s “a good walk spoiled”.
That isn’t the case in every case, though, with the border between North and South Korea being one of the most dangerous sporting arenas on the planet, and almost certainly the most dangerous golf course in the world. Upon first glance, you’d be forgiven for mistaking Camp Bonifas for a military outpost, somewhere you’re more likely to use a range finder to tune the scope on your sniper rifle than to hone the distances for your irons.
Situated in one of the most tense, heavily guarded, and politically sensitive locations on earth, the Korean Demilitarised Zone, this isn’t your average course, and the reason that it’s earned its status as the most dangerous place to play golf on earth. If you think Augusta National had strict rules, then imagine how intense playing at Camp Bonifas would be. Getting the clubs out here will see you surveyed by armed soldiers, and searching for a lost ball in the undergrowth might see you shot or standing on a landmine.
Camp Bonifas is unlike any other golf course on the planet. There’s no clubhouse, and there aren’t 18 holes, with just the one, singular hole, and even that doesn’t have a proper fairway.
The hole itself is 192 yards, and anywhere else on the planet, it would be a pretty standard par three. Except, unlike standard par threes elsewhere, this course is carved from the terrain and surrounded by dense vegetation, which, as signs suggest, is an active minefield.
This isn’t the kind of place you want to be taking risks with your shot because you certainly won’t be going to collect your ball if it ends up in the heavy rough. It’s also not going to be a great look if an errant ball ends up setting off a landmine and a diplomatic incident in this volatile region.
Named after Captain Arthur Bonifas, an American soldier who was murdered by the North Korean Army in 1976, after an escalation that originally started as an argument over tree pruning. It’s still very much a military area, with the only players on the course being those stationed at the camp, or actually journalists or other guests who are given the invite to play.
It’s often said that golf is a mental game, and a round of Camp Bonifas’ one hole certainly validates that argument. The importance of precision is obvious when a mistake could quite literally set off an explosion. You could be being watched by guards on the DPRK side of the DMZ, and the sounds of North Korean propaganda can be heard piped into the air, as you try and nail a putt to complete the hole.
With the tee box itself on top of an empty machine gun nest, there’s no possible way to separate the hole and the location, making this unquestionably the most dangerous golf course on the planet.
