Is this the Most Beautiful Golf Course in the World? | Adventures In Golf Season 4

hi I'm Eric and this is adventures in golf for this episode we traveled to the 68th parallel to play the northernmost Lynx course on planet Earth pretty good spot for it huh [Applause] [Music] [Music] adventures in golf has given me the opportunity to travel around the world meet some great people and of course check out amazing golf courses sometimes the trip is as easy as jumping on a plane and grabbing a cab to the course but the adventures that I've come to love the most are the ones that take us off the beaten path and reveal that the adventure is in fact the journey this latest episode is a prime example as I'm traveling to the most remote place adventures in golf has ever been to located on one of the Lofoten Islands off the coast of Norway in a small town of Hove Lofoten links of course unlike any I've ever been to before for starters the course lies at 68 degrees north latitude planting it firmly inside the Arctic Circle making it the most northern links golf course in the world next you have the Midnight Sun for two months of the year the Sun literally does not set giving golf lovers the opportunity to play all day and all night add to that the phenomenon of the Northern Lights which can be seen from the course from late August through mid-october when the course closes and you can see why it's been on my bucket list since the 18-hole course opened in 2015 I can't wait to see it in person but getting there is no easy task after three separate flights I land in heaviness Norway where I get a car to drive the final 125 miles I don't mind I love road trips and to be honest this is one of the most beautiful drives I've ever taken in my life and as TS Eliot's so eloquently pointed out the journey not the arrival matters the road to the course is windy with an impressive series of bridges and long stretching tunnels that burrow through the hills I'll find out later that most of these roads are under 15 years old and were built to eliminate multiple ferry crossings so as a result I arrived in just under three hours and while you can't tell with 24 hours of daylight it's late and we're exhausted the course will have to wait until the morning after a good day's rest I head to the chorus where I get a chance to speak with Frodo hull the managing director of La Fulton Lynx he's a seventh generation Norwegian and as his family's farm that most of the Golf Course resides on today talk about the genesis of Lofoten links when I was 15 the friend of my father who has been in Scotland and been in seen those courses in Scotland he's saw the landscape fitted to all look the same as the landscape here when they presented this idea to my my father and it took a while there wasn't any funds was the first Golf Course in northern Norway but then I started off the porch again in women in 97-98 we got some little bit of funding so we did a very small six hole course to prove that it was possible and then six years ago we got the money to build and at the 18 hole of course proper one we think the Fulton Lynx has always kind of been about one thing can you talk about that the idea always into use this beautiful place the lights the Midnight Sun the landscape to create a nice experience in you something unique something really special historically this region was known not for golf or really any recreational activity what did they do here to make this place famous this region of norway's is all about cutsies we've been exporting code from this area since the Vikings almost the dry code from Luton is protected as a brand like the champagne so it's it's a very long history on it so you can't just come up here and make some dried Cod and call it the Fulton Cod you can't say no business idea number 17,000 scratch that can you describe the experience of playing here I want to hear would you say after you played here because it's always fun to hear we're looking at every day so but I think that if you when you get out on whole number or 13 green and you if you still haven't got it done you would never get it you have to experience the the beauty and the landscape so I think one one person said it was like being in churches were like communing with nature if you know me you know that I also believe that golf can be very spiritual and I have four years so with that in mind it's time for me now to worship at the altar of love foots and links Norway [Music] you see up on hold on you understand what is going to be the rest of this room because you have one option are you going to try to reach the green are you gonna lay up and that's more or less how the whole golf round is gonna be it's trying to tempt you to do something so if you're a medium golfer as I am it's smart to lay out but it's not so fun it's more fun to try I was relieved to have a good shot off the first team sometimes it's the hardest shot because it sets your mind up for what's to come and as I walk the hall I realized what's coming is perhaps one of the most beautiful golf courses I've ever stepped foot on a lot of credit for the courses beauty is this stunning location the rest of the credit can go to this man Jerry Mulvihill he's the superintendent for the course and has been an integral part of the courses expansion to 18 holes it's designed by Jeremy tore a number we're following these plans but I suppose day to day things are changing and you've seen opportunities and you know I stick a tee in here and a bunker in there so it's it's kind of very organic but it's something very different look this place is going to be changing for the next how many hundreds of years sir still working on st. Andrews they're still working on belly bunion it's constantly involved in that's got the second hall is the signature hall which usually comes on the back nine but I'm quickly discovering that the term usual does not apply here [Music] Golf has this this element of nature is always part of the game and I think we what we've done in Lofoten is that we've done it to the extreme we push that side of golf to an extreme that maybe hasn't done been done anywhere else it's just amazing everything is golf it's wildlife its flowers it's the ocean it's the mountains it's just crazy there's nothing like this in the world let's talk about the seasons the go season starts around 1st of May and then made the October you know our seasons are very different you kind of sight for 8 months and you're disappearing for four winters here can be brutal the first couple years of a scary Jesus was really you know because you leave here and everything was kind of you know it's looking sweet you're happy going away and then you come back and it's just dormant and the first couple years keepers like you were starting all over again but I suppose we're very lucky in that we're right on the Gulf Stream you should follow the same latitude as us to Canada Alaska it would only firm fine permafrost so you wouldn't grow would be possible to grow anything but the course of the Gulf Stream it heats up to this part of not in the world so it's possible that's why it's a green here since 2015 you know it's getting better and better view it's it's maturing so I think we're just on the limit where it's possible to create a really high standard golf course and we tried to be honest to make it a proper golf course with the design and how we built it so we really gave it an effort to make it a nice experience your first ranking was in 2016 we ranked number 51 in Norway and a year later we moved up to number 20 and then last year number one and I can see why because there's no bad hole usually there's at least one hole that feels like a puzzle piece jammed into the wrong spot not here here all the holes flow together like they were meant to be exactly where they are you know I can remember the first time coming up here and you just knew Jesus this is special you know the wreckin golf was founded in st. Andrews it could have been founded here you know we've had people up from the RNA and they've said the same thing it's you know it's it's a special place what are we looking at Jerry this is uh we've got two Viking graves here one here one over wood what year are we talking finishing up my round I can't imagine there's anything else that could make this course any better than it is organic you talked about September being a special time to come yes the time is beautiful because then it's dark enough at night so you can see the normalize so you can play golf in daytime you can see the non lines in the evening at the golf course is the best place to sit normally one of the best in the motivation system isn't been down in 14 and meeting people of one or two o'clock in the morning whatever it is no Vera it's paradise it's it's just a feeling that's what it is there are very few episodes of adventures in golf that I wish to return to mostly because of this year difficulty in getting there in the first place but as I make the journey home from this one I already ponder the idea of coming back back for the beauty back for the solitude but mostly back to see the other side of this course decide under the Northern Lights you [Music]

Channel: Skratch

Views: 569,045

Keywords: travel, documentary, golf, course, adventures in golf, erik anders lang, skratch, skratch tv, skratch golf, norway, golf courses, northern lights, golf adventures, adventures in golf season 4, erik anders lang adventures in golf, skratch tv adventures in golf, lofoten links, lofoten links golf club, erik anders lang norway, erik anders lang lofoten, midnight golf, most beautiful golf courses

Id: Bjq1YP83KgE

Length: 10min 44sec (644 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 15 2019