Blog lists Angola golf course among 10 most hazardous

ANGOLA — Louisiana State Penitentiary’s Prison View Golf Course made a travel blog’s list of the 10 most hazardous golf courses in the world.

“I think it’s great,” Warden Burl Cain said. “I think people ought to come out and enjoy the hazards on our course.”

The travel blog for Cheapflights.com notes that the nine-hole course includes practice facilities, a clubhouse and $10 green fees inside the largest maximum-security prison in the United States.

“Playing this course requires some advanced planning, as you must allow 48 hours for a background check before you can even schedule a tee time,” the blog says. “The course is on the grounds of the penitentiary, so you must also be willing to submit to personal and vehicle searches.”

The website item also says players should be prepared for play to be suspended in the event of a riot or attempted jailbreak.

“They didn’t say anything about our alligators, rattlesnakes and (water) moccasins,” Cain said. “I don’t believe we’ve ever had a riot.”

Another course deemed hazardous is a one-hole, par-3 green at Camp Bonifas, Panmunjom, South Korea, some 400 meters from the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

Others on the most hazardous course list include:

• Singapore Island Country Club, where a pro golfer killed a 9-foot-long cobra during a 1982 tournament, only to watch another snake emerge from the cobra’s mouth.
• Lost City Golf Course, Sun City, South Africa, where the 13th hole water hazard is home to about 40 Nile crocodiles.
• Merapi Golf Course, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, which lies in the shadows of Mount Merapi, an active volcano that last erupted in December 2010, the blog says.

“I don’t think I’d take a chance playing around Nile crocodiles,” Cain said.