THE MOST TERRIFYING SHOT IN GOLF

Voice over: Michael Robles
Writer: Jack Bantock
Video editor: Lance Keller
Inches from a 470-yard
cliff, is this the most
terrifying shot in sport?
A helicopter drops you off on the edge of a mountain. You stand
at the tee perched on the precipice as a pride of
lions
stalk an
unsuspecting antelope a sheer 430-meter (470 yard) drop below.
Golf
is nothing like an extreme sport - but it absolutely is in one
corner of
South Africa
.
In the country’s northernmost province of Limpopo, close to the
Zimbabwe border, lies the Legend Golf and Safari Resort. Its
flagship Signature Course, with each hole designed by a different
famous golfer, is sprawled out across the plains of the Entabeni
Safari Conservancy, home to Africa’s “Big Five” and a vast array
of other wildlife.
Yet many players do not return to the clubhouse after 18 holes,
not because they’ve fallen prey to a lion or leopard, but because
they’ve boarded a helicopter and soared up Hanglip Mountain to a
one-of-a-kind bonus hole: “The Extreme 19th.”
The 361-meter (395-yard) hole, ending in a green shaped like the
African continent, is the longest - and possibly the most
intimidating - par-three in the world, and the brainchild of Legend
Holdings CEO Peet Cilliers.
“We wanted it to be a place of extremes that people would talk
about ... we wanted to do something unique,” Cilliers told CNN.
“Golf can be quite boring and I think it is just something that
makes it special. It’s a wild experience.”
Into the lion’s den
The seed for The Extreme 19th was planted in November 2000,
when Cilliers’ wife Mart surprised him with a family picnic at the
summit of Hanglip Mountain for his 41st birthday.
Captivated by the view, Cilliers would return to the peak
(accessible only by helicopter) shortly after to show a friend, who
- a bottle of wine later - suggested he drive a ball off the edge.
By the time the duo descended, a whimsical wager had solidified
into a concrete plan for an unprecedented feature.
Deterrents - financial and literal - ensued. Sceptical designers
quoted five million Rand (today, roughly $263,000) for
construction, which would be paused intermittently when lions
padded into the area, leading workers to flee up nearby trees for
safety.
Staff donned crash helmets as balls rained down from above in
an attempt to plot the best landing zone. A few months later,
South African golfing icon
Gary Player
struck the hole’s first
official tee shot in 2008.
The nine-time major champion teed up a few steps further back
from the edge to allow him his signature follow-through skip after
the ball, and the same setup is also afforded to golfers with a fear
of heights. Though the drop is sheer, a ledge two meters down
would break the fall should any player somehow tumble over.
Golfers are permitted to take between five and seven shots off the
tee, dependent on wind conditions. With a hang-time averaging
22 seconds, an eagle-eyed gaggle of crash helmet-clad caddies
await down below to mark where the balls land.
With a sloped fairway starting roughly 260 yards in, “you don’t
have to be a very good player to actually hit it near,” Cilliers
insists, as balls can roll all the way down to around the bunkers
encircling the flag.
A short electric fence surrounds the green to shut out the more
dangerous wildlife, though occasionally impala - a species of
antelope - and other smaller creatures slip through. On the
Signature Course itself, however, wildebeest, zebra, kudu and
other species are free to roam.
It costs 5,000 rand ($263) for a group of four to play The Extreme
19th, and 1,000 rand ($52) to play the Signature Course - though
some travel halfway around the world just to play one hole.
“We’ve had some people from China and Europe who literally fly
in, play The Extreme 19th and then leave,” Cilliers said, “It
actually happens quite a lot.”
Million-dollar idea
Perhaps some early visitors were drawn in by the prospect of
becoming an instant millionaire.
For the opening year of The Extreme 19th’s existence, a $1
million reward was promised to the first player to sink a hole-in-
one. There was a heart-in-mouth moment for the resort when one
ball went careening via a rock to within two meters of the cup,
with the prize dropped to $10,000 shortly after.
Closed during the Covid-19 pandemic due to a nationwide
plummet in tourism, the Extreme 19th and Signature Course
remain shut for renovations, but Cilliers said “something special”
is in the works regarding a new reward upon the grand re-opening
in the near future.
The first birdie was made by former West Indies cricketer
Franklyn Stephenson in January 2010, yet by December 2014,

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