A golf tournament is scheduled to take place later this month at a course that is claimed to be located at the world’s highest altitude in Lo Manthang, Nepal.
The tournament, called Top of the World Golf Classic, will be organized by the local Lomanthang Youth Club (LYC) under technical support of Nepal Golf Association and Nepal Professional Golfers’ Association (NPGA) on August 27.
The event will introduce the newly constructed Mustang Golf Course.
Deepak Acharya, general secretary of the NPGA, claimed that the golf course would set the record for the world’s highest altitude golf course once it is officially open.
“The Yak Golf Course located at 13,025 feet above sea level in Sikkim, India, currently holds the record of highest altitude golf course,” Acharya said, speaking at a press conference in Kathmandu on Monday. “The Mustang Golf Course is located at 15,239.5 feet above sea level.”
Acharya added, “The course will officially open after this event and we will initiate the process to induct it in the Guinness World Records after that.”
The course currently has nine holes, according to LYC patron and Gandaki Provincial assembly member Indra Dhara Bista, and it could be expanded to 18 holes in the future.
“The course will be ideal to play from May to August as the playing pitch will be covered by snow in other months,” said Bista, who took the initiative to construct the course.
“I took the initiative to construct the golf course once I realized that it could be instrumental to promote sports tourism,” Bista added. “This course, the highest-altitude in the world, could become a lifetime dream for all the golfers around the world to play at.”
A budget of Rs 1 million was spent from the Parliament Development Fund in cooperation with Lomanthang Rural Municipality for the construction of the course, according to Bista.
Nepal Golf Association president Tashi Ghale said that the association will write to the Asian Pacific Golf Federation, the umbrella organization of national golf associations in Asia, for the course’s promotion.
Govinda Bhattarai, president of the Mountain Sports Federation of Nepal, said that the promotion of the course will attract quality tourists to Nepal. “The golf course is a combination of nature, adventure and culture,” he said.
The event, scheduled for August 27, will see the participation of 28 golfers, including four female players. Among them about a dozen of golfers will be from Pokhara while the remaining golfers will travel from Kathmandu. The event will be played in a ¾ handicap format. The tournament will honor the winner, runner up, women’s winner, best group, closest to the pin, longest drive and most birdies.