Amazing time at Amazon course

I am currently travelling in Peru and just came out of the Amazon jungle! I was quite surprised to find The Amazon Golf Course in Iquitos which just might be the world's most remote links.

Getting to it means first getting to Iquitos, a bustling Peruvian city on the banks of the Amazon River.

Iquitos is the world's largest city that is accessible only by air or boat. Peru is not a big golfing country, and the sport is virtually unknown in the jungle.

The nine-hole golf course covers 24 acres of grass. The greens are surrounded by the mandatory hazards. However, things change once the game is under way.

The water traps are polluted with piranhas and caimans tend to meander onto the course.

There are rumours that one golfer lost a finger to the piranhas while trying to retrieve a ball, but that could be a golfing twist to an age-old jungle myth.

The golf course project started in 2004 on an abandoned cattle farm and the first official tee-off came in 2008. They spent the past year to plant nearly 2,000 trees and to find ways to keep the jungle vegetation from growing out of control.

Most golf courses need an irrigation system, here at the Amazon Golf Course they have the opposite problem and have to drain the course to prevent it being perpetually soggy. Iquitos receives an average of 280cm of rain annually.

Our caddie suggested an eight iron for the beginning par three. It is a little hard to see exactly where the flag is because it is only three feet tall and no GPS. In fact there are no carts and no cart paths, the whole course is rough.

They have two weed eaters and a couple of machetes to keep the course groomed. Unique rules for this course: if you lose your ball in the fairway you get a free drop.

It's an automatic two putt if you put it close, no need to run the score up and it is difficult to pull the flag from the water bottle that has been buried to hold it in place.

As we walked across Hogan's Bridge you had to watch your step or you could fall through in a water hazard full of piranhas and alligators.

Tough walk

It's $25 for nine holes or for that matter as many holes as you care to play. The green fee includes club rental, 12 balls and some broken tees. I can tell you that after nine holes you feel like you have gone 27.

Golfing in the Amazon was a unique experience, challenging and thoroughly entertaining.