Golf can be played at pretty much any elevation in the world, and there are golf courses sitting on the higher elevations of the world -- as high as 13,025 feet.
However, there are also golf courses played at very low elevation, including in the low-lying desert of the United States. In fact, the golf course at the lowest elevation in the world is darn close to the lowest elevation there is on Earth.
The golf course sitting at the lowest elevation in the world is Furnace Creek Golf Course in Death Valley in California in the United States, which is at 214 feet below sea level.
Furnace Creek Golf Course may be in the middle of a desert, but the golf course is a green oasis where a lot of stuff isn't meant to grow. There are plenty of shade trees to protect greens, and there are water features in play on 10 holes.
At this low of an elevation -- below sea level -- the ball doesn't go nearly as far as it does as regular elevation. Gravity and barometric pressure combine to make controlling the ball quite a challenge.
The par-70 18-hole golf course routinely sees temperatures into the 120s Fahrenheit because of the sun beating down on the California desert at its lowest altitude.
Nearby Furnace Creek is the Devil's Golf Course in Death Valley National Park. It's not really a golf course so much as a collection of jagged rock forms which is called a golf course as a bit of a joke. The Devil's Golf Course is at 282 feet below sea level, or the lowest elevation in the United States.
Golf courses below sea level
There are other below sea level golf courses, including the Greg Norman course at PGA West resort, also in the California desert. The Norman course sits 40 feet below sea level, in what's termed a prehistoric ocean bed.
The Dutch golf club in the Netherlands has hosted the European Tour, and the Colin Montgomerie-designed course sits a few meters below sea level.
There are other golf courses marginally below sea level, but there aren't any that can quite match Furnace Creek. No other golf course is more than 200 feet below sea level.
There are some dangers in wanting to do much of any kind of physical activity below-sea altitude, including getting headaches, experiencing nausea and edema, or even death without acclimatizing to the air and conditions at lower elevations.
