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Dave Lochhead could hardly have picked a more dramatic setting for the wildest nine holes of his life.
Yet even he was stunned by what had transpired at what was left of the Fuego Maya golf course at La Reunion Antigua in Guatemala.
Set on the slopes of the Fuego Volcano, this Perry Dye-designed course in Central America was decimated in a devastating eruption that tragically killed nearly 200 people back in June 2018.
Large parts of the former PGA Tour Latin America venue remain submerged by solid lava, but greenkeepers have somehow managed to salvage a nine-hole layout that remains open to this day. And during a charity trip to Guatemala earlier this year, Aberdonian Dave and his friend Ben, from New York, felt inclined to check it out.
“We rock up and it turns out it used to be an 18-hole course but the volcano wiped nine holes away in 2018 so its now just a nine hole course,” Dave explains. “When you rock up there’s no natural clubhouse anymore or place to get dropped off. We were the only ones there and it turned out we were the only ones who played the course all day. We were like ‘does everyone else know something we don’t know?'”
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Perhaps.
“When we were sat there having a Coke before we go out the volcano starts rumbling. You could hear it murmuring and you’re like ‘What are we doing!’
“I said to Ben ‘are we crazy?’ and he said ‘why not? We’re here now!'”
Having hired a caddie and rented a ‘rogue’ set of clubs that came with the bonus of a Scotty Cameron putter, the friends, both mid-handicappers, settled into their round.
It was on the sixth tee that things took another surreal twist.
When you’re about to tee off in Guatemala – and the volcano behind you begins to erupt… pic.twitter.com/1tdpz6Dc1X
— Dave Lochhead (@davelochhead) February 27, 2024
“We’re happily playing around and taking some photos of each other and suddenly I’m taking a photo of him on the sixth hole and the volcano just blows its lid,” Dave recalls. “It starts puffing out smoke and I was thinking ‘Do we run? Oh my goodness.’ It was totally mad.”
Luckily in the chaos, Ben was familiar with the area and had some much-needed perspective.
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“It’s not a daily thing but it doesn’t mean the whole thing is going to blow in retrospect but I’m bricking it at the time,” Dave jokes.
“Its an active volcano. It was more than a little bit of smoke, but luckily it wasn’t a full run for your life type moment. It floats over and becomes the cloud. It definitely encapsulates all the senses.
“When we finished, the lady who caddied for us said ‘go on, do another nine.’ We just got away with it, I’m not sure we want to risk it again!”
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