When he finished, he was in Dund-Us, in western Mongolia. The journey took him 90 days to complete and consisted of 12,170 strokes. For the first 400 miles, he did not even hire a caddy. But he kept losing golf balls (500 spares) so he finally had to hire one. That was in 2004. At that time, there was only the Genghis Khan Golf Links (artificial turf) in Ulan Bator. But now, there are many golf courses in Mongolia, including an indoor driving range.
Why is Mongolia the new darling of golfers worldwide?
Mongolia's vast steppe landscape, covered with grasses is like a huge golf course. And the Gobi desert is Southern Mongolia is the only sand trap. There are many amateur golfers in Mongolia. Most of them live in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar.
When Andre Tolme started his golfing sojourn, there were very few facilities for golfers in Mongolia and he had to import a lot of the stuff.
Now, you can rent golfing equipment in Ulaanbaatar.
The government is trying to promote Mongolia as a golfing destination in a big way.
The country already has one international standard golf course just outside Ulan Bator, close to the Bodg Khan Mountains, the Mt. Bodg Golf Course. There are other golf courses too, but they are not quite of the international standard. The Bodg Khan Golf Course was designed by GolfPlan, an American company. This golf course is special. For example, instead of a golf cart you have a horse mounted caddy who marks the location of where the ball fell with an arrow.
Mongolia is highly suitable for cross golfing
There are many investors in this golf course but the major investor is Odjargal Jambaljamts, the executive chairman of the Mongolian Mining Company and the richest man in Mongolia. Mr. Odjargal is an avid golfer. He realized that Mongolia did not have any decent greens so he and some other investors got together and established the Mt. Bodg Golf Course.
Some people have suggested that rather than promoting country club type golfing, Mongolia should promote cross golfing. Cross golfing involves playing golf in unorthodox settings like inside cities or in Mongolia's case, the vast steppe.
Mongolians are very a hospitable people and they are not averse to welcoming complete strangers into their warm cozy yurts as Andre Tolme discovered when he was golfing in Mongolia. With all these developments, golfing in Mongolia is expected to take off in a big way. Most of the infrastructure is in place. All that Mongolia is waiting for now is the golfers.
