The bucket list for most golfers includes places like Scotland, Ireland and Oceania (and it should!), but amazing golf courses are scattered across the globe in places that you would least expect them. Here are a few surprisingly awesome golf destinations:

Canary Islands

The European Tour is visiting the Canary Islands for a 3-week swing as part of their 2021 schedule, so a worldwide audience will get a glimpse of the lush golf courses and beautiful weather of the tiny Spanish islands just off the coast of Africa. The two most populated islands, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, each have enough great golf to fill an itinerary and it’s splitting hairs to rank them.

Gran Canaria has a diverse array of landscapes but most of the golf is along the sandy southwest coast, with the Anfi Tauro Course providing some wow-factor. Visitors may want to venture to the northeast of the island, though, where Spain’s oldest golf club is located in the lively capital city of Las Palmas.

Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands and is home to black sandy beaches that surround Mt. Teide, the highest point in Spain. The southwest of the island is most popular for golfing tourists, with the prestigious Abama Course and several other quality venues close to the airport. Adventurers can take the short ferry across to La Gomera, as well, to hike through tropical mountains and rainforests and play a round at the stunning Tecina Golf Club.

Mauritius

I’ll start with an answer to your first question: Where the heck is Mauritius? The island nation is located about 1,200 miles off the southeast coast of Africa, and with sapphire-blue waters along white sandy beaches and thrilling mountainous landscapes, it’s definitely worth the trek. This is especially true for golf travelers, as the island is home to an impressive number of world-class golf courses across just 800 square miles of real estate.

At the top of the list would have to be Ile aux Cerfs, a Bernhard Langer-designed course on its own private island which is only reachable by boat! The interesting design offers a bit more than your typical oceanside layout, with routing across and around tropical vegetation and volcanic topography that is truly unique.

Mauritius is more than a one-trick pony, though. European Tour host courses at Heritage Golf Club and the Anahita Resort are just two of several other clubs that showcase the coastal scenery and dramatic terrain that epitomizes this emerging golf destination.

Top Courses

• Ile aux Cerfs
• Heritage
• Anahita
• Avalon
• Tamarina

Iceland

The golf-crazed nation of Iceland has more golf courses per capita than any other place on earth and offers a lot of unique golf experiences to be excited about: glacial landscapes, midnight tee times, and iconic layouts that weave through lava fields.

Most of the best courses lie near the capital and population center of Reykjavik, and the lava-lined Keilir and clifftop Brautarholt are of the cant-miss variety.

You can’t talk about Iceland as a bucket list destination, though, without mentioning Akureyri Golf Club. It’s the world’s northernmost golf course and has played host to the Arctic Open for over 30 years. Hundreds of golfers tee off around the clock in the shadow of snow-capped mountains in an event unlike any other.

Top Courses

• Keilir
• Reykjavik-Grafarholt
• Oddur
• Brautarholt
• Vestmannaeyja
• Akureyri

Nepal

I must admit, calling Nepal a golf destination is a bit like calling Mars a habitable planet: while technically true, further explanation is required.

In my view, golf is the perfect vehicle through which to see the world since the game has a way of taking people to some of the most scenic places on the edges of the earth. Perhaps nowhere is that more true than in Nepal, where the Himalayas provide the ultimate backdrop.

Gokarna Forest, the country’s premier golf resort, is in Kathmandu and was actually built by world-renowned David McLay Kidd (along with help from the numerous troops of monkeys that call the Gokarna Forest Reserve home). However, it’s the Himalayan Golf Club in Pokhara that leaves the adventurous golfer salivating. The 9-hole course opens and closes next to a clifftop clubhouse, which sits 250 fee above the valley holes scattered along the Bijayapur River below. With the Himalayas towering above, it has to be the most unique golf experience in the world.

Top Courses

• Gokarna Forest
• Himalayan

Morocco

Believe it or not, there is some darn good golf to be found in Morocco, following a wave of investment in Moroccan golf courses which has manifested itself in recent years.

Former Moroccan King Hassan II, a golf enthusiast himself, spearheaded the country’s interest in golf in the 1960s with a 45-hole complex at the Royal dar Es Salam estate in Rabat. The club, which has hosted the European Tour for many years, features both the Red and Blue Courses where many believe Robert Trent Jones did some of his best design work.

Today, the Moroccan golf boom has moved further south to Marrakesh where modern designs like Assoufid present “desert golf” in a whole new light.

To be honest, the best golf courses in Morocco are a little too spread out to see them all, but it may be worth the trip to play Mazagan or Tazegzout along the Atlantic Coast, or inland to the mountainous Michlifen for an altogether different experience.

Top Courses

• Royal Dar Es Salam-Red
• Royal Dar Es Salam-Blue
• Mazagan
• Assoufid
• Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakech
• PalmGolf Ourika
• Michlifen
• Tazegzout