I have it on good authority that this year's event will top the 20-competitor mark. Of course, the winner will not be a North Korean native. The Pyongyang Golf course -- the only golf course in the country -- is open only to the nation's ruling elite and invited foreign nationals.The 2011 DPRK Amateur Golf Open took place on the 29th April 2011. Journalists from Associated Press and Japanese/Korean media were on hand to cover the event, which was played by 17 competitors, from 8 different countries. The nationalities included UK, South Africa, Finland, France, Germany, Australia, Luxembourg and DPRK.
The tournament was played in Callaway format and top place with a joint score of 72 were 25 year old Olli Lehtonen (hcp 1.1) and 31 year old Johannes Raitio (hcp 9.4), both from Finland. With the top gross score of 84, Olli was crowned the overall winner.
Even though Kim Jong Il is now deceased no North Korean party functionary would dare risk besting the score of the late golf "genius." Admittedly, this would be a near impossible task, since the former "Dear Leader" is reputed to have "opened the course in 1987" with a "world record 38 under par on his first ever round of golf (including 11 hole in ones) [sic]!"
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