Extreme Golf at The Pioneer Pass Golf Challenge
Ever play golf down the side of a Mountain with a four-wheel drive vehicle as your golf cart? This is your chance in the 2019 Pioneer Pass Golf Challenge. Beat the desert heat, take in some great scenery, meet a few new friends and have tons of fun! Tee it up this Saturday for the 60th annual Extreme Golf at the Pioneer Golf Challenge.
This quirky, obscure sporting event continues a tradition that started in 1959.
The Pioneer Pass Golf Challenge is a two day tournament – Hawk’s Landing Golf Course in Yucca Valley, is the starting point.
No, the players don’t actually hoof it, players caravan up the mountain in four-wheel drive vehicles to Big Bear. Each hole is set up at different spots along Pioneer Pass – the four wheel drive vehicle’s are your golf cart’s for this challenge.
After completing each hole, golfers pile into trucks for the drive to the next “tee.”
Golfers are required to bring their own “spotters.” These good sports stake out a place somewhere down the “fairway,” and watch for flying golf balls. Not an easy job, as virtually the entire course is played in the rough. The nine-hole event covers about 30 miles, takes players though rugged mountain terrain before dropping down into Yucca Valley.
Pack your four wheel drive vehicle, grab a spotter with a good pair of binoculars and hit the links for a wacky day of Extreme Golf at the Pioneer Pass Golf Challenge. Wondering how you could possibly sink a tiny golf ball in a hole on the side of a mountain? Not to worry, each hole is about 20′ in diameter and played mostly along the dirt road that brings you down the mountain.
Your 2nd round is a little easier on Sunday, with an 18 hole Scramble played at The Hawks Landing Golf Course in Yucca Valley.
This event was originally organized to help raise funds build a paved road between the two towns. The pioneers of this extreme golf event, assisted by Marines from the Twentynine Palms base, met on the mountain in the 1950’s with shovels and other equipment to carve out the proposed road. The golf challenge was created as a promotional event to draw attention to the road concept.
The back-road between the towns is still unpaved, but the Pioneer Pass Golf Challenge continues 60 years later.