NEWS
We explored Fortnite's new nine-hole Lazy Links golf course
The most well-known golf course in the world might be less than a week old. We're referring to Fortnite's Lazy Links course that was added on July 12 as part of the video game's Season 5 update. In case you're unfamiliar with Fortnite, it's an immensely popular battle royale-style video game where 100 players jump out of a flying bus, land on an island and compete to be the last one standing.
The island has numerous locations with alliteration-heavy names where players can land to find treasure chests, collect items and harvest materials, and Lazy Links is one of the newest additions. We booked a tee time at the country club, which surprisingly has a pretty lenient dress code despite its lavish accomodations, and spent an afternoon exploring all it has to offer.
Lazy Links is a nine-hole, par-3 course. Like the dedicated journalists we are, we checked every single hole marker on the course in order to confirm that it truly is a par-3 course.
Side note: Do you know how difficult it is to check every hole marker in a video game where there are 99 opponents and you only get one life per game? Let's just say it took more than one try.
The level of detail at Lazy Links is actually pretty impressive. The country club has its own crest, the tee boxes and greens are well-groomed, and every hole has a sponsor – such as Durrr Burger, here on the 3rd hole – which suggests strong business ties with members of the local community.
If you're looking for a close real-life course comparison to Lazy Links, may we suggest the Tom Doak-designed Paficic Dunes course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Oregon?
Pacific Dunes has been named the best public-access course in the country, according to Golf Advisor, and Lazy Links country club might be the most publicly accessable course ever created since it accepts drop-in customers – we literally mean drop-in, as in players parachuting from 10,000 feet and landing unannounced.
Here is an aerial view of us landing at Lazy Links.
Both Lazy Links and Pacific Dunes are links-style courses, featuring prominent greenside bunkers, located near the ocean. I mean come on, do these courses not look similar?
If you watched the video above until the very end, you noticed the golf cart doing burnouts in the middle of the fairway. Hey, ever heard of fixing your divot!
While we feel bad for the maintenance crew that's tasked with repairing the damage and assume that the annual membership fees for the country club are astronomical as a result, the drivable golf carts are a great touch to the game. They can fit up to four people (and riding on the back of the carts is not only allowed but encouraged).
While the handling and turn radius can be challenging at times, the carts are fitted with off-roading wheels that allow for powerslides and speed-boosting capabilities. Watch below.
The best part about Lazy Links is that you're able to actually take out a club and hit golf balls. In Fortnite lingo, it's called an "emote."
If you purchase the Fortnite battle pass, which unlocks extra challenges and rewards, you can earn the ability to hit golf balls at level 27.
When you hit a hole-in-one, every player in the game gets an alert in his or her activity feed showing your name and which hole you got the hole-in-one.
If you don't get an ace, the game will still recognize you in the feed that you reached the green and how many meters away your ball is from the pin. After you've teed off, you can run into your ball and kick it to take your next stroke or you can choose to drop a new ball.
Once you sink a putt, confetti explodes out of the cup and the activity feed will tell every player how many strokes it took you to finish the hole.
We'd like to see how Emiliano Grillo, the year-to-date PGA Tour par-3 scoring average leader at 2.98 strokes per par-3, would fare on the course.
You can even sink shots from more than 300 meters away.
After our round, we were able to cool off in the country club's outdoor pool, which is complete with diving boards and poolside villas.
Other amenities include a pro shop, locker rooms and tennis courts.
This golf course may not be in the rotation to host the U.S. Open anytime soon and fellow patrons might be unwelcoming, if not completely hostile, but with Fortnite's 125 million players, Lazy Links might be the most popular golf course in the world right now.