Golf from the Peak of Everest

Filed in archive Golf Wanderings on April 24, 2008

Courtesy: answers.com

Mount Everest has featured in the news lately, largely because it is the penultimate stop for the olympic torch on its troubled journey to Beijing for this summer's Olympic Games.

The torch will be carried to the peak from the north side - ironically, that is in Tibet which has been the scene of much anti-China protest in recent months.

The torch at the peak of Everest may represent a pinnacle of achievement for China but I like what Robert Vaughn (no, not The Man from UNCLE) did last May.



Vaughn is a Texas businessman with a love of two things: golf and mountain climbing.

Last May 18th, Vaughn peaked on Everest and celebrated with his second love.

A friend of Vaughn's had given him a specially prepared 4-iron and Vaughn carried the club up to the top of Everest - no mean feat given that climbers take only the absolute minimum to the top to lighten the load and preserve their depleting energy in the oxygen-thin air.

In a tribute to the game that, frankly, is unparalleled, Vaughn teed up three golf balls and let 'em fly towards Tibet from 29 thousand feet.

Only 1500 climbers have peaked on Everest since Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay did it in 1953.

Robert Vaughn is the only one to ever hit golf balls from Everest.