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About 30 km outside the North Korean capital, the Hermit Kingdom'sonly golf course cuts through heavily forested slopes running downto the waters of Lake Taicheng. The late Kim Jong Il is rumored tohave once frolicked there on a luxury yacht. He is also famouslycredited with shooting a world-record 18-hole score of 38 under par— including five holes in one — on the day he opened thecourse. The story was reported by the rogue state's lone newsagency, the Korean Central News Agency, which said 17 bodyguardswitnessed the round. Strangely, nobody at the course seems torecall his presumably spectacular performance. More recently, the secluded course played host to a different typeof visitor: tourists. Last month, 15 foreigners and one NorthKorean competed over three rounds in the second Democratic People'sRepublic of Korea Amateur Golf Open. The tournament, organized byDylan Harris of the U.K.-based Lupine Travel company, broughttogether golfers from six countries for eight days of golf andsightseeing. The experience offered a rare glimpse into one of theworld's most reclusive countries — and an even rarer chancefor everyday hackers to win a national championship. (PHOTOS: A New Look at North Korea) For most non-American visitors, the journey to North Korea beginswith a train ride harking back to the mid-20th century: a diesellocomotive drags boxy carriages crammed with soldiers from Sinuiju,which sits across the Yalu River from China, south towardPyongyang. American citizens, who are only allowed to arrive byplane, miss the five hours of North Korean scenery: peasantstrudging through knee-deep mud, furrowed fields and rows of squat,cement buildings. Peasants wear khaki-and-blue clothes. Red flagsdot the landscape. The journey to the golf course gets you slightly off the Potemkintourist trail, a route traveled by some 2,500 Western tourists andthousands more Chinese each year. The Kaesong Highway to thedemilitarized zone near the border with South Korea, for instance,is relatively well maintained. But the nearly empty six-lanehighway that runs southwest from the capital, past the PyongyangGolf Club to Nampho, near the coast, tells a different story. The30-km journey from the Yanggakdo Hotel in Pyongyang to the golfcourse can take more than an hour as a modern, 30-seat bus picksits way over crater-size potholes. North Koreans walking andcycling unhurriedly along the side of the highway sometimes movefaster than the bus. Beyond them, the Pyongyang plains are coveredwith fenceless acres of fields where peasants, tractors and ox plowthrough dry, red dirt. (PHOTOS: Chinese Tourists in North Korea) The golf itself was an unforgiving slog across undulating fairwaysand incredibly slow greens. Teeing off on the first hole, playerssee a generous fairway bending gently up to an inviting green. Oncloser inspection, though, the test is much sterner, with whiteout-of-bounds stakes bordering both sides of the hole, forcingwayward players to replay their stroke, add a penalty and rack uphigh scores. Out of bounds is considered golf's ultimate designpenalty, and most courses use them sparingly, if at all. There,they choke the course's entire 18 holes. Of course, penalties off the fairway are nothing compared with thehardship endured by ordinary North Koreans. People are forced tofollow a prescribed path of loyalty to their country and to theideology of its founding father, Kim Il Sung. Those who violate thewill of the ruling family face severe retribution. Scores ofdefectors have documented the hardships of labor camps wherepolitical dissidents are sent for even the tiniest hints ofcontrarianism. (PHOTOS: Patterns of North Korea) The sense of being under constant surveillance faded slightly onthe golf course. Players were assigned female caddies dressed insmart blue-and-white uniforms and wearing golf hats emblazoned withfamous brand names. The hats represented about the only signs ofmarketing during the weeklong trip. As players teed off in pairs,they were left to wander with just their caddies over the heavilytree-lined fairways. Occasionally, workers taking a break in theshade of trees would appear and help direct players to errantballs. The caddies provided cheering and clapping for good shots,but their enthusiasm turned to horror when things failed to go sowell. At the presentation ceremony, where British photographerSimon Jones was crowned 2012 DPRK amateur-golf champion, his caddywas the envy of her colleagues as she posed with the trophy,looking like she had won it herself. Off the course, frustration comes from having no way to interactwith locals and ask them what life in the Hermit Kingdom is reallylike. Tourists are only able to speak to official tour guides whotake pride in answering all questions, no matter how fanciful theresponse seems. One guide said an auditorium in the MangyongdaeChildren's Palace that could fit no more than 2,000 people had acapacity of 10,000, about half the space of Madison Square Garden. The only specific answer they admitted to not knowing was the ageof Kim Jong Un, who has taken over the country's leading politicaland military positions after the death of his father Kim Jong Il.Western experts guess that he's in his late 20s. But the guidesinsist that they know little about their new leader's background.They, like the rest of the world, are wondering what comes next. PHOTOS: North Korea's Heir Apparent Kim Jong Un PHOTOS: TIME's Pictures of the Week. 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