There are golf videos that go viral because of the skill on display (or lack thereof). There are golf videos that go viral because some guy gets thrown in a lake or a grown man gets bullied by a goose. Then there are golf videos that go viral simply because, even in this wacky, wild psyop we call a sport, we haven’t seen anything like them before. This is one of those.

On Monday, Royal Liverpool Golf Club—better known as Hoylake—released this video of a literal bomb going off beside one of its famed greens. But don’t worry, it wasn’t the product of another terrifying headline or one of Gil Hanse’s links “restorations” (credit to our own Alex Myers for that zinger). Instead, it was the controlled detonation of a WWII-era artillery shell that was recently discovered beneath the 13-time Open Championship venue. Check it out.

Remarkable stuff. During World War II, Royal Liverpool, like many coastal links courses across Great Britain, was converted into a military site. Installed there was an early radar system designed to identify and anticipate the approach of enemy aircraft. Its fairways were soon crisscrossed with barbed wire and embedded with live mines as fears of a land invasion by Nazi forces mounted. In 1944, the removal of those mines began with a series of controlled explosions that left the golf course in tatters. The work was thorough, but somehow this shell evaded detection, remaining dormant for another 80 years.

Obviously, this clip represents a remarkable collision of Hoylake’s golf and human histories, which intertwine in fascinating and unexpected ways across the United Kingdom. We’re glad, of course, that no one was hurt and the shell was safely detonated with minimal damage to the iconic links, but we’re equally happy Hoylake decided to share this moment with the golf world. It’s not every day you get to see something like this, and it’s more proof that links golf—despite all its obsolete eccentricities—remains the best golf.

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Main Image: Supplied