Golf course closest to heaven
This headline, “Bellevue Funeral Home Opens New Golf Course Cemetery,” certainly caught my eye — I grew up in Bellevue, Washington, where my parents still live, just a few miles down the street from Sunset Hills Memorial Park and Funeral Home (maybe TMI, but I have family buried and/or cremated there).
Sunset Hills built a cemetery that resembles a one-hole golf course, which includes an 820-square-foot green, a fairway and a sand trap, according to the Seattle Weekly:
At Memorial Golf Park, there’s space for 1,281 golf fanatics, including space for those who want a traditional burial and those who want to be cremated and have their remains stored onsite.
To access the ossuary (where cremated remains are stored), one will have to use the actual golf hole.
Wait, what?
Arne Swanson, the funeral home’s marketing director, explained the concept to Seattle Weekly in an interview today. “There’s a vault installed below the green,” he said. “A passageway leads up to the top of the green and the hole.”
Swanson came up with the idea after witnessing a family scatter ashes on a golf course. “I was playing golf with my son at a local golf course about five years ago, and they stopped play on the course,” he said. “And then we observed what we later found out to be someone scattering their loved one on the course.”
Too bad you can’t play the hole! Well, I suppose the spirits can if you believe in that sort of thing…And it would feel sacrilegious to take divots out of hallowed grounds.
Sorry to be so morbid, but we are talking about a cemetery — would you choose to be buried or have your remains kept there? I guess it’s an interesting (yet kitschy) concept and there are plenty of golf fanatics in the area (Sunset Hills is probably the biggest, most prominent funeral home/cemetery in the area) that would probably dig it.
I (jokingly) asked my step-dad if he wanted to reserve a spot at Sunset Hills’ cemetery course, and he replied, “No. I want a real golf course.” Agreed. Besides, our country club is right down the street.
More pictures, via Seattle Weekly:
That is just the coolest cemetery ever!
So they sprinkle the fairway with both water and ashes. That’s a lot of sprinkling. Sounds kinda soupy.
We’re living in strange times, Stephanie. But I guess if this is what they wished for…better give them that. Even though I’m an enthusiast myself, I’d rather be buried, uh, normally.
I think you meant to say relatives buried and interred there…
Here lies T. Woods’ ability to win a golf tournament. RIP
I went to Sunset Hills Memorial Park yesterday to visit my parents gravesites. When my sister’s and I helped our Mother make arrangements in advance for her internment we were shown an area which was called The garden of Hope and that a rose garden was to be planted in the future. There was no Rose Garden yet, be we were assured that one was planned and “what a beautiful place to rest eternally”. Imagine my surprise when I arrived and saw all the headstones (most not carved on yet)cricling the putting green and sand trap. Nothing against golfers, but I felt betrayal by the directors of Sunset Hills Memorial Park. It just took the “Dignity” right out of their proclimation. Cemetaries are supposed to be restful, a place to reflect and remember. A place of peace. Now on any given visit I have I read on a web site. What next….Nascar or a waterpark theme. People pick their interment location for a reason. Our parents were gardeners, and raised beautiful roses. Thus their choice of eternal rest. I am with the author, you want to golf, put or get out of a sand trap…find a real golf course! Let’s just rename the place. I suggest ‘Sunset Hills Memorial and Theme Park”. That way the whole family can visit relatives and play all day. Hey throw in some food vendors while you are at it, will ya?
Oh, yeah, one question. When will we start paying to get in….is that in the plan, as well?