From the outside, the life of a professional golfer looks pretty glamorous. Between the glitz of playing prestigious tournaments and earning a lucrative payday, fans often fancy the seemingly exciting lifestyle. But being held at gunpoint amidst a curfew in a foreign land? Well, that surely sounds like a nightmarish affair. And this 67-year-old Welsh golfer has lived to tell one such horrific tale. In fact, the story was so scary that nobody initially believed him!

Ian Woosnam is best known for his 1991 Masters victory. As a legend of the sport, Woosnam was remembered for his incredible swings and golfing techniques. But there is one particular incident from his early golfing days that rattled him to the core. During a conversation with Sir Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, and Bernhard Langer, Woosnam narrated how he was stranded in Nigeria with an AK-47 staring right at his face!

“You’d be like in Nigeria or somewhere and they have a curfew and you’re not supposed to be going out. So next sudden you get pulled up you know and got a big army guy there taps on the window he puts his AK forty seven right in your face. ‘Where you going?’ ‘Anywhere you want.’ That happened twice to me in Africa,” said Woosnam. 

The iconic golfer mentioned that when he narrated the story to his grandchildren, nobody believed him. They accused Woosnam of making up a story. Thankfully, Langer came to his rescue and supported him by narrating a similar experience that he had in Colombia. While playing in the Colombian Open, Langer claimed to have heard gunshots every night. 

Surely, after hearing the story, everybody else had no other option than to believe and fathom the trauma that Woosnam had to go through.

Apart from narrating thrilling life stories, Woosnam also takes interest in helping the sport in a better way. Thus, he proposed a bold idea to transform The Open like The Masters. 

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Ian Woosnam suggests course setup to change The Open Championship drastically

As of now, traditional and historic locations like the St. Andrews Old Course are facing a significant threat. With modern technology and state-of-the-art infrastructures coming in rapidly, the older locations are getting overpowered. In an effort to solve the problem, Woosnam suggested that a brand new course should be built right beside the old course of St. Andrews. 

The idea behind the same is that the new layout would hence help in preserving the historic St. Andrews. And it can then host The Open Championship in the same manner in which the Augusta National hosts The Masters. 

“Why don’t you keep St Andrews Old as a souvenir, as history, and build another golf course on the side of it – on the old and the new – and make a golf course specifically for The Open and play it there every year like The Masters?” said Woosnam in an interview with ‘Top 100 Golf Courses,’ back in August 2025. 

It remains to be seen if his suggestions will be taken seriously, or like his story about his experience in Africa, they will be brushed aside.