Two Australian men successfully passed themselves off as pro golfers in an official North Korean tournament even though neither of them plays professionally.
Morgan Ruig and Evan Shay, both 28, applied to play as the Australian team in the tournament and sported green blazers with an official logo, BBC News reported.
The two said they didn’t come anywhere close to winning.
“We played very poorly ... but we met some very interesting people,” Ruig said, according to the BBC. The Australians viewed the experience as a humorous one, and Ruig called the trip “character building.”
The pair was chaperoned throughout their five days inside North Korea and received a tour of the capital. Although they were nervous about handing over their passports at the border, they had no trouble leaving the country after the tournament ended.
The late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was reportedly an excellent golfer who once allegedly shot a world record 38 under par. The Pyongyang golf complex was opened under his leadership in 1987.
The two Australians weren’t too worried about getting caught as imposters.
“I think their internet access is pretty limited in North Korea, so they didn’t really have too many opportunities for research,” Shay said, ABC News reported.
If they had been discovered as imposters, however, they might have been subject to detainment and sentenced to hard labor, ABC said.
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