When life leaves you 60 yards short while constructing a golf hole, stick the tee box on top of a luxury villa. That’s how the saying goes, right? Well, not quite, but it was part of the ingenious solution the course custodians at Regnum Carya came up with when met by an unusual problem.

Regnum Carya - home of the European Tour's Turkish Open - isn’t special in the sense that, alongside a golf course, it also boasts a high-end resort. But when the construction of new villas was proposed, it initially meant the tee on the 16th hole was set to be shortened from 429 down to 369 yards.

Instead of reducing the yardage, which most likely would’ve meant it went from a par four to a par three, the designers instead opted to put the tee box on top of the villa itself. A bizarre, but genius solution, which meant the 16th hole could stay as a par four, while providing one of the most unique tee shots in golf.

To reach the tee, players have to climb a set of stairs to get to the top, where they not only get a stunning look at the hole, but also the rest of the course. Extra care has to be taken, though, given players have the unusual hazard of swimming pools just in front and on the right of the tee.

Explaining one of the most distinctive holes in golf, general manager Hasan Ceylan said: “It was a last-minute project change here at Regnum. The owners wanted to build some villas and we were not going to touch any part of the golf course but somehow we needed to make this hole 60 yards shorter.

“So we needed to build it (16th tee box) exactly like this for this golf course. We wanted to build a tee here to give something new to players. It’s become the icon of the tournament.”

While the golfers (well, let’s face it the caddies) might have a task every time they go up the steps to tee off, just a thought for the greenkeepers. Because the tee is actual grass and not the artificial type on top of the villa, several greenkeepers are forced to lug a lawnmower up the stairs to keep the box in tip-top shape.