If you were paying attention to the news about a year ago, you heard about the massive sinkhole that opened up at Top of the Rock Golf Course near Branson. Three smaller sinkholes appeared on the course at the same time, but the largest was really remarkable. It measured 80 feet across and 35 feet deep – definitely big enough to allow even the poorest golfer to get a hole-in-one.

Since then, the owner of the golf course, Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, has discovered something delightful about the enormous void in the earth: it may actually be the opening to an underground cavern system. Instead of immediately filling in the hole last year like experts suggested, Johnny, a cave and cavern enthusiast, decided that a little further investigation was necessary.

An exploratory dig uncovered huge limestone formations that resemble those seen in cavern systems. Johnny believes that these formations indicate caverns beneath his golf course, and he isn’t afraid to use his considerable wealth to dig to the bottom of this mystery. The process of removing the dirt is slow and painstaking – one careful backhoe scoop at a time – but the sinkhole now reaches 100 feet into the ground. While a Missouri State University cave expert revealed that there is likely a cavern system beneath the golf course, he was quick to note that it might not be very exciting. Johnny Morris is still enthusiastic, though. For him, the exciting part of this whole operation is digging into the unknown and discovering something that may very well be magical.

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