Snow golf is a sport based on
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
but played over snow (or ice) instead of grass. The "greens" are called "whites" and have a maintained snow or ice surface.
It should not be confused with
Crackgar, a form of snow golf belonging to the indigenous tribes living in
Kalash Valley
Kalash or Kalasha may refer to:
Peoples and languages
*Kalash people, or Kalasha, an ethnic group of Chitral, Pakistan
*Kalasha-mun, a language of Chitral, Pakistan
* Kalasha-ala, a language of Nuristan, Afghanistan
People with the name
* Kavi K ...
in
Chitral, Pakistan.
History
Evidence for golf as a popular winter pastime in Holland can be seen in numerous 17th-century paintings by renowned artists
Aert van der Neer and
Hendrick Avercamp
Hendrick Avercamp (January 27, 1585 (bapt.) – May 15, 1634 (buried)) was a Dutch painter during the Dutch Golden Age of painting. He was one of the earliest landscape painters of the 17th-century Dutch school, he specialized in painting t ...
. There is also evidence that golf was practiced on snow and ice in Scotland.
Snow golf (ice golf)
A high quality course is constructed each winter in
Jämijärvi. A forested nine-hole course known for its 480 meters par-5 hole, tries to emulate the conditions of the summer game to a high degree. It also caters to events such as the Aalto University competition organized in 2011
Recurring events
The annual World Ice Golf Championship has been held on the world's northernmost golf course on the shelf ice near
Uummannaq
Uummannaq is a town on Uummannaq Island in the Avannaata municipality, in central-western Greenland. With 1,407 inhabitants in 2020, it is the eighth-largest town in Greenland, and is home to the country's most northerly ferry terminal. Foun ...
,
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
since 1997. The course is reformed by the moving ice every year and play is highly dependent on weather conditions and thus, has been canceled several years running. Competitors are allowed a maximum
handicap of 36. Clubs with graphite shafts are not recommended, as they can shatter in the extreme temperatures.
A Snow Golf Championship in Argentina has been held in Cerro Castor, Ushuaia since 2008, by José M. García Daroca.
A Snowgolf World Championship for amateurs was held in January 2007 in
Abtenau, Austria. The event is hosted as a major Austrian celebrity event and sponsored by the state of Salzburg as part of the touristic scheme. Another Snowgolf World Championship took place in
Obertauern
Obertauern is a tourist destination which is located in the Radstädter Tauern in the Salzburger Land of Austria. The winter sports resort is separated in two communities: Tweng and Untertauern.
Geography
Obertauern lies in the southeast of th ...
, Austria. The new women's World Champion was Sarah Hölzl (Austria).
Another European championship event in snow golf was held in Switzerland during January 13–16, 2011. Seventy-two qualifiers were entitled to play the two-day tournament.
The Winter Golf Cup is an annual snow golf tour that visits four different ski resorts in the Alps, namely:
Courchevel
Courchevel () is a French Alps ski resort located in the Tarentaise Valley. It is a part of Les Trois Vallées, the largest linked ski areas in the world.
Courchevel also refers to the towns of Courchevel 1300 (Le Praz), Courchevel 1550, Co ...
,
Megève
Megève (; ) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France with a population of more than 3,000 residents. The town is well known as a ski resort near Mont Blanc in the French Alps. Co ...
, and
Val-d'Isère
Val-d'Isère (, literally ''Valley of Isère (river), Isère'') is a Communes of France, commune of the Tarentaise Valley, in the Savoie Departments of France, department (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region) in southeastern France. It ...
in France as well as
Crans Montana
Crans-Montana is a municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Chermignon, Mollens, Montana and Randogne merged to form the new municipality of Crans-Montana.
Cr ...
in Switzerland.
In the United States, The Grimes Hill CC Invitational is an annual tournament held in the state of
Vermont
Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...
which pits golfers against each other in a three-hole playoff to determine the best snow golfer.
See also
*
Snow rugby
Snow rugby refers to forms of rugby union that are especially adapted to be played in winter conditions, particularly in deep snow. It is played in Canada, the Kashmir region in India, the Baltic states, Russia, the northern United States, and ...
References
Snow Golf European Championship 2011
Further reading
*''Extreme Golf: The World's Most Unusual, Fantastic, and Bizarre Courses''. Duncan Lennard, Sourcebooks, 2004 ()
*''The Caddie Was a Reindeer: And Other Tales of Extreme Recreation''. Steve Rushin, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2004 ()
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Forms of golf
Snow sports