Snow golf

Snow golf is a sport based on golf but played over snow (or ice) instead of grass. The "greens" are called "whites" and have a maintained snow or ice surface.

History
Aert van der Neer, IJsvermaak buiten de stadswal (ca. 1655)
Hendrick Avercamp, A Scene on the Ice (ca. 1615)

Evidence for golf as a popular winter pastime can be seen in numerous 17th-century paintings by renowned artists Aert van der Neer[1] and Hendrick Avercamp.[2] There is also evidence that golf was practiced on snow and ice in Scotland.

Snow golf (ice golf)
A view on a high quality snow golf course.

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[3]

Recurring events

The annual World Ice Golf Championship has been held on the world's northernmost golf course on the shelf ice near Uummannaq, Greenland 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.[4] Competitors are allowed a maximum handicap of 36. Clubs with graphite shafts are not recommended, as they can shatter in the extreme temperatures.[5]

A Snow Golf Championship in Argentina has been held in Cerro Castor, Ushuaia since 2008, by José M. García Daroca.[6]

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, Austria. The new women's World Champion was Sarah Hölzl (Austria).[7]

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.[8]

In the United States, a little-known but trending tournament, The Grimes Hill CC Invitational, held annually in the state of Vermont, pits golfers against each other in a three-hole playoff to determine the Country's best snow golfer. In January 2017, John Matthew Manuele made a miraculous chip-in, hole out on the third and final hole (some eyewitnesses say the shot was from as much as 50 yards out) to take home the annual championship.

The Winter Golf Cup is an annual snow golf tour that visits four different ski resorts in the Alps, namely: Courchevel, Megeve, and Val d'Isere in France as well as Crans Montana in Switzerland. [9]

gollark: I'm *kind of tempted*, I *probably* won't.
gollark: I'm kind of tempted to try and @⁡everyone and hope that *one* person is non-annoyed enough and/or morbidly curious enough to vote gibson.
gollark: See, this does nothing.
gollark: ++exec```pythonprint("I vote for Gibson")```
gollark: Sadly, bots cannot vote because of discrimination.

See also

References
  1. Aert van der Neer: A Village in Winter with Skaters on a Frozen Canal (Oil on canvas, ca. 1660)
  2. Hendrick Avercamp: A Winter Scene with Two Gentlemen Playing Kolf Archived 2008-12-23 at the Wayback Machine (Oil on canvas, between 1615 and 1620), Getty Museum.
  3. A description of a snow golf competition organized in Jämi
  4. Melting golf-courses and polar bears. BBC Sport Online, February 22nd, 2001
  5. World Ice Golf Championship at Golfinfo
  6. Snowgolf Argentina Archived 2007-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Million Dollar Putt in Obertauern. Salzburg24, February 2nd 2009 (german)
  8. first-golf-on-snow-euroean championship
  9. "Home". Winter Golf Cup. 2017-10-20. Retrieved 2019-09-26.

Further reading
  • Extreme Golf: The World's Most Unusual, Fantastic, and Bizarre Courses. Duncan Lennard, Sourcebooks, 2004 (ISBN 1402203144)
  • The Caddie Was a Reindeer: And Other Tales of Extreme Recreation. Steve Rushin, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2004 (ISBN 0871138786)
  • World Ice Gold Championship. Brilliant Results, März 2006, S. 50–53 (PDF)
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