Snow golf is a sport based on

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

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 The Kalasha Valleys ( Kalasha-mondr: '; ur, ) are valleys in Chitral District in northern Pakistan. The valleys are surrounded by the Hindu Kush mountain range. The inhabitants of the valley are the Kalash people, who have a unique culture, lang ...

in Chitral, Pakistan.

History

Aert van der Neer - IJsvermaak buiten de stadswal (ca

Hendrick Avercamp - A Scene on the Ice - WGA01076

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 Aert van der Neer, or Aernout or Artus (c. 16039 November 1677), was a landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, specializing in small night scenes lit only by moonlight and fires, and snowy winter landscapes, both often looking down a canal ...

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 th ...

. 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 Jämijärvi is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The mu ...

. 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 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. Founded in 1763 as Omenak, ...

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

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 Abtenau (Central Bavarian: ''Obtenau'') is a market town in the Hallein District of Salzburg in Austria. The municipality is located in Lammertal, Tennengau, about 45 km south of Salzburg, and encompasses the entire middle valley of the Lammer. ...

, 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 o ...

, 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. 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, Courchevel 1650 (Moriond), and Courc ...

, Megeve, and

Val d'Isere Val may refer to: Val-a Film * ''Val'' (film), an American documentary about Val Kilmer, directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo Military equipment * Aichi D3A, a Japanese World War II dive bomber codenamed "Val" by the Allies * AS Val, a Sov ...

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. C ...

in Switzerland. In the United States, The Grimes Hill CC Invitational is an annual tournament held in the state of

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

which pits golfers against each other in a three-hole playoff to determine the best snow golfer.

References

Snow Golf European Championship 2011

History

Snow golf (ice golf)

Recurring events

See also

References

Further reading