In this guest post Jared Salter, founder of Joobili.com, a new travel inspiration website, describes the Ice World Golf Championship to be held in Greenland from March 19 – 24 2009.
“The par 5 fairway bends around an iceberg, the rough is a 2cm layer of frozen ice, and sand traps are replaced by seal holes. Oh…and the “green” is white and the white ball is red. The Ice Golf World Championship is truly one of the world’s most unique sporting events.
photo courtesy of Greenland Guide
The first tournament was in 1997 when local resident Arne Neimann challenged architect Rolf-Henning Jensen to carve the fjord ice outside Uummannaq into an 18-hole course. To be fair, the true designer is Mother Nature in that the course tries to keep up with the constantly changing contours of the shifting icebergs.
photo courtesy of Greenland Guide
The journey to Uummannaq is an experience in itself. The trip goes from Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq and then via helicopter to the breathtakingly beautiful village of Uummannaq, 300 miles inside the Arctic Circle. Thirty-six international professionals and amateurs will compete for the title of world’s best ice golfer, but even without an invitation, the course is open to the public beginning in March.
Start practicing your swing with a heavy winter coat and gloves. Sunglasses will help you follow your ball when it sails into the glare of the arctic sun. And one more thing, leave your golf spikes at home.”
Great idea for all the golfers of this world …
Hilary – thanks for your comment. Yes it is something a b.it different for golf fans. I imagine it could be difficult to concentrate on your shots with the surrounding awesome scenery
Hilary – If you are interested in unusual golf events here is another one from Joobili.com: http://bit.ly/ckHA2
Hitting golf balls off Ponte Vecchio sounds fun. Hopefully they keep the tradition alive in 2009.
Amazing things you can do on ice!
Also checkout polo on ice! http://tinyurl.com/c4ujxh
Eszter, thanks for the link to snow polo.
I must tell you that this is the first time I have the feeling I might be missing something leaving golf out of my life…
David – we do aim to inspire readers on the Europe a la Carte Blog, so if you become a born again golfer, can we claim success in this aim?
What an different way way to play golf. In Utah they do a charity event in January where they play golf with the snow on the ground. They use orange balls so that they can be seen. Thank you for the fun post.
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Danr and Deanna – thanks for letting us know about the snow golf event in Utah.