This area of the web site holds information on ice golf events, competition results and other aspects of the game in extreme cold conditions. If you have information you would like to share about ice golf events please contact Louise Scott.

Greenland Whites
Courtesy Shilland Communications

How Ice Golf Became the Next Big Thing for Greenland Tourism

Uummannaq, 600 km north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland, is a quiet place. Rugged, barren and beautiful, with a total of 2,700 residents who still live mainly by hunting and fishing and get around on dog sleds, it remained for many years isolated from the explosive development which modernised other parts of the country. You might be tempted to think no tourist has ever set foot in this place where people continue to live as they did several hundred years ago, but you'd be wrong.

Today tourism looks like it's becoming an important source of income for the town and region, and it's all down to one great idea: The Drambuie World Ice Golf Championship.

At its inception, the tournament was the brainchild of Arne Neiman, a local personality and owner of the only hotel in Uummannaq, as a bid to increase visitors and develop the area. The scenery is one of Uummannaq's great assets, with icebergs which break off from six neighbouring glaciers passing just a few kilometres off shore as they make their way out to sea. But many tourists never venture further north than the town of Ilulissat (which literally means 'the icebergs') where they are also easily seen. The third largest town in Greenland, Ilulissat is located near a fjord filled with icebergs, is the birthplace of Knud Rasmussen, and is easier and cheaper to get to.

So what to do? Arne had never played golf himself but had the idea that he could make this popular sport work for him. He invited Rolf Jensen, a golf course designer from Copenhagen, to come out and try his hand at making a golf hole in the ice. It was early May 1997, and the resultant hole worked perfectly.

Armed with photographs of their achievement, Arne approached Greenland Tourism with a concept and they provided funding to set up the first tournament, titled The Unofficial World Ice Golf Championship. The event attracted 15 attendees including press, and in keeping with the precedent set by Rolf Jensen, the date of the tournament was planned for late April. However, to everyone's dismay Uummannaq's traditionally good weather turned out to be a little too good and the event had to be cancelled due to an excess of sunshine!

Many of the attendees had to turn around at Copenhagen, and Greenland Tourism had to pay compensation for their airfares, but all was not lost.

Jonathan Brown, Drambuie's Regional Director for Northern and Eastern Europe, read about the tournament in an in-flight magazine for Iceland Air and immediately recognised the potential for a strong connection between Drambuie and ice golf. 'Drambuie on Ice' is the company's key marketing message since drinking the liqueur on the rocks helps to bring out the subtle flavour of the malts.

Coincidentally, he was not the only one who saw the connection. Greenland Tourism were at this time speaking to both Glenfiddich and Johnnie Walker about the possibility of sponsoring the event. But there was a wonderful synergy with Drambuie and on an individual level the people involved got on so well that a deal was struck.

With the support of Drambuie the tournament moved quickly from strength to strength. Funds were available to bring players in from all over the world, including places as far flung as Australia and South Africa. The number of players has increased steadily and now is at it's absolute maximum of 36. There are flags to mark the course, ice bars, TV crews, photographers and satellite TV newsfeeds. And alongside Drambuie, Greenland Tourism saw the growing potential for the tournament and put forward more funding as well.

The level of golfing expertise has also increased over the years. In 1999 Ronan Rafferty, European golfer of the year in 1989, attended but could not participate due to a hand injury. In 2002 there will be no less than three Challenge Tour players, plus one from the Buy.com tour in the USA (ex-PGA) and one from the SBC Futures Tour (also played on LPGA).

And with growing awareness of the event, Greenland Tourism and Arne Neiman are looking at the possibility of opening the golf course up after the event to accommodate the popular demand for more places.

The future is bright, but if you want to practice golf in Greenland now you may have a tough time. There's a new course in Nuuk made of grass imported from Iceland, open May to September, and a few holes exist at the top of a flat mountain on an American air-force base in the far north - but this is reserved for base residents only.

Otherwise, there's a course in Kangerlussuaq, central Greenland, which is made of sand - who said you have to go to Africa to play sand golf?

But your best bet may be elsewhere around the globe. There are two ice golf courses where anyone can go and play as long as it snows: Arvidsjaur Wintergolf (Arvidsjaur, Sweden) and Ice-Golf Safari (Rovaniemi, Finland)