Fore-teen Below Zero! Perfect!

Trivia: “The first time the U.S. Open was played at a truly public course was in 2002. What was the course?” Answer below.

A special ‘thank you’ to Tina Malone-Wright for forwarding the following story. While we clearly offer an indoor, well-lit, and very warm golfing experience, devoid of both ice and snow, we definitely recognize the attraction and fun-factor noted in this article. The story can be found here, and below.

You don't have to fly south - give winter your best shot

The 'greens' may be stained with food colouring and the 'sand traps' made of snow, but flocks of duffers will soon be heading to ice-covered courses from Switzerland to PEI to hit 18 holes in the world's chilliest golf tourneys

DAVE MCGINN
From Friday's Globe and Mail
February 13, 2009 at 8:31 AM EST

Later this month, an 18-hole golf course that's sure to raise the eyebrows of most duffers will be built in the small town of Georgetown, PEI.

Like most courses in the province, it will be a full par 72. But the West Street Beach course will not be laid out on grass. It will be on the frozen surface of Georgetown Harbour.

Discarded Christmas trees will line the fairways to give golfers a much-needed sense of perspective in the snowy expanse. Putting greens will be painted onto the slippery surface using green food colouring. The course will even have "sand traps," although they'll be made of piles of snow.

"There's a lot of golfers in PEI and they want to play whenever they can," says Georgetown Mayor Peter Llewellyn of the town's venture into ice golf.

When the cold weather hits, most golfers in Canada must either pack away their bags for the season or pack their bags for Florida. And while some regular courses across the country let golfers play in the snow, ice golf offers a special opportunity to hit the links on frozen lakes and rivers.

Holes are dug with an auger, a tool usually used for ice fishing, and courses are often shorter than those on land, but the game is surprisingly like its fair-weather counterpart, players say.

Putting a tundra twist on the age-old game of golf is still a novelty, of course. But two years ago, Georgetown held its first International Ice Golf tournament in the hopes of boosting tourism. The event was based on the success of similar events around the world, such as the Chivas Snow Golf Championship in Switzerland and the World Ice Golf Championship in Greenland.

Georgetown's inaugural tourney attracted interest from players as far afield as Japan and the Caribbean. But last year, the tournament had to be cancelled for perhaps the most unlikely reason ever to nix a golf event - it was unseasonably warm.

"The harbour never froze," Mr. Llewellyn says.

The town decided to take a meteorological mulligan, and this year is pushing on with plans not only for a 16-team tournament to be held in March, but also to have the course open seven days a week for players to enjoy at their leisure.

"We'll keep it open for two or three weeks, depending on the weather," Mr. Llewellyn said. A round will cost about $10. "We expect to have golfers from all over PEI and we've got requests from Nova Scotia. They want to know when it's ready. Golfers want to come over and play."

Ice golf has taken off south of the border, too, with annual tournaments held in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Colorado.

Here in Canada, ice golf's two biggest hot spots - or cold spots - are Georgetown and Mulhurst Bay, Alta., where the Pigeon Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce has been holding an annual ice golf tournament since 1996. It regularly attracts more than 200 players from across the province.

"Most of our golfers are from Edmonton and Calgary," says Darlene Kobeluck, the event's organizer.

Greens there are made of outdoor carpeting. The holes are relatively short - most are about 120 yards - and players are allowed to use only two irons and a putter. But the game is still superior to the summer version in terms of sheer enjoyment, says Guy Gutenberg, a 44-year-old electrician.

"Fun-wise, there's no comparison," he says. Mr. Gutenberg, an avid golfer, has made the two-hour drive from his home in Sedgewick, Alta., to Pigeon Lake for the past seven years.

He learned of the tournament by chance. His son was in Cub Scouts at the time, and the chamber of commerce had asked the group to clean the grounds after the event. Mr. Gutenberg's wife signed up the family to help.

"We helped clean up and I said afterward, 'Don't expect me to do this next year.' " His wife wanted to know why. "I said, 'Because I'm going to be golfing. This looks like way too much fun.' "

He's been playing in the tournament ever since. And each year, he says, more friends who learn of the game are eager to join him.

"When I started, I went by myself. Now I've got eight people who come with me."

Derek Nicholson, a 52-year-old financial services adviser from Lower Montague, just south of Georgetown, had a similar reaction the first time he learned of the Georgetown ice golf tournament.

"I just said, 'My gosh, this is a great idea,' " he recalls.

Surprisingly, playing golf on a frozen lake is not much different than playing on grass, with one or two obvious exceptions, Mr. Nicholson says.

"It's a little more challenging because you have a few more layers of clothes on. And there's a few more obstacles that you have to look out for, like frozen pieces of different things on the ice."

But, no, searching for white balls in a field of snow is not an issue. Georgetown has solved that particular problem.

"We give them black balls," Mr. Llewellyn says.

And the answer: “The Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York”