2007 # 01 Tigoriannguaruk! Tag suluk med hjem! Your personal copy!

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Golf and icebergs
For the tenth time, Uummannaq is to be the
venue for the world ice golf championship.
By Christian Schultz-Lorentzen
The course is snow white
and the view is interrupted
by huge, icebound icebergs
spread throughout the
impressive, icy landscape like
nature’s own sculptures. For
obvious reasons, the golf ball
is orange, not white, for the
occasion. And there is always
the risk of losing the ball to a
polar bear, as it says in the
official blurb for the world
ice golf championship which
is to be held for the tenth
time in Greenland’s northern
pearl – Uummannaq.
Behind the event, which is to
take place in March, are
sponsors Hotel Uummannaq
and the World Ice Golf
Committee, Greenland. In
common with last year they
are looking forward to a
small invasion of golf enthusiasts
from all over the world.
Last year’s winner was
Air Greenland inflight magazine 19
Australian Jason Cunningham,
who made the trip
with his father from the
world’s next-largest island to
the world’s largest island to
take part in the world’s most
extreme golf tournament.
He was inspired after reading
about the tournament in an
international golfing magazine.
And although travelling
from one hemisphere to
another is far from being an
inexpensive experience, the
challenge of playing golf in
such unusual conditions was
a great success. In brilliant
sunshine and on 30-centimetre
thick ice, with a
dizzying 600 metres down
to the seabed, 30 year old
Jason Cunningham took the
trophy ahead of British Luke
Merry, who had been in the
lead from day one.
Ice-golf doesn’t only make
great demands on concentration
and technique. Nature
can be unusually tough and
this calls for optimum performance.
Taking the windchill
factor into consideration,
temperatures can reach
down to around minus 50
degrees.
Unforgettable experience
In return, there is the experience
of a lifetime in store for
the participants, in scenery
that could have been created
by the artist Dali, if not for
the fact that nature always
exceeds our imagination.
– The cold doesn’t matter so
much when there is so much
scenery to enjoy and astound.
It’s a little like being on a film
shoot or walking on the
moon. The surroundings
remind me of the final scene
in the Superman film, where
Clark flies back to Krypton,
says the American ice-golfer
Jack O’Keefe, and his
German colleague Michael
Domberger agrees:
– It’s one of the most unusual
trips of my life, filled
with the unexpected. If you
love golf, this tournament
beats everything that you
have ever experienced in
your golfing carrier. It’s an
adventure you’ll never forget.
This year’s tournament takes
place over six days – from
March 22nd to March 27th
– with two days of regular
golfing.