Sat, Apr 03, 2004 page20

• Hungry polar bears the biggest hazard in Arctic golf game

  • AP
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  For golfers playing in an international ice and snow tournament on an Arctic island yesterday, the word "hazard" has a whole different meaning.

  The biggest hazard, polar bears, could eat them.

  Then of course there are the freezing temperatures, slippery surfaces, and the risk of snow blindness in a frozen world where "driving" more often refers to snow than smacking a golf ball.

  But extreme conditions are part of the point of the fifth annual Drambuie World Ice Golf Championship, which opened yesterday on the remote Svalbard archipelago, roughly 1,000km from the North Pole.

  The golf contest is staged in a different locale every year. Last year's event in Greenland was canceled because the weather was too warm. This year, however, warm temperatures are not a concern.

  "We're wearing a lot of layers. Everyone looks like the Michelin man," said event spokeswoman Caroline Sutcliffe by telephone from Svalbard, adding that some players were wearing full face masks and goggles, making it hard to tell who was who.

  Thirty-four players, some professional, are making the rounds of the 18-hole course created in the snow and ice of Advent Fjord, near the Norwegian settlement of Longyearbyen, on the main island of Spitsbergen.

  Residents, many of whom turned out to watch, were delighted by the interest in their far flung corner of the Polar region.

  "We are thrilled that such a great international golfing event as is being staged in Spitsbergen," said Tove Eliassen of Svalbard Tourism. "The ice-golf tournament will help to really put us on the world map."

  Experts estimate that there may be as many polar bears as there are people -- about 3,000 -- on the islands, some 500km north of Norway's mainland.

  The bears can weigh between 200-to 400kg, and they have no fear of humans, meaning that the normal attire for Svalbard residents also includes a high-powered hunting rifle.

  "We do have polar bear spotters on the course," said Sutcliffe. "There are four of them with rifles."

  During a practice round on Thursday, the wind chill factor brought the apparent temperature down to minus 26?C, she said.

  "Yesterday was tough," she said. "People were hitting balls into the wind, it was snowing, and sometimes when they reached the balls they were already covered with snow."

  Apart from the cold, the polar bears, and the other risks, playing in the extreme cold, snow and ice presents other challenges.

  Balls don't fly as far in the heavy, cold air. It isn't possible to use a tee, so players have to build tiny mounds of snow. On the greens, or more appropriately whites, it can be like putting on marble, without the resistance of grass.

  Instead of golf shoes, the players wear crampons -- the spikes used by mountain climbers -- under their boots as they carry their bags around the icy course. It's hard to make a decent swing, because of all the layers of clothing and sometimes heavy mittens.

  There is so much snow and ice that outside the few settlements, the main form of ground transport is snowmobiles or dogsleds.

  And that could present another challenge to the Arctic golfers. Dogsleds always have the right to play through the course.

  The winner, expected to be crowned tomorrow, gets a locally carved stone polar bear and a coveted winner's jacket.
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