Play at midnight watching bears and whales at the world’s northernmost golf course
By Jack Bantock, CNN
(CNN) — Playing till the summer sun sets is a reasonable expectation for most golfers, but run it by a Norwegian player and they may respond with a look of bewilderment.
Because for those teeing up in the Scandinavian country’s northern regions, that could mean playing for months on end without rest.
Golf plays on a different axis in the “Land of the Midnight Sun,” and nowhere is that difference more pronounced than at Tromsø golf club, the world’s northernmost 18-hole golf course.
Roughly 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle, Tromsø offers its 70,000-plus population a slim golf season, as the city is blanketed in white during winter months. This year, the city’s course closed in March, when snow was up to 4.6 feet (140cm) deep, and didn’t open until June 17, before closing again on October 5.
It’s an annual mad dash for the club’s two part-time greenkeepers, challenged with clearing fairways of snow and ice before reseeding the entire course. Given the size of the task, general manager Bjorn Sonsteby’s job responsibilities have expanded well beyond the typical remit.
“It’s a very special job,” Sonsteby told CNN. “I do a lot of things by myself because I’m the one employed but I have a good board and a lot of volunteers and members that help.
“Everyone is very impatient. They started asking me in March, ‘When do you think we will open?’ Usually we open June 1, but the weather is very unsteady these days … it was wet and the ground was frosty – we couldn’t use the machines.”
Light work
After just 110 days of outdoor play time, it’s back to the virtual golf simulators. Yet what the season lacks in length, it makes up for in beauty – and then some.
A 45-minute drive from the city center at the foot of the Lyngen Alps, the course offers breathtaking views of the snowy mountain peaks across the adjacent Ullsfjorden fjord, with the waters breached by humpback whales and orca.
On land, reindeer and elk can wander onto the fairways, while brown bears – an incredibly rare sight in Norway – have been spotted roaming in the hilly regions beyond the course’s borders.
Arguably though, it’s overhead where Tromsø golf club really separates itself. In the summer months, until near the end of July, players can experience 24-hour golf, navigating the course in the early morning hours under the golden glow of the midnight sun – a phenomenon unique to latitudes north of the Arctic Circle.
From September, anywhere between 6pm and 2am they can turn their eyes skyward for an entirely different spectacle – the Aurora Borealis. Tromsø sits at the center of the Northern Lights Oval, making it one of the best areas to glimpse the phenomenon.
It’s a one-of-a-kind experience that has helped drive what Sonsteby has noted as an increased appetite for golf in the region, with Tromsø golf club adding 65 new members to its 470 total membership this year alone.
“It’s growing, and [with] a lot of young people too – we love that,” Sonsteby said.
“You’re outside a lot, you walk 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) every time, so you’re getting good conditioning as well.”
King Viktor
Yet arguably the biggest reason behind Norway’s recent golf boom is one man: Viktor Hovland.
Born in Oslo, the 26-year-old has become one of the game’s elite players in recent years, continuing his rise with a stellar 2023. Winning three times on the PGA Tour, Hovland did not finish lower than tied-13th at the four majors before delivering a starring performance in Europe’s convincing Ryder Cup triumph in Rome in October.
Ranked fourth in the world, no other Norwegian is currently inside the top 250. Not since two-time LPGA major winner Suzann Pettersen was at the peak of her powers over a decade ago has the country boasted such a supreme talent – and the impact is palpable.
“Now we see the massive increase that Viktor and Suzann have created in golf in this country,” Stephen Newey, head pro at Oslo Golf Club and Pettersen’s junior coach, told CNN.
“The kids want to play golf – ‘I want to be like Viktor, I want to be like Suzann,’ and they can.”
The-CNN-Wire
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