Golfing In the Arctic

Golfing may be the last sport you would expect to be played in the Arctic. I was surprised to find that because of one event, golfing became popular with the Inuit. For years the chief communication with the outside world was through CBC Radio Canada. One man who was the host of a morning radio show was also an advocate for world literacy. He had the idea of having the most northerly golf tournament in the world to support his cause and to raise money by having a golf tournament on the Arctic Ice.

After years of talk and organizing, the first tournament took place in Ikaluktutiak (Cambridge Bay). People came from far and wide to take part. A golf club in Edmonton donated clubs and a barrel of balls and the airlines provided transportation for some of the more notable of the participants. Coloured balls, solid ice fare ways, hula hoops for cups and thirty below temperatures made the game a challenge. Wind chill factor drove the temperature to 60 below.

The course was laid out on Cambridge Bay and nine holes were constructed. The CBC carried the game on radio and everyone up there listened as the game was played. Most Inuit never heard of golf but they were close to their radios to hear the news of the game. Much fun was had and records broken, fingers frozen and hot spiced rum drunk. It was decided on the spot that another game would be played in the future. Of the 25 hamlets in Nunavut and 25 in the NWT nearly every one wanted to host the next game.

This was billed as the most northerly game of golf in the world and attracted many visitors. In our hamlet where it all started a movement was begun to build a summer course. A committee began with plans for a 9 hole course to be built on Inuit land between the village and the airport. There was a DEW line radar base there and with pooled resources a course was laid out. The holes were long over rockey slopes and the greens were made of sand. There was a rake at every hole to leave the green nice and flat after play.

The course was called the "Course of Many Pebbles". On opening day a special gift of over a hundred clubs and many ball was received by the same Edmonton Golf Club. Golf became a factor in the life of many Inuit. Since there is 24 hour sunlight in the summer the game was often played throughout the night. Inuit like to gamble and rarely was there a game played without a little wager. I played a few games there and can claim to have had a 400 yard drive downhill with the golf ball hitting many favourite bounces on the rocks. It was fun.

My friends from Pembroke thought I was joking when I took them to see the golf course but they were believers when they surveyed the rocky slopes for themselves. I don't know if the course is still operating but while I was up there I enjoyed golf above the Arctic Circle.