Ice Golf

That's a very entertaining video. Looks like they are doing a mini-putt with tennis balls and hockey sticks. It looks like fun, especially with all of the quirky competitions and dress up. When we play we tend to do more of a "full golf" with regular balls and clubs over long distances. However we have tried tennis balls when it was so snowy that we were losing balls.

blamazon• 5 years ago

This gave me a chuckle:

“Koozies, best known for keeping your beer warm.”

pridkett2• 5 years ago

Getting out on the ice is a true pleasure in the winter. There’s definitely more of a connection knowing that it could go wrong. But a little bit of prep goes a long way. I might have to try this this weekend. Just checked and the lakes by me (Connecticut) have about 6 inches of ice. Plenty for this sort of fun. Although, wow, the bounces are going to be insane on a lake with no snow on it. Fore!

Other fun sports to try on frozen lakes are ice boating and kite surfing with a snowboard. Lots of fun.

scrollaway• 5 years ago

As a figure skater I can’t express how jealous I am of people who have guaranteed outdoor ice every winter! Skating on lakes is an amazing freeing experience.

sandworm1013• 5 years ago

And totally terrifying once you have seen someone fall through. It is a natural surface. Like skiing on a real glacier is nothing like a groomed run. No matter the prevailing conditions there is always some unseen spot that isn't safe.

newman8r• 5 years ago

I created a game called 'desert golf'. Basically a pitching wedge game - no putter, no hole, it's a big circle instead.

AlbertCory4• 5 years ago

I enjoyed this a lot. As Hal Varian says:

Happiness isn't having what you want. It's wanting what you have.

Growing up on the far South Side of Chicago, we didn't have a frozen lake handy, but there was this odd phenomenon where some lots were permanently vacant, usually belonging to the houses next to them. I guess land was cheap at one point. Now if I go there on StreetView, they all have houses.

Anyway, these vacant lots were always sunken below street level, and many of the adjacent owners would flood them in winter so the neighborhood kids could skate on them. Imagine doing that in the current litigation-heavy climate.

I don't remember anyone golfing on them, though. We did play hockey. If the puck went into the snow, you'd "take it out" like in basketball.

highwind• 5 years ago

According to [0] the quote is attributed to Rabbi Hyman Schachtel.

According to [1] the quote is by Garth Brooks.

I wonder which one is right.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/461438-happiness-is-not-hav...

[1] https://taddasfitness.com/blog/100932/Happiness-isn-t-having...

AlbertCory4• 5 years ago

Thank you. I didn't claim Hal originated the quote. Just that I got it from him, as far as I can remember.

MissionInfl• 5 years ago

Thanks for sharing this quote, it became known to me in a similar form through Sheryl Crowe's Soak Up the Sun:

It's not having what you want
It's wanting what you've got

It always amazed me that such a powerful idea could be conveyed in two lines of a pop song, so it makes a lot of sense that it came from elsewhere.

AlbertCory4• 5 years ago

Sheryl Crowe, Garth Brooks... What can't they teach us?

(that was a joke, if it wasn't obvious.)

stephencanon• 4 years ago

flood them in winter so the neighborhood kids could skate on them. Imagine doing that in the current litigation-heavy climate.

Plenty of folks still set up neighborhood rinks just like this here in New England!

blhack• 5 years ago

Golf generally is a really fun sport, and I wish more people played it. It’s a very meditative thing.

The made up golf game I play with my nieces over the summer is to pick out a bunch of trees around yard as “holes”. Hitting the tree with the ball means sinking it. Lots of fun.

sandworm1013• 5 years ago

Golf is fun, but depending on location it is an environmental nightmare. The amount of water sprayed on bare ground to make massive grassy fields, then the pesticides, all so a couple people at a time can push a ball around. On the other hand, ice and snow golf seems ideal.

When I was overseas we had a course made by spraying oil on sand to create greens and fairways. That was ironically more environmentally friendly than anything used by the PGA.

Like this, but ours was so dry that the entire thing used oil.

https://golf.com/travel/inside-sand-green-golf-rough-rudimen...

stepanhruda• 5 years ago

Love minigolf, but regular golf takes up a ridiculous amount of resources per how many people can enjoy it. I wish it’d die.

tsumnia• 5 years ago

With NC getting its fair bit of snow this weekend, this post was aptly timed. Just a fun piece to read while I sip on hot cocoa. No koozie though

dave333• 4 years ago

Another golf variant is local park golf played with a normal club - 5 or 6 iron is good - and soft sponge practice golf balls that fly 40-50 yards. Use lightpoles and trees as targets and layout a course so that most holes are more than one shot long. Chip to hit the pole or tree to hole out.

Ice Golf

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