(CNN)Iceland may seem like an unlikely Gulf power.
With short summers and harsh winters, this North Atlantic island isn’t the most obvious place for manicured fairways and greens.
However, Iceland is experiencing a golf boom like nowhere else in the world, and the golf culture here could help reshape the sport as we know it.
The golf course Brautarholt is located half an hour’s drive north of the capital Reykjavik. Set on a dramatic cliff-lined peninsula, Brautarholt is the brainchild of founder Gunnar Palsson.
“This used to be agricultural land, but that has been on the decline,” Palsson tells CNN Sport. “This land has been in the family for hundreds of years and there was some generational change and we decided to build a golf course.”
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Do golf courses need 18 holes?
Originally opened as a nine hole course in 2011 before expanding to 12, Brautarholt was designed by renowned Icelandic architect Edwin Roald.
Roald has attracted a lot of attention in recent years with his “why 18 hole?” Movement, a philosophy that suggests that golf course design would be improved if architects worked to create the best course for the space available to them, rather than clinging to the “antiquated” notion that every course is 18 holes must be long.
“When you have limited resources, you are forced to use what nature has given you,” Roald told Links magazine in 2017.
“It’s the same as writing books or making films. Imagine if all books had to be exactly 200 pages long or if a film had to be 95 minutes long. Would they be just as good?”
Although only 12 holes, Brautarholt is internationally recognized as one of the best golf courses in the world. In 2020, Golfscape ranked it 64th in a list of the top 100 golf courses in the world, alongside courses such as Pebble Beach and St Andrews.
A blueprint?
With a short golf season in Iceland and long winters, golf clubs across the country are looking for innovative ways to extend the season and make golf accessible to young players all year round.
The Icelandic men’s soccer team made global headlines with their exploits at the 2016 European Championships, reaching the quarter-finals and qualifying for their first World Cup in 2018. The women’s team also qualified for three consecutive European Championships from 2009 to 2017, which was unprecedented for qualified for a major tournament.
Much of the national team’s remarkable success has been attributed to the country’s investments in state-of-the-art indoor facilities and excellent coaching, a blueprint that may be replicated in golf.
GKG Club in Reykjavik is one of Iceland’s largest golf clubs and consists of an 18-hole course and a 9-hole par 3 course. With a thriving junior program and active members, the club recently invested in a $10 million state-of-the-art indoor facility so members can train year-round.
Located under the clubhouse, the indoor facility consists of a putting green, a chipping area and 16 Track Man golf simulators, allowing users to play around 100 golf courses from around the world.
Ulfar Jonsson is GKG’s sporting director and has witnessed the impact of the facility firsthand. “We see our younger players getting more technically advanced and better. So we see better swings.
“Obviously we encourage all our players to play as much as possible on the pitch in the summer, but then they can come here and work on their technique in the winter.”
Haukur Orn Birgisson – the president of the Icelandic Golf Union and European Golf Association – has had limited success on the world’s biggest tours and believes investing in facilities like those at GKG could yield the very best results for Icelandic players at this stage.
“If you think about it, we have a golf season that spans five, six months. So having indoor exercise facilities means a lot and with new technology these facilities have become so advanced. GKG is a perfect example of this. So now you have club members who play golf in the winter, albeit indoors and in simulators, but it’s important for their development.
“This is also important for promoting young talent. For example, you can watch football. They started having these indoor football facilities 15 years ago and a few years later our national teams qualified for the European Championship and the World Cup. So. “Let’s go, it’s important,” he says.
The facility at GKG has also provided the club with a valuable social element. “Now we have a year-round facility – before it was mainly a summer sport… Now all the golfers come in and play with their friends on the simulators, then enjoy a meal and a drink afterwards. So it was fantastic for the club’s morale,” explained Jonsson.
sustainability
In addition to being considered one of the best golf courses, Brautarholt aims to become the most sustainable golf course in the world.
“Here in Iceland, pretty much all of our energy is renewable, so we thought it would be a good idea to go in that direction here,” explains Palsson.
Using hydroelectric and geothermal energy, almost 100% of Iceland’s electricity comes from renewable sources. To reap the benefits of the country’s clean energy, Palsson has invested in a fleet of 30 automated electric mowers.
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“We’re now at a point where electric lawnmowers are grooming about 98% of the golf course,” says Palsson.
Course manager and chief greenkeeper Einar Jonasson is responsible for managing the small fleet of orange mowers. “Yes, our little friends. They’re just a different way of mowing grass.”
With a series of cables laid around the course, the mowers are programmed to stay on the fairways and be in action around the clock. Not only do they offer environmental benefits, but they also allow Jonasson to focus on other elements of course maintenance.
In addition to a carbon footprint that’s close to zero, Brautarholt is also maintained without the use of chemicals, and with Iceland’s year-round rainfall there is little need for irrigation.
“Our golf course has a spectacular location and visitors come here to enjoy this natural environment. We definitely don’t want to harm the environment, so we don’t care if you see weeds on the fairway, we don’t want to damage anything,” explains Jonasson.
Recently investing in a state-of-the-art electric ride-on mower for tees and greens, Brautarholt aims to set a new, sustainable standard for golf course management.
“I think we’re the greenest golf course in the world,” says Palsson proudly.
Unique
Despite Iceland’s population of less than 400,000, the country is home to a remarkable 65 golf courses – some of the most spectacular golf courses you are likely to find anywhere in the world.
“I would encourage anyone to come here to play,” says Birgisson.
“The nature here is second to none… If you play golf in Iceland, you will also experience this nature. You can play golf in lava fields, you can play golf in volcanic craters, on the banks of glacial rivers, with hot springs exploding like a geyser right next to you, with water hazards made of boiling water. You can’t get any closer to nature when playing golf.”
With the country being almost equidistant from the US and Europe, is there a chance one of the major golf tours will host a tournament in Iceland in the future?
“One day it might be possible. Imagine a PGA Tour event played in the midnight sun that we have here in June and July, it would be amazing,” says Birgisson.
Shining future
Given the standard of golf courses in Iceland, it’s no wonder that golf has seen tremendous growth in the country and is now one of the most popular sports.
“Golf has grown tremendously in the last 10 to 15 years and we’ve actually almost tripled our numbers in the last two decades,” says Birgisson, “but the last two years have been explosive and now we have over 6% of the total population, who are actually members of a golf club.
“But at the same time, we probably have about 40,000 who actually play golf. So 12% of the population plays golf and I think that’s – that has to be a world record.”
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“It’s also worth noting that the proportion of women has increased from 10% to 33% during this period,” he adds.
With ever-growing participant numbers and innovative new courses and facilities, Iceland is fast becoming one of the most exciting golf destinations in the world. With momentum on his side, Birgisson is confident things are just beginning.
“We couldn’t be happier, it’s safe to say the future of Icelandic golf looks very bright.”
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