When I, in the middle of November, was asked to ”write something nice about Swedish golf” and, ”please, do it before the end of the year”, there are quite a few challenges to that task. You see, golf in Sweden in the winter is… Well it’s not all beer and skittles. There’s the cold, obviously, the vast amount of snow, rain or mud depending on where you live and then there is the darkness. If you live in the southern part of the country as I do we rarely get any snow so our days usually go from pitch black to grey and back to pitch black again. For five months. Fancy practicing your putting much?
There is however a small number of people out there that simply don’t care. Golf you say? In the winter? But of course! Remember, we are the land of the vikings and we stop at nothing and that raw hearted mentality of past generations has now been filtered down to… hitting a small white ball with a metal stick in the blistering cold. But, with that being said, it’s no easy job and it’s certainly not for everyone.
One who doesn’t mind the elements of Mother Nature is Eleonor Skoog, a former pro and the person behind Sweden’s biggest golf Instagram account, known also to the world as Puttingwithellie. She lives, breathes and sleeps golf all year around. We met up at The National just outside of Malmö for a practice session and a little chat in, you guessed it, the dark. And, we even got some snow.
What’s the best thing about playing golf in the winter?
– That you’re able to work on and improve your game all year round. Instead of just putting the clubs aside for a few months, you can use the winter season to make swing changes or work on things you don’t normally want to focus on during summer. That helps you prepare for the next season.
What would you say are the biggest challenges with golf in the winter?
– Definitely the weather. Even here in the very south of Sweden it gets quite cold and a lot of courses close during the winter months. So it’s all about finding other ways to practice and play, whether that’s indoor or on a well-lit range with heaters, so that you can stay warm in the cold and dark afternoons.
Do you have a winter golf memory that’s close to your heart?
– Filming a trickshot video (that later went viral) in a snowstorm on a cold range in Stockholm in winter 2021 together with my boyfriend and business partner. It was absolutely freezing, but we really wanted the video and I remember us being so happy when we finally got it.
How would you describe golf in Sweden during winter?
– Cold and dark days on the range, where a thin shot leaves your hands feeling like they’re about to fall off. Or, if your course remains open and the weather is good, you might be able to get a few rounds in – potentially hitting off a small mat and in freezing temperatures, but still, it’s golf. A lot of people have also transitioned to indoor golf, where the simulator lets you pretend you’re walking down a fairway in sunny Spain or Portugal for an hour or two.
So, we might not get a lot of sunshine – or even just daylight – for a great deal of the year, but we make do with what we get, and come summer, we tend make up for it, tenfold. But that’s another story for another time.