The Hidden Potential of Snow: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How the Snow Golf Triathlon Got Its Start

4:00 a.m. The crew heads out into the early morning gloom. Their mission: to get SnowLand ready for the day. They pack down the snow on the 4-hole snow golf course’s fairway, set up the tees, greens, and cups. By the time they finish up the snow tubing and snow rafting runs, the clock already reads almost 8:00. It takes a surprising amount of energy to carve out a space for human activity in the middle of a snowfield.

“For us, it’s hard to picture ‘playing’ in the snow,” said one golfer who lives in Hokkaido. “We’re sick of seeing snow every day. Every time it snows, we have to shovel. And winter is so long. So the idea of actually having fun playing golf in the snow is kind of refreshing.”

2022 marks the seventh running of Snow Golf (formerly Winter Golf), a collaboration launched in 2016 between GDO and GOLF5 Country Bibai Course in Hokkaido. The marquee event this year is the Snow Golf Triathlon, the first of its kind in Japan. It consists of a 5 km snow run, followed by a 2 km snow bike ride and, finally, four holes of snow golf. Contestants compete for the best total time (score) over the three events, with each stroke in the snow golf portion counting as one minute.

Takashi Komizu, the event’s manager, originally wanted the triathlon to include cross-country skiing. But then he had a thought: “Wouldn’t it be fun if we combined it with golf?” The plans for the event called for 16 contestants, but no one was sure how many participants would actually show up.

Before going further, there are a few things you should know about golf in Hokkaido. Most of the courses on the island are only open from April until November or so. The cold and the snow force them to close down during the winter; naturally, this means they don’t make any money during that time. The majority of employees are let go every November and rehired every April. During those months, they have to look for work elsewhere. And there’s no guarantee they’ll come back in the spring if they find an employer with a better offer.

But not Golf5 Country Bibai Course. From mid-December until early March, it operates a recreation facility called SnowLand, and on weekends and holidays between January 8 and the end of February (2022), visitors can play snow golf. This allows the course to keep four people employed year-round. Three years ago, when the course received about 1300 visitors from overseas, it had 15 full-time employees even during the winter. In terms of job security and local economic vitality, a golf course that’s open in the winter can have a big impact.

As of now, Bibai is the only place in Japan you can play snow golf. “I will say, it’s gotten pretty big in Hokkaido,” says Komizu. For the past three years, the number of snow golfers has trended at about 150-200 a year, which equates to an average of about 10 customers a day.

Back to the Snow Golf Triathlon. Fears about a lack of contestants proved unfounded: all 16 slots were filled well before the event began. One contestant, pro golfer Yuki Sakurai, kindly agreed to appear in a YouTube video for GDO. She recalled how she jumped at the chance to play: “I’d never been to Hokkaido in winter before, and as soon as they asked me I said yes.” Her excitement was apparent as she stood on the pure white fairway. “You couldn’t have this event anywhere else. It’s a really effective way to make use of the course.”

At last, it was time for the competition to begin...and sure enough, it was grueling. Runners stumbled on the unstable terrain, bike tires got stuck and spun helplessly in the new-fallen snow. Still, it wasn’t all pain and suffering. The sky was clear, and the glistening, snow-capped peaks of the Kabato Mountains formed a spectacular backdrop. The snow golf portion, where larger-than-normal cups provided just the right mix of toughness and levity, drew cheers from the crowd. It was an indescribable experience. Indeed, as soon as the competition finished, we heard many people exclaim they wanted to do it again next year.

The course is located a full hour’s drive from central Sapporo. If it were a little closer to Sapporo, it would have no shortage of visitors. Yet even with this geographical handicap, the course continues its winter activities with the support of the city of Bibai, which aims to attract more nonresidents. The course also holds other events like a snow marathon and a snow cycling race, but it’s nice to see golf adding a little color to its winter program.

Komizu has already begun to formulate plans for Snow Golf GDO Day 2023. “People said the foot race was too challenging, so we were thinking of maybe dividing it into two classes, one hard and one easy. We’re also considering letting people compete in three-person teams, where each person does one event – running, biking, and golf. That way, people who don’t play golf can still take part!”

The long, harsh winter is coming to an end, and a fresh, green spring is just around the corner. All the efforts we have put in these past few years are about to blossom and bear fruit. Visitors from abroad, too, should be making their way back soon. And surely one day soon, we will be able to say that, for a golf course, snow is a precious resource.

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◆ Snow Golf GDO Day Snow Triathlon  Top Finishers

1st: Yuta Kurosaka (run: 25:14, bike: 11:20, golf: 16, total: 52:34)
2nd: Kota Chiba (run: 29:31, bike: 19:01, golf: 13, total: 56:01）
3rd: Makoto Kanayama (run: 28:11, bike: 10:20, golf: 18, total: 56:31）
1st (women): Natsumi Aoi (run: 34:59, bike: 12:37, golf: 21, total 68:36)