The thought of playing golf in the snow and cold does not appeal to me at all, however I have noticed there are a lot of golfers who appear to be a very hardy bunch, and some who are out in all weather conditions, could even be described as fanatical.

Last year during the snow we received daily calls from golfers asking if the courses were open! This was in spite of the fact they wouldn't have been able to reach us, even if they had had a sledge pulled by a pack of huskys, and Sherpa Tenzing navigating the Kent countryside with a sat nav. It got me thinking about playing golf in the snow; can it be done, I asked myself? So I fired up my trusty laptop and googled 'snow golf'.

Google revealed how those golf courses who are situated in areas of high snowfall are turned into ski runs, such as in Banff Springs, Canada. To me this information was nothing new, but imagine my surprise when my next click directed me the to game of snow golf. Yes, that's right - playing in the snow. Apparently it is not even a new concept. What I found however fascinated me; apparently the discovery of modern snow golf is credited (by Wikipedia) to none other than Rudyard Kipling, the Jungle Book author himself! While living in Vermont in the 1890s Kipling was an avid golfer, and while penning his famous novel, he relaxed by playing snow golf during the brisk New England winter. Kipling painted his golf balls red and placed red cups out in the snow.

That aside, I also discovered the annual World Ice Golf Championship has been held on the world's most northerly golf course on the shelf ice near Uummannaq in Greenland since 1997. The course is shaped new by the moving ice every year, and as you'd imagine, play is highly dependent on weather conditions.

Competitors are allowed to participate if they have a 36 handicap or below. Because of the extreme temperature, clubs with graphite shafts are not recommended. The first ever Snow Golf World Championship for amateurs was carried out in January 2007 in Abtenau, Austria.

So the whole concept of snow golf is not quite as bizarre as I had first thought  - and it is already thriving - mainly in Canada and the USA. However, given colder longer winters are on the cards as our climate changes, perhaps playing golf in the snow may soon be a reality for the members of Chart Hills and Dale Hill! Maybe we'll all just have to toughen up!