To combine Bandy—one of the most popular winter sports in Scandinavia—with Golf sounds like an impossible task. But at Oslo Golfklubb, the world-renowned and oldest golf club in Norway and the home club of Rolex World Ranking No. 5 Suzann Pettersen, it’s a dream that’s about to become reality.
In an innovative approach, the club has reached an agreement with Oslo-based bandy club Röa Bandy to reconstruct its driving range, turning it into Bogstad Vinterparadis the largest artificially frozen arena in northernEurope, during the winters.
The €4.25 million facility is being constructed by specialist golf course construction company Sternberg Golf Services, and will become home to the very successful and active Röa Bandy club from 1 November through 1 April every year, with 4 centimetres of ice covering the high-performance artificial-turf driving range.
After that, the freezing process is reversed and the sophisticated cooling system will thaw the ice and snow from the driving range to give the members of Oslo Golfklubb an early start to the golf season.
To make this unique combination possible, the Bogstad facility will have Capillary Concrete® base layer installed under the artificial turf. This new product has the ability to drain over 2000 mm of water per hour (even on steep slopes), and will be utilized to safely remove excess water and keep the artificial grass in place.
The product is an engineered, polymer based, special sports base that can take heavy traffic and yet drains extremely well.
This concept could be used at many golf facilities in parts of the world where golf is a seasonal sport and land is scarce.
Sternberg Golf Services – www.sternberggolf.com
Capillary Concrete® www.capillaryconcrete.com
Oslo Golfklubb www.oslogk.no