Who cares about the Super Bowl?
It's time for Snow Golf
LAKE SHORE - There are only two major events that Suzette Bush really looks forward to each year: her birthday and the Bar Harbor Snow Golf Tournament.
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And on Saturday, Bush was in her glory, dressed as a pirate and surrounded by her crew standing outside their 21-foot-long pirate ship docked on the frozen Gull Lake Narrows.
It may have been Super Bowl weekend, but it was time for snow golf.
"It's great friends and great fun," Bush said of the annual winter event which brings about 300 golfers out on two 9-hole courses created on the frozen lake in front of the famed Lake Shore restaurant and bar. "We look forward to it all year."
While in the summer Bar Harbor's boat slips are filled with Gull Lake boaters stopping by for lunch or a drink, the snow-covered docks on Saturday were the gateway to the two spray-painted golf courses on the ice. Golfers used tennis balls and the golf club of their choosing to partake in the annual event.
For the past several years, Bush and her friends have dressed up in costumes for the snow golf tournament. This year their engineer and custom fabricator John "Buster" Hedman of Lake Shore welded a 21-foot-long and 8-foot-wide pirate ship out of a dog sled rig and shrink wrapped the boat to complete the exterior look of the ship. Pulled by a snowmobile, the pirate ship could hold at least eight pirates, serving as a unique golf cart to carry the golfers around the lake.
Last year the group, which also includes Amy Anderson, Kelly Aase and Lee Johnson, had a Batmobile and they dressed as Batman and three Catwomen. Johnson, owner of Zorbaz, is the "token male" of the group, said Bush. Two years ago Johnson was James Bond and his three female team members were his Bond girls.
"I just get a hoot out of being outdoors and being creative," said Hedman, creator of the giant pirate ship. "Suzette and the girls come up with the ideas, I just build it for them."
While it takes the average team of four golfers about an hour to golf nine holes, Bush figures it takes their group three to four hours to snow golf. People take photographs with them throughout the course and after three or four holes they always stop at a friend's home down the bay before continuing with their game.
The crew starts dreaming up their costumes for next years' snow golf at the Bar Harbor brunch the Sunday after the tourney.
"It's all about the costume," said Bush. "Anyone can show up at the prom. It's all about what you're wearing."
You don't have to be an experienced golfer to play snow golf, many said Saturday.
"This is the extent of the golf," Kelly Aase said of her golf experiences, other than snow golf at Bar Harbor. "We live in an area with so many golf courses. But this golf course is the most important: Hard water golf. The temperature has no factor in our fun. This is our spring break."
"It's a long winter," added fellow pirate Amy Anderson.
"I think they have cabin fever this time of year," said Steve Anderson, who owns Bar Harbor with his wife, Deanna, of all his snow golf participants. "I think it's a way to release that."
Steve Anderson's brother, Bruce Anderson, was managing Bar Harbor at the time they started the snow golf tournaments. The tournament became so popular that the Andersons expanded the event to the first two weekends in February. There are still a few openings for golf teams next Saturday. Cost is $20 per person, which includes the brunch at Bar Harbor on Sunday. Call 963-2568 to sign up.
The first, second and third place finishers in seven flights win Bar Harbor gift certificates throughout the day with most participants going home with at least a key chain or other prize.
"Everybody's going to get something, unless I run out of stuff," said Steve Anderson with a laugh. "It's really turned out to be a wild, wild two weeks."
Although the wind was chilly Saturday, it didn't seem to bother the diehard golfers.
"We've had it when it's 20 below and people still go out there," said Deanna Anderson.
Steve Anderson said they had golfers from as far away as Nebraska participate on Saturday.
Jen Richter, Sauk Rapids, used a three-iron and managed to outgolf her team, including former Lake Shore Police Chief John Bukovich.
"She beat us and she won't let it die," Bukovich joked. "She holds a grudge. She's mean."
Richter said she and her husband, Jeremy, have come up to the Brainerd lakes area for the snow golf tournament for the past five years and wouldn't miss it.
"It's worth it, said Richter. "We come up Friday night and stay until Sunday."
"It's just friends having a good time," said Jan Bukovich.
"This is probably the only game where people don't get mad if they beat one another," added her husband, John.
John Bukovich offered this trick to becoming a successful snow golfer - warm up the tennis ball before hitting it. He said the tennis ball travels farther that way, although he admitted it didn't help him much this year.
"Put it this way, the rough is really rough," he said with a laugh.
Golfers who participate in the annual snow golf event need to only bring their own clubs and dress in warm clothing. Teams teed off throughout the day on Saturday.
JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.