Keith Elliott at Large / Golf: The greens are white, the balls are red: In the land of the midnight putt, snow and -20C temperatures present no barrier to those stricken by the golf bug

THE drive flew sweet and true as a racing pigeon sighting its home loft. By 24-handicap golfer standards, it was a pretty fair shot, fading to the left only at the last moment. But I never saw the ball again. It's buried somewhere under 3ft of snow.

You might think that anyone daft enough to play golf in snow deep enough to bring London to a standstill deserves to lose every ball he hits. But not here in Finland. In a country where snow turns the greens white for half the year, Arctic golf is an increasingly popular pastime.

The golf bug (augusta sandtrappia) can bite whether you live in Alaska or Zambia. You probably won't even notice that first gentle nip. But as its poison spreads insidiously through your body, you get up before the postman to squeeze in nine holes before breakfast; ask for nothing but golf equipment for birthday and Christmas presents, and practise putting into a glass when nobody is looking. Severe cases may become obsessed with the quality of their lawn and spend hours trimming it to Birkdale smoothness. Subject golf junkies to a random search, and you are sure to find a tee in their pockets.

In the UK, addicts can play right through the year (hail and hurricanes being seen as little more than a particularly nasty bunker). But when you live fewer than 150 miles from the Arctic Circle, weather hazards are more than just an inconvenience.

At the Oulun Sankivaaran club near Oulu (pronounced Oh Lew), one of the world's most northerly golf clubs, the winter temperature is often -20C and the snow can be so deep that the flags look like the sort of thing that toddlers stick on top of a seaside sandcastle.

The 1,000-member club, which opened only two years ago, claims it is one of the most scenic in Finland, though it's hard to tell between October and May, when a white magic carpet makes greens and fairways indistinguishable.

Elk are a common sight, and searching among silver birch and pines for a wildly sliced ball may uncover a brown bear's tracks. Designed by Californian golf architect, Ronald Fream, who has planned more sand-traps than I've played rounds under 100, the 6,350-metre course is rated by Anssi Kankkonen, a European tour player, as the best in Finland. The English version of the club pamphlet describes it as 'like a juwel'.

The fact that it's printed in English at all reflects what has happened to the Finnish economy. Cruelly hit by devaluation and recession, the country once dubbed the Land of the Bottomless Pocket is now cheap by British golf standards.

Green fees are just 100 markka (about pounds 12) and increasing numbers of English players are vanishing into Finnair, the state airline.

Of the 5 million population, about 40,000 are golfers and there are now 80 courses. 'It is a very fast-growing game here,' the club president, Raimo Kuismin, said. The short season is no deterrent because in June and July, the sun never sets on an Oulu golfer.

'I used to play four times a week before I started my own business,' Kuismin said. 'But I often played several games because it's possible to stay on the course all day and all night.'

It sounds like a golf addict's dream, and to cater for those who would rather play than work, the club stays open 24 hours a day in that short summer, and runs a Midnight Sun competition in mid-July. This 72-hole marathon goes on through what most people would consider as night-time. But summer turns to winter very swiftly in northern Finland.

The season lasts from June to September, and by December there are about 20 hours of darkness, 'though the snow makes it look quite light,' Kuismin said. This is the season of the Arctic golfer.

Oulu is only ideal for snow golf for a few weeks. The very best courses, I am assured, are in Lapland, where you can play all winter and golf is geared to snow rather than grass.

There are some subtle differences to traditional rules: for example, you are limited to three irons, from five to wedge, and a putter. The ball is red or yellow (just imagine trying to find a white ball in the snow).

Fairways are created by driving a tractor fitted with a snow plough, and woe betide those with a hook or slice. 'You have to learn to hit very straight,' Kuismin said.

In the rough, which is anywhere other than the neatly-cleared track, you have three minutes to find your ball, but ice and snow are not considered casual water. On the putting green (or should it be white?) snow lumps and loose snow can be brushed away.

'It is a different game from grass golf because it is very easy to hit under the ball,' Kuismin said. 'And on the putting greens, the pace of the ball can be very difficult to judge, especially if they are icy.' At his club, it's rarely possible to play except in the first month of snow, as it melts.

'It's best when cold nights freeze the snow to make the fairways and greens very crisp. But in deep snow, you can't really play properly, and when there is very little snow, there is a danger of damaging the grass.'

There could be an additional problem if the club prepared an all-winter course. The most popular local sport is ice-fishing, which involves drilling a golf ball-sized hole in a frozen lake and angling for anything that swims along, from trout to perch. Fancy playing golf and coming home with bite marks on your fingers? Perhaps that's what the brochure means when it says that the course features 'pike forests, for a memorable golf game'.

(Photograph omitted)