Ice-Golf Championship was held on the frozen waterbody of Lake Baikal near Listvyanka settlement on March 24-25, 2012. The event attracted over 30 golfers from all over Russia including Irkutsk, Bratsk, Tolyatti and Moscow. The awards had been given not only to professional sportsmen, but also the beginners as well as experienced amateurs. This year’s Baikal Ice-Golf cup was a small figure of Baikal seal carved from a cedar wood.

Baikal Cup is the annual golfing event held at Lake Baikal for the seventh time this year during Zimniada – the Winter Games Festival which had already become a visit card of the winter “high” tourist season. Ice-golf course built over the ice surface of the lake was rather difficult and very challenging. There had been a lot of snow this year which help the committee to construct the course. Ice surface of the lake is very rough this winter. Flat fields of 60-cm thick transparent ice alternated with many hazards that had been created by nature and the weather conditions. Ice hummocks and cracks in ice surface took little effort to be integrated into the golfing course.

The tournament aims to promote golf and particularly snow golf in our area since both are still considered quite exotic type of recreation in Siberia. Besides, this ice golf tournament is a stage for sportsmen to be selected to take part in Gold Digest Cup to be organized in Moscow in September this year. Irkutsk team is initiated to participate in the event.