Who says folks need lush green fairways and warm breezes to play golf?

Not the hearty souls who donned heavy clothing and boots on Feb. 9 to whack balls across the frozen surface of Lakeville Lake in Addison Twp.

Ninety-six players divided into 24 teams participated in the annual ice golf scramble, sponsored by The Celtic Knot.

“Everybody has fun. It’s a good time,” said Paul Tobian, a  1990 Oxford High School graduate who organized the tournament with his girlfriend, Alyssa Johnson. “It’s something to get people out of the house in the middle of winter.”

Players used a combination of golf clubs and hockey sticks to drive and putt tennis balls around the makeshift 12-hole course.

“A hockey stick, a driver, a putter and a wedge – that’s what (each golfer is) supposed to have. That’s the rules,” Tobian said. “No baseball bats. No tennis rackets.”

But even those few restrictions aren’t really enforced, he said, because the scramble is meant to be a pretty casual affair. There are no officials monitoring play or fussbudget spectators quoting from a rule book.

“Everybody cheats like hell, but it’s all in fun,” Tobian said.

A $200 prize was awarded to the first place team led by Dan McQueen. The second, third and fourth place teams each received $100.

Despite the weird winter weather the area’s experienced, the ice was 7 to 8 inches thick, which, according to Tobian, is “safe for humans.”

“But I wouldn’t be driving a car out here,” he added.

If it had been 6 inches or less, the event would have been cancelled. “I don’t want anybody falling through the ice,” Tobian said.

Tobian noted the course has been quite challenging over the last few years due to the consistent lack of snow on the ice.

“Some people like it because the ball goes a lot farther,” he said. “Some people don’t because it is slick out there.”

No matter what the conditions, the  scramble continues to be a popular event.

After registration opened, Tobian said “it took about 24 hours” to reach capacity.

“Everybody knows about it now, so it fills up pretty quick,” he noted. “There’s another 40 (teams) on the waiting list.”

In the future, Tobian said registration is always going to open on the first Friday following New Year’s Day.

For more icy photos from the day, pick up a copy of this week’s Leader for just $1.