Courtesy of the club
Akureyri Golf Club: Jaoarsvollur
Overview
The second-most northern 18-hole course in the world (only Norway's Tromsø Golf Park is more north), the Jaoarsvollur course at Akureyri is host to the annual Arctic Open with tee times extending past midnight. Situated on the north coast of Iceland along the rugged Eyjafjörður mountain range, Akureyri is also the second-oldest club in Iceland, dating to its original founding in 1935. Icelandic professional Magnus Gudmundsson designed the current nine-hole layout at the club's permanent home in 1970. Ten years later, Gunnar Thordarson added the final nine holes following Gudmundsson’s original ideas. The current layout consists of Gudmundsson’s front nine and Thordarson’s second nine with recent renovations by Edwin Roald. From 2020 to 2023 Roald’s team focused on the addition of new teeing areas, transplanting trees, and providing better drainage to encourage heartier grass for the challenging winters. Designed in a moorland-style layout, the course is played over naturally sloping terrain that snakes through dense forests of native trees and bushes. Nearly every fairway and green complex is surrounded by rows of mature trees with snowcapped mountains peaking out in the background. Less than 40 miles from the Arctic Circle, Akureyri Golf Club provides a unique round of golf in one of the most peaceful environments in Europe.
