IN snow-covered, cross-country/alpine/telemark skiing-loving Norway, the game of golf is booming. In 1980, the 4,500 registered golf enthusiasts were an exotic minority among Norwegian sports people. By 1996 the number of golfers had increased tenfold. Similarly, the number of golf courses has gone up from six in 1980 to 60 now.

Twenty of these courses have 18 holes, 24 have nine holes and 15 have six holes, something probably unfamiliar in Ireland. As has happened so many times in our history, we had to look to Sweden to find a way to help ease the congestion on our courses. The answer is a Green Card.

To be allowed to play golf in Norway you have to take a driving test and a pitching test, a chipping test and a putting test. After nine hours of theoretical and nine hours of practical lessons you take a test to convince a professional that you deserve to mix it with real golfers and that you represent no danger to man or womankind. If you can putt through the eye of a needle you. reach golfer's heaven and become the proud owner of a Green Card. The only other stipulation is that you should join a golf club.

This can be easy in country areas where you might have to pay, say, £500 to join Stavanger Golf club, and £300 a year thereafter or a good deal less (as low as £70 per year in some of the very small clubs). In Oslo things are more expensive and difficult. There is a 25 year waiting list at Oslo Golfclub.

Anna Doennestad, secretary of the Norwegian Golf Federation (her handicap is four) says that Norway has about 250 professional golfers, mostly Englishmen and Swedes, but also a few Norwegians. Our oldest club, Oslo Golfclub, was founded in 1924 and 30 per cent of members are women.

She emphasises that golf is not competing with traditional Norwegian sports like skiing, skating and other winter activities, but rather with the traditional walk in the forest. In summer, golf can be played 24 hours a day in some parts of Norway. In winter, it can be played indoors, on simulators and in large barns.

The golf boom in Norway has coincided with the Europe-anisation of the country and with the boom in oil wells off the coast and the rapid increase in prosperity of the country.

Norwegian sport has been surprisingly successful in recent years with names like athlete Greta Weitz, alpine skier Kjetil Andre Aamodt and soccer player Ole Gunnar Solskjaer of Manchester United. In soccer, the dreary goalless draw in the World Cup in the United States showed we were the equal of Ireland.

In golf, however, you have to look far down the list of the European Tour to find our best golfer Per Haugsrud, who is ranked around number 80. But who knows, we will probably see a Norwegian golfer winning an important tournament some day. Since the Swedes are good, we have to prove that we can beat them.

So, if you visit Norway, remember that you will have to convince the local golf club that you come from a country where everyone in competent at golf and you don't need a Green Card. They will probably let you play.