Sports In Switzerland

Sports and Hobbies
1
Hello All

I am planning to move over to Baden this July straigh after i finish my degree here in UK. And i have been trying to do my research on the Swiss way of life (thanks to this forum). I have concluded that the main sports activity here is skiing and biking? right?

However in UK i am a keen tennis/squash player, i also play golf every sunny weekend i get, and i play ice hockey for university and local teams.

So basically my question is are such sports available in Switzerland. I heard the government injected some money into hockey schools, but are there hockey rinks and so on around baden area?

So do i need to pack my skates, clubs and sticks?

Thank you

2
Sport is one of the plus points in CH, Ice hockey is played by all ages and sure to find a team that suits your standard, most large company’s and towns have teams. Golf I believe is a little expensive and you have to have some sort of licence before you can play. Inline skating, swimming, curling, badminton squash etc is all played here. Plus one of the most popular sports the 500cc championships.

http://www.beavers.ch/cms/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=170

http://www.baden.ch/xml_1/internet/e...1570/f1568.cfm

DC

(500cc being the size of the beer glass)

3
Thanks for that

As i was reading the forum, i noticed alot of peaople, mainly from US complaing that there is no hockey in switzerland. But it surprises me that you need a licence to play golf. hmmmm

4
Just to clarify, there is pleantty of ice hockey in Switzerland. Most rinks have pick up hockey called "Chneble" several times a week. You just have to ask or check out the rinks' websites.

There is also a very big fun "Plausch" league Zurich area. See www.zep.ch

As for golf: The license refered to in previous posts is a handicap card which you will need to get on any public course.

5
you need a handicap card and there may be some rules about only allowing handicaps below a certain number, thus if you are a bad golfer you are in trouble (this last part I have heard but not confirmed). The general problem in Switzerland is there are not a lot of golf courses, as they don't really have a golf culture.

6
There's an open golf course not far away from Baden (i.e. you don't have to be a member - and golf memberships are fairly expensive in Switzerland). It's owned by one of Switzerland's largest supermarket chains.

Here's the link (German only I am afraid):

http://www.golfotelfingen.ch/

And you need to pass a test in order to get access to the greens (Platzreife).

Having played golf (very badly) in Japan where anyone can play (however bad you are), it was disappointing to find this restriction, although I can understand it given the limited number of courses here.

What is my handicap? My game.....