AUGUSTA — Snow may be covering the outdoor pétanque courts in Mill Park in Augusta, but the members of the Mill Park Pétanque Club have an option to carry them through the winter until the outdoor courts are free of snow.

Club members have used 1.25 yards of road sand from the city of Augusta to build an indoor court in Room 8 of the Buker Community Center at 22 Armory St. At 31 feet long and 8 feet wide, it is a little shorter than the outdoor ones in Mill Park.

But unlike those, it isn’t under feet of snow. The indoor courts “make the winter go by faster,” club member Ray Fecteau said.

While the traditional French game, which challenges a player’s accuracy in tossing a steel boule as close as possible to a cochonnet while standing with both feet on the ground inside a fixed circle, entertains year-round, the members of the Mill Park Pétanque Club have another goal in mind.

The club will be hosting the Augusta Fuel Co. Federation of Pétanque USA Mixed Doubles Interregional Tournament on July 7, 8, 9 in Mill Park.

Fecteau brought the game back to Augusta following a 2010 trip to France and has been working to draw players to the game, which is similar to bocce.

The indoor court is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.