Tee Time for Russia

Grand Prince Konstantin would be jealous. He loved golf, but could not play it at home in Russia, only when he went abroad to France. But today, just 11 years after the sport was introduced to Russia, the country has two world-class golf courses, eight professional players, a golf Academy training, 60+ up and coming junior players and the Russian Open tournament, sanctioned by the European Professional Golf Association.

True, foreigners did create a small golf course in Vyborg in the early part of the century. But after the Bolshevik revolution, needless to say, the petit-bourgeois sport was expunged from the approved list of sports. The first man who dared promote the idea of golf in Soviet Russia was Armand Hammer. In the 1970s, he raised the issue with then Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who apparently gave his okay to the idea.

But experts at the Russian version of Golf Digest consider September 1988 the true date for golf’s return to Russia. In that month the first driving range--on Moscow’s Dovzhenko street—was opened. In fact, things were set in motion one year earlier, when former Swedish hockey player Swen Juhansson--known to millions of Soviet hockey as "Tumba"--came to Russia with the idea of building a Golf Club. By 1990, Tumba had opened a 9 hole course near the Dovzhenko driving range. Soon thereafter, a National Association of Golf was established in Russia, joining the European Golf Association in 1992.

In 1993, Moscow Country Club (MCC) opened a second course in the capital, in the town of Nakhabino (Moscow region)—originally with 9 holes, but now with 18. A picturesque area off Volokolamskoye shosse was selected because of its suitably hilly terrain (making the creation of hazards easier), and the existence of several underground springs—vital as a water supply for keeping the grass green.

"The climate of Russia and its landscape is very similar to that in Canada,” said MCC Golf Director Nigel Roscoe, “so the design, the irrigation techniques and the upkeep of the golf course is very similar to that of Canada, because of extreme temperatures both in summer and winter.” The course was designed by  world-famous course designer Robert Trent Jones Jr., who said that “the deep Russian forest, with large evergreens, birch, with native wildlife and song birds is a magnificent setting."

MCC was the site for Russia’s hosting its first professional tournament sanctioned by the European PGA. Roscoe, a professional golfer since 1978, was the one who put the tourney together. "It was a tremendous challenge,” he said. “What I took for granted when it comes to golf technology was at a very, very embryonic stage here ... You basically had to explain to everybody what golf is all about, why you use a golf ball, what is the composition of a golf ball, why the golf course if designed the way it is ..."

Step by step, golf is making progress in Russia. Golf Digest now counts at least 14,000 readers. And, importantly, the number of event spectators has risen. "In 1996 we had about 50 or 60 spectators,” Roscoe said. “Last year we had over 500 to 600 spectators ... This year I have to try to get a thousand."

August 19-22, fifty-six leading world players will come to MCC to play for the $150,000 prize fund—Russia’s highest ever. Several top Western players are slated to attend.

"Golf is extremely new in Russia, and, yes, it is  reserved for the elite,” Roscoe said. “But the barriers to entry are slowly dropping.” MCC is trying to help encourage the sport by subsidizing 32 junior players in their training. Sergei Bylinkin, 13 has been playing golf at MCC for 2 years. " My friends brought me here for the first time. I tried my hand at it and came to like it,” he said. “I like the game itself and that you can communicate with other players.. Golf helps you to develop your accuracy, stability and ability to measure." This past June, Bylinkin participated  in the local McDonalds Junior Tourney and won second place.

Still, the Russian National Junior Golf Team’s Senior Coach Igor Ivashin said that his pupils have a lot to learn.  "They are getting used to two fields--in Moscow and Nakhabino,” he said in an interview with Golf Digest. “They are not ready to quickly analyze the situation. They also suffer from a rather poor set of strokes and lack of psychological stability."

Despite this lack of expertise, the first steps in the international arena are promising. Last year Russian juniors Svetlana Afanasieva, and Masha Kostina played at a tournament in Florida and came within the top five.

So how is it that golf, which takes patience and self-reserve, could strike a cord with the usually temperamental Russians? "The beauty of it is, because, like tennis, if you enjoy it very much you will come back and play the game again,” Roscoe said. “And. if you enjoy it, you will tell your  friends, and it gets addictive."  And, if there is anything Russians easily fall prey to, it is addiction, in whatever form. Just ask Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russia’s top tennis player. He said he spends all his leisure time playing golf. The popular Spartak soccer club has also recently taken up golf. What with these sports leaders teeing up, golf may just be able to garner a popular image and fulfill the dreams of golf boosters of a linkster boom in Russia over the next decade.