The saying that the grass is greener on the other side no longer works for Ukraine. Pampered evergreen lawns are starting to be groomed for golf lovers in this part of the world too.
One of the projects under way is expected to end Ukraine’s designation as the largest nation without an 18-hole regulation course in sight.
With a dearth of golfing options, and being a sport that is not rooted in the Ukrainian culture, the game has nowhere to go but up, enthusiasts say.
World class long drive hitter Josh Olson, calls himself “a mountain kid from Montana.” He came to practice his swing the other weekend at the Kyiv Golf Center’s new grounds.
“It’s shocking to see how advanced this facility is,” said Olson, hitting the ball as far as 350 yards and promoting the club and sport in the process.
He thinks golf will pick up in Ukraine as it did in China, where he spends a lot of time. “In 1986, there was only one course there,” Olson said. “In 10 years, there were 30 and now there are over 300.”
Golf enthusiasts like to say that anyone can play this sport – old and young, thin and plump. It is a lifetime activity and a mental game.
But for the novice, a couple of practice swings are all it takes to learn that it’s not as easy as it looks. With your knees slightly bent forward, buttocks sticking out and your hands stretched with a club dangling somewhere above your shoulder, you still have to calculate the speed, the force and the direction of your club. In the beginning, you are happy just to hit the ball.
For a total novice, golf read backwards – flog – is your first practical experience with the game. You start off flogging and whacking a ball from a driving range, a training platform overlooking a large field.
Expect to pay Hr 180 for an hour of instruction plus Hr 100 for your first 50 balls. Located in the upper-scale city district Obolon, the Kyiv Golf Center offers both a prime facility and a striking vista of the Dnipro River next to a six-hole golf course.
If you want to approach it on a grander scale, a 400 hectare golfing empire by the GolfStream project is advancing with seven-league strides about 30 kilometers outside Kyiv.
It will include Ukraine’s first 18-hole golf course, to be called Chamberlain Course, and may be completed in 2009.
Martina Zatkova, director of Kyiv Golf Club and Norbert Zatko, director of ENGO, a developer involved in the project, are betting the game will catch on.
“Golf is a lifestyle,” Zatko said. “It’s about interaction with the world around you. I still can’t figure out why Ukrainians with their incredibly social mentality haven’t fallen for this sport yet. Golf brings people together and reveals the essence of people.”
Besides recreation, Zatko also touts golf as a place to do deals – something many a Western businessperson discovered long ago.
“You can be partnered up with a person absolutely new to you, but after five or six hours spent on the course, you will find out all the strengths and weaknesses of your partner,” Zatko said. “If you hesitate whether to start a business relationship with a person, take him to a golf course. By the end of the game you will be ready with the answer.”
The complex is expected to have a lot more than just a golf course.
Riding schools, swimming pools, hotels and restaurants with wine cellars should be put into operation by 2012. But today, only a nine-hole course and a driving range are available for use and as a preview of the facilities.
Golf has a reputation as a sport for the rich and powerful. But, in America and in Europe, where courses are plentiful, the sport is cheap enough to be very affordable for middle-class families.
The same won’t be true, for at least a while, in Ukraine. A full round of golf is expected to cost $200 on the new 18 hole course, much more than the typical $50 or less at many of America’s public courses. Zatko said Kyiv’s high land prices contribute to the expense.
But the promoters of the 18-hole course are hoping that a middle class that swings will develop in Ukraine as well.
“There is no greater pleasure for my kids than when I take them out to the course and play with them,” Zatko said. “Golf is able strengthen or even save family ties.”
Gregg Cobarr, a promoter of the Kyiv Golf Center, says that in Hollywood, most of the movie business is done on the course. People spend five hours playing. They are relaxed and in the mood to talk business without pressure. “Ukrainians have Maserati and Porshe but do not have golf. How’s that possible?” said Bloom, anticipating the imminence of golf culture in Ukraine.
And the country seems to be picking up quickly. Lugansk, Kharkiv and the Crimea are racing to build new courses and develop a fashion for golf in Ukraine. The American company Gary Player Design is developing a facility among grape and lavender fields on the Black Sea coast, vying to become one of the most gorgeous golf centers in Europe.
If growth in the popularity of golf in Ukraine will make the nation more European, as promoters hope, then it appears that the nation may be ready to tee off on the first hole, which about measures its stage of progress in joining the European Union.
Kyiv Golf Center (10D Heroyiv Stalinhradu, 230-94-36).
www.golf-center.com.ua
