Golf In Russia
Two of the fastest growing economies in the world are also two of the so-called BRIC countries. BRIC is the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China.
When economies grow quickly and a nation's people see their personal wealth rise, they seek forms of entertainment to match their newly acquired prosperity.
Golf is high on their list.
It's happening in China whose economy is widely expected to be the second largest in the world behind the United States within five years. In China, more than 500 golf courses are being built and several very exclusive and uber-expensive golf resorts are already finished.
India may be lagging behind but the nation has two touring professionals in Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal.
Brazil is also seeing a growth in golf – more than 30 clubs have been built in the past five years. Those numbers may not rival China's pace but they point to the growth of the game.
That leaves just Russia whose wealth of natural resources – particularly oil – have helped to finance a rapidly growing economy. Russians have seen their personal wealth double in the last five years.
And we know about the overnight Russian billionaires, virtually all of whom made their money in resources.
But where are they spending that money? On football clubs in England, hockey super-leagues in Russia, formula one teams. Anything but golf.
Russians just don't cotton to the game. Yet the European PGA Tour makes a stop each year in Moscow for the Russian Open.
As a result, growth of the game is slow. It's certainly not a shortage of real estate that holds back course development.
But the game is played in Russia and there are more courses than you'd imagine.
I came across an interesting blog on Russia that dealt with this topic. It's an interesting read. Unfortunately, the hot link to a Golf Digest article on Russian golf no longer works and I can't find the story through my own digging.
But there are several other good links that make the information intriguing.
You do make a very pertinent point. Growing popularity of the game of golf has always been considered as a sign of a thriving economy. I am not sure how much of a positive that is because it also indicates only the noveau rich have access to the game and it is still out of reach for the masses.
The BRIC perhaps represents the strongest growing countries in the world right now apart from perhaps South Africa. While South Africa has a rich history of success stories in golf, India and China are definitely two countries where Golf as a sport is seeing massive expansion and explosion in interest. Why Russia isn’t one of those countries involved in the growth of golf is something even I cannot quite fathom. We have even had someone like a Yevgeny Kafelnikov turn pro and play in the Russian Open but I guess that is the only case of a celebrity sportstar in Russia taking to the sport. I wonder if anyone has managed to solve this dichotomy.
I don’t think new courses really do the job of helping thegame of grow, yes it is definitely a must to improve the infrastructure of thegame but usually it is something that must be driven by demand. The game needs mascots and ambassadors and definitely a success story or two on one of the professional tours
Golf in Russia, who’d ever thought.
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