[Brian_Ewen]

""The course boasts of the spirit of true Scottish links""  


http://www.incentivetravel.co.uk/news/venuesevents/9412-opening-of-a-new-golf-course-in-russia-zavidovo-pga-national

Opening of a new golf-course in Russia - Zavidovo PGA National
13 September 2012
The Tverj Region, just 100 km of Moscow, witnessed the formal opening of a new golf-course of the highest international standard. This is the first and sole Russian Championship golf-course licensed by the world’s oldest PGA of UK and Ireland. An integral part of a new huge Zavidovo project, the course is the key element of its rapidly developing prestigious gated community.

Alexander Yarunin, Golf Club President said at the course opening ceremony: "It is a true historic moment as we are inaugurating a real masterpiece of golf-design - the first and only championship golf licensed by the British PGA which in its turn is a highest quality symbol. This course is capable of hosting the most prestigious golf events including those of the European Tour".

The course is designed by European Golf Designed, a leading international golf-design group founded by the European Tour and IMG. It has been named by a reputable Scottish golf-magazine The Bunkered, as one of the world’s top 18 courses recommended to host PGA Tour events. Started as recently as June, 15, 2009 it had taken a record 14 months of seasonal construction window to complete the course.

The course boasts of the spirit of true Scottish links with numerous hazards framed by blossoming heathers, hundreds of picturesque shrubs and target groups of various trees.

Alexander Yarunin said: "Despite of our club format, Zavidovo golf is focused to contribute the sport’s development in general turning golf in a popular game in Russia especially among the younger generation, as well as to generate new Olympic champions and to grow the ranks of national professional golfers. Our developing PGA National Golf Academy and Junior Golf School are the natural education centers to achieve these noble goals".

Zavidovo PGA National golf-course is only part of a new huge Russian resort under development in this region by AGRANTA group of companies.

Sergei BACHIN, AGRANTA Chairman of the Board, said: "This project is unique for Russia, with a huge development potential in it. You would enjoy the great environment with spectacular opportunity to live, work and have fun of recreation and sports to be complemented by excellent medical services and education at one place. At the same time this is a safe business investment". The course is neighboring the Ivanjkovskoye Reservoir close to famous Zavidovo National Park, the Russian President Country Residence RUSJ and a number of popular resorts.
 
 

[Brian_Ewen]

Quite a few pics on their website:
http://www.zavidovo.com/pga-national/novosti/
 
Including some before and after construction pics.
http://www.zavidovo.com/prodazhi-uchastkov/galereja/gr17

Very Scottish Links Like 
 

 

 

[David Davis]

That is too funny, I didn't read the first part and took a look at the course and thought to myself it looks like yet another effort from the people over at European Golf Design. Don't want to be too overly critical but I'd hate to think they are all relatively the same all these new courses. I'm sure it's great for Russia and this gated community no doubt. However, here in Holland we had one built and open last year called The Dutch. The courses are fun, long and tough from the back tees, wide open, lacking in imagination and on flat swamp land. This seems to be on flat swamp and farmland.

Shouldn't judge without playing it but I don't think it will go high up on my list of of want to play courses.

What do others think? Is this another long slog of a course?

[Ally Mcintosh]

What you have to remember is that EGD courses are built with similar briefs to be possible tournament venues for The European Tour. This because the company is financed by IMG and The European Tour. So you can't expect a North Berwick, especially when the land is flat and featureless.

You have a number of very good designers within the company, all bringing their own style to the table. Our very own Robin Hiseman has built some cracking courses under the EGD banner so it is possible to marry tournament conditions with fun golf.

As for the promotional blurb, surely that's nothing new. That said, we're getting so much false advertising these days that the trade descriptions act might want to be wheeled out because the public seem to buy it every time. Which in its own way shows us that the general knowledge about course architecture amongst everyday golfers is very low indeed. They can tell you about the new Titleist driver though.

[John Kavanaugh]

Ally,

No one has looked at a Titleist driver since Tiger was happily married.

Spending two weeks in Manhattan exposed me to Russian culture for the first time in my life. How are they as golfers and how are they doing assimilating into the New York golf scene?

[Tom_Doak]

It is press releases like that one that spawned The Confidential Guide.  Although, I don't think I'm going to go to Russia to refute this one.

Ally is right, that sometimes the architect has difficulty controlling the message -- probably especially so when you work for a corporate firm like EGD.  I remember one golf writer from northern Michigan who described my Black Forest course [18 holes cut through dense woods, and fairly hilly] as "Scottish-style" when it opened.  The next interview I did, I told the writer it was more of a German-style course, just for laughs -- I had never been to Germany at that point -- but he didn't print it, anyway.

[Adam Lawrence]

One should also cut people some slack in respect of the translation. This has very clearly been translated from Russian (you can always tell - there's no definite article in Russian, so where a native English speaker would write 'the...' you often see it missed out - doubly ironic to get the name of 'Bunkered' magazine wrong in this way!). It probably reads a lot better in Russian.

[Robin_Hiseman]

It is press releases like that one that spawned The Confidential Guide.  Although, I don't think I'm going to go to Russia to refute this one.

Ally is right, that sometimes the architect has difficulty controlling the message -- probably especially so when you work for a corporate firm like EGD.  I remember one golf writer from northern Michigan who described my Black Forest course [18 holes cut through dense woods, and fairly hilly] as "Scottish-style" when it opened.  The next interview I did, I told the writer it was more of a German-style course, just for laughs -- I had never been to Germany at that point -- but he didn't print it, anyway.

Maybe he didn't gateau the joke, Tom.

Some press releases, unless you write them yourself (and even then...) can make you cringe.


The architect for Zavidovo is David Sampson (not mentioned in the PR).  It is his first project to reach completion and I think he's done really well with a very ordinary piece of land.  Ground level photos give the holes far more individuality than the aerial suggests.  He's rightly proud of it

[David Davis]

Just reading the article.

Adam, do you think it's a near straight Google Translate job? I tried to reverse it but my Russian wasn't quite good enough to check and see if everything fell together properly. It did look kind of cool and I'm guessing represents one of the World's Top 15 Golf Course Press Release Reverse Google Translation Efforts. I'm very proud of this.

However, I digress. Ally unlike me you most often say things that make sense. I'm generally aware of EGD and their aims and I think they do a great job at what they are doing. In some cases it's marketing and hype and even tour events that sell golf courses to the general public and make them profitable businesses. There is an awful lot of private money in Russia to be invested in this type of project. You can bet that the gated community will often be empty as the houses will all sell and only be used a few months of the year (the golfing months). The European Tour probably sees Russia as a huge market to pull sponsors and drive profits. I'm bet a major event gets put on the schedule within a very short time. Spain can't finance one, Russia can.

One of the things EGD seems to do well is pick middle of nowhere locations where logistic flows, stadiums and press will easily be able to set up in order to run these events.

Again I'm all for it if it promotes and helps professional golf. However from a golf course architecture standpoint I imagine you are working with very strict confines in terms of what you can and cannot do and how creative you can be. The accounting equivalent of doing taxes for one of the Big firms. Build a solid trusted name for yourself and then you can break free at some point and do some renegade stuff to wake up the country club.

It's refreshing to see that in this day and age there are still SAFE investments and in Russia at that for those of you with rubles burning holes in your pockets.

[Brian_Ewen]

One of the things EGD seems to do well is pick middle of nowhere locations where logistic flows, stadiums and press will easily be able to set up in order to run these events.

What about spectators ?

Are they not in the entertainment business ?

[Brian_Ewen]

It has been named by a reputable Scottish golf-magazine The Bunkered, as one of the world’s top 18 courses recommended to host PGA Tour events.

I am dying to know what the other 17 are 

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