Golf supremacy for Russia at the Olympics?

With a golf academy currently being designed in Moscow, are the Russians eyeing domination at the 2016 Olympics?

 

The golf course design practice founded by five-time Open Champion Peter Thomson with partners Ross Perrett and Tim Lobb has been commissioned to design a new golf academy at Moscow’s Luzhniki Olympic Complex. 

 

The landmark development will introduce golf to Europe's largest sports center, venue of the 1980 Olympics and 2008 Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea, which boasts facilities for more than forty different sports with five million visits per year.
 

The new golf academy will include a new 9-hole par-3 golf course, driving range, practice putting, family adventure golf, plus a spacious clubhouse with indoor golf simulators.

 

Luzhniki Olympic Complex, Moscow

 
TPL principal Tim Lobb said: “The golf academy at the Luzhniki Olympic Complex will be an important development for Russia. This will be the closest golf facility to the city centre and will be a family friendly and social venue that will enable the people of Moscow to experience, enjoy and learn to play golf.
 

“It is a very exciting project to be working on and, with the return of golf to the Olympics in 2016, is befitting of the Luzhniki Complex’s vision to be a legacy of Olympic sport.”

  Among the Russian sports stars who have benefited from the facilities at the Luzhniki Olympic Complex are tennis aces Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin. The question is, could Russia’s first golf star emerge from Luzhniki’s new golf academy?
 

 

The first golf course in Russia was established in 1989 and has fourteen courses currently in operation. The Russian Golf Association is creating a five-year plan to establish a future in golf by increasing the number of courses to one-hundred, boosting the number of golf lovers to 100,000 and having a few golfers winning tournaments in time for the 2016 Olympics.

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Greg Norman, Annika Sorenstam worried about the future of golf

In an effort to find innovative ways for golf to be more "affordable and accessible", Greg Norman, Annika Sorenstam and golf creative thinkers convened at the fourth annual Asia Pacific Golf Summit.

This 'call to action' in Thailand was only one of several forums designed to effect a change in the sport in order to attract more newcomers and to keep the golfers that already play interested in the game. Earlier this year, a Golf Business Forum in Turkey tackled similar questions with both Norman and Sorenstam in attendance.

Believing interest in the sport has hit its limit and is now declining, Hud Hinton, Troon Golf president and chief executive officer warned that, "The game is too expensive to play, too difficult to play, too expensive to operate and the pace of play is too slow."

Greg Norman came up with an interesting idea regarding the premise that it takes too long to play a round of golf.

"There's nothing to say that a golf course has to be 18 holes. Why shouldn't 12-hole courses be successful in Asia?"

Although it seems like an age-old question, what suggestions would you make in order to improve the sport and to bring in newcomers?

My idea?
Children are the future of the sport so perhaps add golf to a school's curriculum? Instead of just playing dodge-ball in a gym where kids learn it's okay to hit one another in the head with a ball, golf can also teach the nine basic principles of the First Tee Program.

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Tiger Woods earnings down but still $30 million richer than Phil Mickelson

According to SI.com, Tiger Woods may have dropped $9 million in earnings from last year but he is still the number one golfer on tour and still about $30 million ahead of Phil Mickelson!



In spite of his scandalous year, advertisers dropping like flies and nary a win in sight, Tiger Woods earned a whopping $90.5 million: only $20 million in "salary" from PGA Tour standings but $70 million from endorsements! In spite of being dropped by Gatorade, ATT and Accenture (see below), Woods' $10 million FedEx Cup bonus helped keep him in the number one position on the "Fortunate 50", ahead of Mickelson, LeBron James and Alex Rodriguez, whose Yankees salary of $33 million with only $4 million in endorsements barely halves Woods' home run.

Here is a list of Tiger Woods' corporate partners and sponsors, according to Golf.com, which helped keep Tiger Woods ahead on the money list:

1. Nike - "Just Do It"
2. EA Sports
3. Tag Heuer - "What are You Made of?"
4. Gillette - "The Best a Man can Get"
5. Accenture - "Go Ahead, Be a Tiger"
6. AT&T - "Reach out and touch someone"
7. Gatorade - "It's in Tiger, is it in you?"

Although Greg Norman recently stated, "...He'll come back and win golf tournaments, but he won't be as dominating as he used to be," I think that Tiger Woods' "B" Game was good enough to take home trophies. Once Woods starts winning regularly and this part of his life slowly fades into the past, companies will start returning to "Team Tiger".

People have very short memories and in golf, that's a good thing!

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