It’s high time we finally stopped discussing golf development in Russia in terms of its potential, as if one of the planet’s largest, richest, most powerful nations were on par with, say, Bulgaria or Belarus. The benefit of the doubt should no longer be in play, because Russia has had ample time to realize its potential and unfortunately come up short.
If we shine the harsh light of reality on Russia’s golf business, here’s what we get: Over the past 25 years, according to KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice, the nation has managed to open a mere 16 golf properties – among them, just seven 18-hole courses – and to develop only 4,500 registered golfers, for a participation rate so ridiculously low that it isn’t worth calculating. Does such a performance hint of “a tremendous opportunity” for development, as KPMG suggests, or is it evidence of a lost cause?
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the May 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
