The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!

by Mulligan Stu on Mar 14, 2007 3:22 PM EDT Comment 0 comments

Maria Verchenova Coming to a golf course near you, that is.

I've written several posts recently about the growing global reach of golf. I've written about the growth of golf in Europe and why Team USA should never be able to dominate the Ryder Cup again; I've written about another Finnish golfer here; and about why China should start producing many of the great golfers of the future.

The deputy secretary of the China Golf Association says the first Chinese star may already be here - Liang Wen Chong, who recently won on the European Tour:

"If he can win on the European Tour, he can win in the U.S.," Li said in a telephone interview from Beijing. "Many people think he can be the next star."

Golf in China has prospered since the first course was built 23 years ago, with about 1 million people taking up the sport. China needs a high-profile champion to encourage younger players and raise golf's standing in a nation where it's largely viewed as a pastime of the rich, Li said.

"He can be the key person to be the superstar for Chinese golf," Li said. "It's a big dream for us that he will win a major too. I hope so but I don't have a timeframe."

There are thriving junior golf programs in Kenya and Uganda.

But perhaps the biggest sign of the true internationalizing of golf as a participatory sport is the emergence of the first wave of Russian golfers on pro tours. It still seems somewhat incongruous to talk about golf in Russia; "Russian golfer" seems almost an oxymoron.

But don't tell that to Maria Verchenova, the Russian golfer pictured above. Verchenova is a 20-year-old rookie on the Ladies European Tour, although she's not the first Russian on the LET. That was Uliana Rotmistrova, who played in 2004-05.

But Verchenova seems a better bet to move onward. Verchenova earned her LET card by finishing 14th in the LET Q-School. She was Russian amateur champion in 2004 and 2006, and won the national amateur title in three other countries; she also finished second in the 2006 World University Championships.

anastasia kostina Then there are the Kostina sisters, Anastasia (pictured, left) and Maria, who played collegiately together at Washington State University and now play on the Futures Tour.

An article on the Futures Tour Web site makes it clear how unusual it still is for kids in Russia to think of golf as a competitive option: when the Kostina girls took up the game, there was only one golf course in the entire country.

The Kostinas just happened to live within driving distance of that course, Moscow Country Club.

Said Maria, at 23 the older of the sisters:

"Some guys showed up with sticks and said they would teach us golf for free. We had never seen anything like that."

Not too long ago, "some guys" showing up with "sticks" in Russia was a sign of something much more sinister (and may be becoming so again, the way Vladimir Putin is running things ... but I digress).

Anastasia has the best shot of being the first Russian on the LPGA Tour. She was a two-time All-America selection at Washington State and finished tied for ninth in the Futures Tour opener last week, her Tour debut. (Maria missed the cut.)

And Moscow Country Club, where the Kostina sisters began playing? It's the site of a European Tour event, the Russian Open, played annually since 1996.