kazakhstan Cold Call

An Ohio-based designer and an Indiana-based shaper have staked out a claim in Kazakhstan, where they have one golf course under construction and three others in the works.

John Flynn and Brian Smith are currently building a nine-hole golf course in Astana, the nation's second-largest city and one of the coldest capital cities on earth. Their client? It's the son of Kazakhstan’s president, Nursaltan Nazarbayev, who’s touched off an oil-fueled construction boom in cities across the nation.

Good times are also rolling for Flynn and Smith, who’ve positioned themselves to take advantage of Kazakhstan’s surging economy and growing interest in golf.

“We have a handshake agreement to do the other nine holes [at Astana Golf Club] and three other projects in every major city in Kazakhstan,” says Flynn, the principal of Flynn International Golf Course Design.

Flynn won’t provide any details about the forthcoming projects, but he says that one of them could be at a planned resort along the Caspian Sea.

When it opens, Astana Golf Club will be Kazakhstan’s seventh golf course, the best-known of which is an Arnold Palmer-designed track at Zhailjau Golf Resort in Almaty.

If you're wondering, Astana is the world’s second-coldest capital (after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia), with an average annual temperature of just 35.2 degrees.