ukraine From Russia, With You Know What

All the Russian money flowing into Ukraine is about to spark the development of the nation’s fifth golf course.

The nine-hole, regulation-length track is being designed by Peter Harradine, a third-generation Swiss architect, and it’ll be the centerpiece of a mid-scale golf community in Stugna, a suburb of Kiev.

Stugna Golf Club will be part of a community that’s been designed by a Swiss firm, IN-VI. The community’s unidentified developers also plan to build houses, a hotel, a small shopping area, and an international school.

Harradine, an ardent promoter of “affordable” courses that can be enjoyed by average golfers, has described the layout as “a new and unpretentious type of course” that will be “sustainable” and serve as “a welcome contrast to the usual monster 18-hole ‘championship’ courses that have already ruined the game in most emerging golfing markets.”

Ukraine’s golf portfolio currently consists of nine-hole courses in Kharkov, Lugansk, and Makarovsky and a 36-hole facility in Kiev, all of which have opened in this century. One of the nine-hole courses, Superior Golf Club in Kharkov, is expected to soon grow into an 18-hole, championship-length track.

Harradine’s 18-hole course at Pravets Golf & Spa Resort in Pravets, Bulgaria officially opened in May, and these days the Erlen-based architect is redesigning the Nad al-Sheba Golf Course in Dubai. The course, which will eventually grow to 18 holes, is part of the new Meydan horse-racing facility.

Some information in this post originally appeared in the March 2011 and July 2011 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.