The Week That Was, october 16, 2011

russia Finally, A Little Life

Earlier this month, in a post about the soon-to-open PGA National Golf Course in suburban Moscow, I griped about the disappointment that Russia has been for those of us who once believed that the nation would become a major player in golf development.

So, as part of my self-assigned obligation to give credit where it's due, I must note that a new golf course is under construction in suburban St. Petersburg. The course will be the featured attraction at Gorky Golf Club, which Golf Course Architecture says will be “the first 18-hole course in the region of Russia’s second city.”

Gorky's course has been designed by a Finn, Lassi Pekka Tilander. The Espoo-based architect, a member of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects, has designed a handful of 18-hole courses in Finland, one in Poland, and two in Estonia, including a 27-hole complex at Estonian Golf & Country Club in suburban Tallinn.

The construction is being done by a Russian firm, Geokam Golf Construction, which, in a happy coincidence, helped to build PGA National. The job was Geokam's first in golf.

Gorky will be the centerpiece of a community that features as many as 250 houses and a hotel. If the next couple of winters in Russia aren't too long and too cold, the course could open in 2013.

If you're wondering if Gorky might be the start of something big for Russian golf, I'm certainly not counting on it. At least not yet.

china Player Takes a Partner

In an attempt to drum up more work in China, and to boost the value of its multi-dimensional “brand,” Gary Player Design has hitched up with a Beijing-based marketing firm.

Player's new partner is Axis Leisure Management, a firm run by Justin Downes. The description of Axis offered by a press release announcing the deal is a pile of dull boilerplate that I won't bore you with. Suffice to say that the company doesn't specialize in golf, let alone golf design, and appears to be primarily interested in selling the golf-related goods and services that Player's firm provides.

To be sure, Axis has plenty of extras to choose from. The press release states that the firm aims to “support the development and service of [Player's] brand portfolio, including Gary Player Apparel, Gary Player Wine, Black Knight Enterprises, and the Player Foundation.”

Conspicuously missing from this list is any mention of Player's stud farm in South Africa, which presumably has all the business it can handle.

Player may be hoping to set his cash registers a-ringing, but he's no stranger to China's golfers. To date, he's completed at least a half-dozen courses in the People's Republic, among them Hidden Tiger Golf Club in Anhui Province, Zhaoqing Resort & Golf Club in Guangdong Province, Nanjing Zhongshan International Golf Club in Jiangsu Province, and Sand River Golf Club in Shenzhen.

As far as forthcoming courses are concerned, Player's website lists three projects in planning, including Jiangyin Yushanwan International Country Club in Jiangsu Province and Longping Jiuhua Sports & Leisure Park in Hunan Province.

Of course, none of these courses can break ground until China's central government lifts its ban on golf construction. But neither Player nor Axis has a voice on that matter.

“Our objective," Downes said in the press release, “is to develop new opportunities for Gary Player Design and Player Real Estate and to offer our expertise in building luxury leisure and hospitality brands to the valued past, present, and future clients of The Player Group.”

It's hard to believe that there are people in the world who actually talk like that.

united states Lucky Us

“Everything in life,” Donald Trump once said, “is luck.”

Well, maybe not everything. But Americans sure do like to talk and think about luck, even if it's just dumb luck or beginner's luck or Andrew Luck or those tasty Lucky Charms. And sometimes we try to find luck in strange places.

A case in point: Men's Health has published a list of the 100 luckiest cities in the United States. This is no mere seat-of-the-pants appraisal. There's a method to the madness. The way the magazine sees it, the cities that rank highest on the lucky scale are those whose residents win the most lotteries and sweepstakes, make the most holes-in-one, hardly ever get hit by lightning, rarely get crushed to death by falling objects, and lose the least money at the track.

San Diego, California sits at the top of the list, but our nation's “lucky” cities are literally all over the map. The top 20, for instance, consists of cities in 14 states, from sea to shining sea. The group is led by California (four cities), but three other states (Texas, Nevada, and, believe it or not, Nebraska) each have two cities in the top 20.

You may be wondering where Las Vegas ranks. Answer: Number 7. Talk about your lucky dogs.

If you're looking for “unlucky” cities, go to Florida. The state has just five cities on the list, and the highest-ranking one, Jacksonville, checks in at number 69. Even worse, three of Florida's cities -- Miami, St. Petersburg, and Tampa -- are ranked in the 90s. All those retirees down there just can't seem to catch a break.

At the very bottom is Charleston, the only city in West Virgina that made the list. Take heart, though, good people of Charleston. The nation is full of other cities, both big and small, that are even less lucky than you.

Finally, if you're feeling bummed out because you live in an unlucky place, Men's Health offers a tidbit that could help you change your personal luck. According to a reputable scientific journal, the magazine says, people who carry good-luck charms perform better on certain memory tests than people who don't. Translated, that means people who simply believe they have luck on their side have an edge on the rest of the competition.

Think about that the next time you need to change your luck.