Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir | March. 28. 2012 | 20:30

Introducing: Sergei Revinenko from Russia

On May 3rd – 5th 2011 Cádiz Turismo in Spain invited golfwriters and travelagents from all over Europe to participate in a meeting held at Arcos Gardens on tourism in the region, with special emphasise on golf. On behalf of Iceland the Icelandic travelagency World Tours (in Icelandic: Heimsferðir) and the golfwebsite Golf1.is were invited to participate. Whilst at Arcos the participants were invited to play 3 of the wonderful golfcourses of Cádiz, i.e. one course each day.

I was so fortunate to be paired with Sergei Revinenko, owner of the only golftravelagency in Russia and Fjodor from Golf Digest in Russia. When does a golfer from Iceland get to meet, much less to play golf with golfers from Russia?  This was a rare opportunity to interview Sergei, who also is an international golf referee.

Admittedly, I knew nothing about golf in Russia before I played golf with Sergei and Fjodor first at the San Roque golfcourse on the 3rd and than at Costa Ballena on the 4th of May 2011. On the third day of this wonderful invite from Cádiz Turismo, i.e. on the 5th of May 2011, the highlight of the trip, the Cádiz Cup was held at Arcos Garden.

Afterwards Golf1.is interviewed 7 of the participants a.o. Sergei.  Four of the interviews have already aired i.e. the first with twice amateur champion Krisztina Batta from Hungary, who won the tournament, the second with Mauricio Veloccia golf-pro from Italy and the third with Julien Bacqués, á Frenchman living in Austria, who works in the sales department of  TGR-Golfreisen in Vienna, Austria, i.e. a travelagency specializing in Golf Tours. And then the fourth with Sasha Zelenka author of a comprehensive golf guide about the beautiful golfcourses of Austria. The other 3 interviews will be published shortly.

The first one of those 3 interviews that are left aires tonight and is the one with Sergei Revinenko.  What a surprise to learn that there are over 1 billion people living in Russia (1050 million) but that only 6000 lucky ones get to play golf. Who would have known that there are only 15 golfcourses in all of  Russia and 2 being built?  Compare this to Iceland, the golfcrazed country with only  319.090 inhabitants (by the end of 2011) where 17.000 people (according to latest statistics) are affiliated to golf clubs and it is estimated that many more play golf. One even hears rumors that supposedly 1/3 of the nation, around 100.000 people know how to play golf in Iceland.  And… Icelanders  have 66 golfcourses to choose between.

But then on the other hand Iceland has more of a golfing tradition than Russia. The oldest golfclub in Iceland was founded 1935, but the cornerstone of the oldest golfcourse in Russia was laid in September 1987.  People have only been playing golf in Russia for some  20 years (from 1991) and it´s not a public sport like in Iceland but a sport art confined to the well off in Russia and it is very elitarian.  How sad that the former communists didn´t recognize the healthy lifestyle golf offers, but only stamped it off as bourgeois way of life, which it historically most certainly is. Today only the rich can afford the high membership fees on the few golfcourses in Russia and only the super-rich travel, and even build their own private golfcourses  like Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, metals tycoon Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin, who made his money from Russia’s vast nickel reserves, aswell as Elena Baturina, Russia’s richest woman.

(Golf 1 will introduce all of Russias courses (apart from the privately owned) these next few days – in Icelandic – and the first article on the Agalarov Golf Estate has already been published.)

Well, what a long intro to the interview with Sergei, but here it goes:

Where were you born? In Kharkov, Ukraine, August 5th 1948.

Where were you raised?  In Moskow.

What is your familystatus and does anyone in your family play golf?  I am married and have 1 son. We all play golf.

When did you start playing golf? In 2005.

Why did you start playing golf?  That was by coincidence. I started selling golftrips and golfvacations and I thought I needed to know a little bit about golf.

What is your occupation? I am the owner of a golftravel agency in Russia.

How many play golf in Russia and what are the most popular golfdestinations among Russian golfers? I guess that there are around 6000 that play golf in Russia and the most popular golfdestinations are Jamaica, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Malaysia and Thailand. And we have trips to Egypt.

What do you prefer parkand or links style golfcourses?  I like both of them – I find parkland courses enjoyable but I am crazy about linkses.

How many golfcourses are in Russia? Sergei thought they were 10 (five 18 hole courses and five 9 hole courses)  – but according to information gathered by Golf1.is they are 15 and 2 beeing built (one has to take into account that almost 1 year has passed from the interview with Sergei).

What is the best golfcourse in Russia?  Tseleevo Golf & Country Club. (It is designed by Jack Nicklaus, who himself thinks it´s one of his 10 best designed golfcourses worldwide).

What is the oldest golfcourse in Russia?  That is Moscow City Golf Club on Dovzhenko street, but the cornerstone to that course was put down by the Swedish hockeyplayer, Sven Tumba Johanson, on September 15th 1987.

How do people go about becoming members in golfclubs in Russia?   By invitation or reference – this is still a sport of the elite and it is not a public sport. It is very difficult to convince people that this is a sport for the whole family which is good for ones health and not reserved for the elite.

What is/are your favorite golfcourse/s in the whole world apart from Russia? The Halmstad golfcourse in Sweden; the golfcourse by the European PGA Club in Ireland and in fact all of the Irish linkses, for example Doonbeg.

What is the most special golfcourse you have played and why?  Wild Coast Sun GC in South-Africa because of the caddys and the women.

What is your lowest score in golf and on what golfcourse did you achieve it? I think it was a 95 on the Pirogovo golfcourse in Moscow.

Have you participated in other sports?  Yes, in basketball and tennis.

What is your favorite food, your favorite drink; your favorite music; your favorite movie and your favorite book? My favorite food is Pirogi; my favorite drink is  tea with lemon; my favorite music is jazz og classical music for example Rachmaninov; I have no favorite movie and my favorite book is: „Psychology of Golf” by Bob Rotella.

Who are your favorite golfers, name 1 male and 1 female golfer?Male : Pádraig Harrington.  Female:  Sörenstam – I have heard alot about her and I like her attitude towards golf.

What´s in the bag and what is your favorite club? In my bag is a TaylorMade driver; my Odyssey putter; Pine Meadow irons, I prefer Adams rescue clubs to trees and my favorite club is my PW.

What is your maingoal in life? I would do anything for my son to be happy.

And at last: What do you like the most about golf? There are many things I like about golf. For example the walk in the nature and new golf destinations. One can experience the wild nature and rich fauna and flora, and the various bird and wildlife. A golfcourse in Nepal is for example especially memorable but there I played golf surrounded by monkeys and deer.