Nic Brook of the Daily Mirror attended last year’s Kazakhstan Open – here is his take on the Challenge Tour’s richest event...
If you consider the world's great golfing destinations, Kazakhstan doesn't immediately spring to mind.
It is, it's fair to say, a long way from Pebble Peach, California, where this weekend the game's greats are battling it out for the US Open.
The only bunkers I could find reference to before my trip were ones from the Soviet era nuclear bomb test sites.
But as I stood at the side of the 18th green at Zhailjau Golf Resort watching the opening round of the Kazakhstan Open – the richest and arguably most important event on the European Challenge Tour – it all became clear, literally.
It had been miserably wet on my first day in the former capital Almaty. Suddenly, the mists and low cloud started to clear and as the weather improved so did my spirits.
The most stunning and beautiful looking golf landscape I've ever set eyes on was unfolding before me.
Broad sweeping fairways and smooth, undulating greens were slowly coming into focus.
To the south, towering snowcapped peaks of the Tien Shan mountain range were unveiled in early evening sunshine.
Standing there I quietly thanked whoever it was in Kazakhstan who commissioned Arnold Palmer's company to design a course in this remote territory.
Not for nothing is Arnie regarded as "The King" of golf.
He doesn't lend his signature to anything less than perfect. And this was golfing heaven!
Golf is new to Kazakhstan. It is only now, since the collapse of communism and break-up of the USSR in the early 1990s, that the Kazakhs have been allowed to embrace a game once regarded as the most dubious of bourgeois sports.
Fortunately, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the nation's president, enjoyed his introduction to golf when he visited the US in 1994.
Two years later, he backed a plan for a nine-hole course at the Alatau health resort near Almaty. Within six months the planned membership of 50 had spiralled to over 300 and the course was extended to a full 18 holes. That course became the delightful Nurtau Golf Club and the first of six courses across the country to date.
When Italian Edoardo Molinari won the €64,000 prize at the 2009 Kazakhstan Open, it saw him catapulted onto The European Tour this season and well on his way to the chance of a place in Colin Montgomerie's European team at this year's Ryder Cup in Wales.
Kazakhstan's love of golf is a proud sign of the nation's new independence - a declaration that Kazakhs are open to business investment and keen to share their heritage with a wider audience.
As a result, I'm sure the game will continue to flourish. I enjoyed a round at Nurtau with Konstantin Lifanov, the former Russian Open champion who is now director of golf at the club. We were joined on the back nine by Kazakhstan junior champion, 10 year old Daulet Tuleubaev, who announced his arrival by almost holing his tee shot on the 10th.
Daulet was as keen as mustard about the game and a joy to be with.
Watching him and his enthusiasm for the game changed my attitude about golf being an Olympic discipline.
If it means that youngsters in countries like Kazakhstan can dream of one day teeing up with the world's best, then great!
I maybe wouldn't bet on him becoming the next Tiger but he definitely had the smile of a Seve, so you never know.
I just thought how superb it would be to see him or one of his pals one day lifting The Ryder Cup for Europe – and really putting Kazakhstan on the golfing map.
Reproduced with kind permission of the Daily Mirror. For the full article, click here
