One more revolution - Cubs's first pro golf tournament since the revolution

Golf Digest, Jan, 2000 by Thomas L. Friedman

When you walk into the international media cen-ter in Havana to register for a press card, the first thing that greets you is a large black-and-white photograph of Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara. But this is no ordinary Che poster. There is no raised fist, no anti-American caption. What you see instead is Che smiling mischievously, while leaning on a 7-iron. I'm not makin' this up. I bought the poster right off the wall.

Che and Fidel Castro played a round together in 1959, shortly before Castro was to visit Washington. The Cuban leader was hoping to meet President Dwight D. Eisenhower and had been told that Ike liked to play golf. So Che, who apparently had done some caddieing in his youth and actually knew a 7-iron from a machete, took Castro out for a quick 18 to get his game up to par. Comandante en Jefe, who was dressed in Army fatigues and combat boots (the first alternative spikes) reportedly shot 150 in his tune-up. Never mind. He never got to see Ike anyway.

But what goes around does come around. Some 40 years later Fidel was scheduled to officially inaugurate Cuba's first new golf course since the revolution, and kick off its first pro golf tournament since then as well--the season-ending Tour Championship of the Challenge Tour, the PGA European Tour's equivalent of the Nike Tour. Alas, Castro sent other dignitaries to preside over the festivities. The $120,000 tournament was played at Cuba's new links course, the Varadero Golf Club, two hours' drive east of Havana, and in a nice touch the tournament began on Oct. 28--37 years to the day that the Cuban missile crisis ended. In a few years, the Varadero tournament is scheduled to become "The Cuban Open," an official stop of the European tour, which would pretty much bring Cuba back to where it started. Before the 1959 revolution, Cuba had nearly a dozen golf courses, including two Donald Ross-designed gems: the Havana Biltmore Golf Club and the Country Club of Havana, which for 11 years was a PGA Tour stop.

Castro had all except one nine-hole course plowed under after he took over. So why the resurrection of golf in Cuba today? Simple. For three decades Cuba lived off the aid of the Soviet Union, but when it collapsed after 1989, Castro found himself desperate for hard currency. He also discovered that the best way for him to earn dollars without having to actually open his political system was by letting in some tourists. Somebody then explained to him that the wealthiest tourists tended to play golf. OK, said Castro, then golf it is. So the Cuban revolution, which started out jokingly leaning on a 7-iron 40 years ago, is back leaning on a 7-iron today, only now it's no joke.

"We view golf as a very necessary activity to be developed by our country, with the aim of attracting higher-income tourists," explains Cuba's Vice Minister of Tourism, Eduardo Rodriguez de la Vega. "We have just built a new course in Varadero. We are considering starting two others soon. In our master plan, we have reserved land for a golf course in each of the eight designated tourist regions of the country.

"If and when the day comes that the U.S. lifts its restrictions on American tourists and businessmen visiting Cuba," says Rodriguez dreamily, "then, if only 10 percent of the golf players in the U.S. would come to Cuba, we would need 150 courses."

Isn't Cuba's government worried about sullying its revolutionary reputation with golf courses? Rodriguez says no. They intend to make golf an "open sport," with schools to introduce it to Cuban young people. The Cuban minister, though, did reveal some knowledge of the game, when he added, "A friend of mine told me that your golf handicap is equal to the number of days you work a month. If you are a 30-handicapper, it means you work 30 days. If you are an 8, it means you work only eight days. What is your handicap?"

Cuba, China, North Korea and Vietnam--the world's last Communist-led countries--are surely going to be among the most booming golf countries of the new millennium. Also virgin territory for golf development in Y2K are rogue states, such as Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Burma, where fun currently has been outlawed by their leaders, but, hey, that can't last forever. Just look at Cuba. Cuba already has lots of tourist-golfers visiting, but it doesn't have enough courses yet. China has built many golf courses, but it hasn't really attracted the golfers yet. North Korea doesn't have any courses or any golfers, but it's got plenty of undeveloped terrain. Don't laugh. Anyone who has visited the famous Demilitarized Zone, separating North and South Korea, can see that the combination of hills, scrub and sand there bear a striking resemblance to the terrain at Royal County Down, Northern Ireland's great links. Ben Crenshaw would have a field day routing a course through the foothills of the DMZ. It is so much more interesting than Nebraska.

"Think of all the [natural] pot bunkers you would have," says Rick Elyea, a prominent turfgrass consultant, who salivates at the challenge of growing bent grass along the 38th parallel. "The weather in North Korea is more severe than in the south, so the season would be shorter, but I'm sure we could do it. I was just at a trade show in China and met some developers who want to build a course in Tibet."