Magazine

Golf in the Czech Republic

Although it may seem like a paradox, it is possible to go further in fourteen years than in a century - at least as far as Czech golf is concerned. Following the fall of Communism in 1989, this persecuted game of aristocrats has spread across the Czech lands with the speed of a well struck drive.
A sporting nation that enjoys the magic produced by playing with any sized ball, Czechs have now discovered the magic of the smallest and most difficult to control of them.

Milan Veselý, president of the Czech Golf Federation in recalling the beginnings of this period of change said, "In 1989 our golf federation only had about 1500 members. We all knew each other, it was almost conspiratorial. Golf was on the margin of interest, people considered it a strange form of entertainment for aging nobles, who walked the course with their servants, sipping whiskey."
From this perspective it is almost unbelievable that today, there are more than ten times that number of active players in this country who are members of more than seventy local clubs. Golf today has made its way into television news reports, onto the shelves of bookstores and newspaper stands and the shelves of specialist golf shops. A golf course of international standards has been built within sight of the majestic Karlštejn Castle, built in the fourteenth century by Emperor Charles IV, the "father of the country." This course has played host to some of the best professionals in world during PGA tournaments and the legendary screen Agent 007 Sean Connery has walked its greens.
In an article describing for the world the dramatic change in the golfing climate, AP's Prague reporter Ondřej Hejma (himself an avid golfer) wrote: "The postwar communist years sent golf into decades of hibernation. James Bond would have fit right in at clubhouses of that era, bugged by the secret police spying on visiting businessmen and diplomats stationed in Prague."

And yet the beginnings of the last century marked a promising beginning for Czech golf. The first golf course in the Czech lands - indeed in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire - was opened in 1904 in Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad). It was a nine-hole course as was the course opened a year later in another western Bohemian spa town, Maránské Lázně (Marienbad). The British king, Edward VII himself attended the opening of this second golf course. These historical events were brought full circle in 2003, when this now eighteen-hole course was granted the title "Royal" by Queen Elizabeth II.
The first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk even donated a trophy for the national champion in golf, but by the time the Second World War came to a close there were all told only five clubs with full memberships. The 1950s and the "flowering" of Communism meant the most difficult of times for Czech golf. Hanuš Goldscheider, the doyen of Czech golf used to say, "I never stopped believing that I'd live to see the day when golf once again had its place in the sun." Goldscheider was the first post-1989 president of the Czech Golf Federation and for his exceptional contributions was made a member of the hallowed Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Scotland.

The first gasps of freedom for Czech golf after the "Velvet Revolution" did not come easily with the real breakthrough only taking place in the mid-nineties. During the second half of the twentieth century's last decade, Czech golf courses began to sprout like mushrooms after rain. In addition to the hilly Karlštejn course, a magnificent golf course was built in the western Bohemian town of Cihelny. This project along the valley of a small river on the road between Karlovy Vary and Maránské Lázně was overseen by the South African golfing legend Gary Player. At the turn of the new century a majestic golf course was opened at the chateau of Konopiště near Prague, an unusual 27-hole course near the eastern Bohemian town of Jaroměř and in the eastern Moravian town of Čeladná. This latter project was overseen by the well-known Spanish professional Miguel Angel Jimenez. At the same time a large number of smaller, nine-hole courses and chip and putt facilities were built and conditions for indoor golf and driving ranges were improved. Prague already has five of the latter but golf oases can also be found outside the major urban agglomerations.
Petr Korda, the onetime second ranked tennis player in the world and winner of the 1998 Australian Open recalls that, "I used to say that it was a sport for old men and that I'd take it up once I couldn't run anymore. But then I began to like it and once I played in my first tournament, I fell completely under golf's spell." Another occasional "golfing" tennis player is the Czech-American Martina Navrátilová, whose hometown of Řevnice is not far from Karlštejn. And if during the summer you would like to meet one of the legion of ice hockey players, you had better strike out for the golf course, because it is there that the majority of the Czech players from the NHL spend their time.

Although the Czech Republic is still waiting for its own Tiger Woods, it is now able to boast a small miracle. Alexander Čejka, currently the best German professional player and a real discovery on the 2003 USPGA Tour, was born in Maránské Lázně and took his first golfing steps on the local course there before his father decided to search for a better life abroad and they emigrated. Čejka won his first three tournaments in one season on the European PGA Tour before he was even 25 and is currently ranked among the top forty players in the world. He has not however forgotten his roots, speaks wonderful Czech and has both Czech and German flags painted on his golf balls. So in this way Czechs may also take pride in the successes of this now 33-year-old compatriot.
It is currently very difficult for Czech professional players to break onto the international scene because they spend much more time working with their clients than on their own games. In spite of this, Czech professional golf has not disappeared from view. Its key event is the Eurotel PGA Czech Open Golf Tour, which has for a number of years been the only tour for professional golfers in this country. Czech amateur players, in particular the men, are making something of a name for themselves. Who knows, our amateur golf champions Petr Nič and Roman Svoboda may one day establish themselves in the tough world of the professional golfer. Golf in the Czech Republic really needs this sort of boost.

The current President of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus made a generous gesture to golf in his first awarding of state decorations. Lady Luisa Abrahams was presented the Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Order for her service in the Czechoslovak Air Force in England during the Second World War. Lady Luisa, who remained in England after the war and bravely helped dissidents in her homeland, just so happens to have been the last ladies golf champion in Czechoslovakia (1938).

Čeněk Lorenc
Editor of Magazín Sport

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