So, I got curious a while back about how women’s golf is doing over in Russia. Not the big international tours, you know, but more the local stuff. Just wanted to get a feel for it.
I started digging around online first. Typed in the usual things, looking for clubs, maybe some amateur leagues, or even just news about local players making waves. Honestly? It was tough going. You find mentions here and there, mostly about the few Russian women who’ve played internationally. But finding out what’s happening week-to-week, like club competitions or development programs? Almost nothing popped up easily.
Finding info felt like pulling teeth.
I spent a good couple of afternoons trying different search terms. Even tried translating some phrases into Russian using online tools, hoping that would unlock some local forums or news sites. Got a few hits, mostly outdated websites or very general sports pages that didn’t offer much detail on women’s participation specifically.
Looking Beyond the Web
Figured maybe it wasn’t an online thing. Sometimes sports scenes are more word-of-mouth, right? I remembered an old acquaintance who worked in St. Petersburg for a bit. Dropped him a line.
- He confirmed there are courses, some quite nice apparently.
- But he mentioned seeing very few women playing regularly.
- Said it seemed like a very male-dominated activity when he was there.
- He didn’t know of any specific women’s clubs or easy ways for female beginners to get involved back then.
His take was that it seemed expensive and maybe not heavily promoted outside of certain circles. Didn’t sound like something was actively discouraging women, just… not much there for them, specifically.
It sort of fizzled out there.
My little project to understand the scene kind of hit a dead end. It wasn’t like I was trying to book a tee time tomorrow, just trying to satisfy my curiosity about how the sport was developing for women there. The whole process left me thinking it’s probably a very niche thing, maybe growing slowly behind the scenes, but definitely not out in the open or easy to track from the outside.
So, that was my experience trying to peek into that world. Found some nice pictures of courses, but not much action regarding women playing the game on a regular, local level. Just my observation from trying to piece things together.
