The game that was founded by a bunch of Scots pottering around St. Andrews is more than a mere pastime today. Golf is the grease in face-to-face meetings and deal-cutting at the highest level - precisely because it allows you to quietly potter around in the fresh air rather than sitting in a stifling conference room.

  More importantly, the game of golf is a high-class enterprise and it can be an important instrument for attracting investments to a country. Not only does golf generate substantial jobs - a typical club can employ between 300 and 500 people on a permanent basis - but it also provides companies that are investing with a venue for business R&R for upper and middle management. Many embassies and multinationals admit they have a hard time attracting good managers to a place that doesn't have recreational facilities - particularly golf. Golf has been cited as one of the key features missing in Ukraine by diplomats and executives from Japan, Korea, the US, the UK, Germany, and South Africa.

  Take a look at the tiny Czech Republic. A few years ago, there were no golf courses, and now it's building its 28th. Slovakia will soon have six. Poland has almost two dozen courses. Even countries like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan already have golf courses and Russia is well on its way to having six. Hotel groups such as the Premier Palace, the Natsionalniy, the President and the Dnipro are all keen to offer their world-class clients a course near Kyiv. The Moscow Country Club has even indicated that it could send one or more planeloads of players each week to play at a course in or around Kyiv, because their season is so much shorter.

  A side from business considerations, a generation of young Ukrainian athletes may lose the chance to participate in the game at the next Olympics. Yet, for a country like Ukraine, golf should be a natural. Its exceptionally athletic young people would take to golf like ducks to water. This was clear when the first driving range opened in Koncha Zaspa a few years ago. Moreover, in parts of Ukraine the terrain is almost ideal.

  In order not to lose the opportunity to develop the next generation of Olympic hopefuls, as well as not to lose on many investment opportunities for Ukraine from countries and corporations that view golf availability as a necessity for conducting business and providing their management with this most important pastime, the group of companies "GV" will build the first in Ukraine professional golf-field dubbed the "Royal Kyiv Golf Club" in the Kyiv region.

  In 2009 Ukraine will see the USGA-standard international golf-field, golf academy and school with 6 holes. The "Royal Kyiv Golf Club" will be a prototype for the classical British golf-field made of the 19th century-like style and adjusted to the modern standards. The golf-complex will be constructed under a project of the British "Hawtree Ltd". The system's infrastructure includes a hotel, clubhouse and car park. One of the golf-club's key task will be representation of Ukraine's golf sport at the international arena.