that Saturday and Sunday, so we only managed to play maybe nine
holes. But I got to know Bobby that weekend.
He travelled all over the world and was involved in a lot of coun-
tries where the East-West issues were front and center. That was what
I spent a lot of time on, so we stayed in touch. He kept me informed
on observations he’d make about various countries. The common
denominator was golf, but he had a very keen interest in, and under-
standing of, many of the issues that we were dealing with politically
in that era—the Soviet Union as well as with other countries, such
as the Philippines when [President Ferdinand] Marcos’s leadership
was coming under great assault by his own people.
There was a huge amount of tension—anything about the capi-
talist world was condemned in the Soviet Union, and golf would be
right there at the top echelon of those types of symbolic issues. The
chances of building a golf course in the land of the adversary, let
alone the land where capitalism is damned, was very unlikely. Still,
I took it seriously, because I felt the Soviet Union was going to have
to change, if nothing else, for economic and investment purposes.
And as I got to know Bobby, I came to realize that he doesn’t under-
stand the word “impossible,” either in Russian or English.
Previous spread: Beneath the snow at Nakhabino lies Moscow CC’s routing,
mapped out by Bobby Jones, with help from project engineer Olga Korchagina
(far left) and Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Ivanovic Sergeyev (second from right).
Below: Dr. Hammer and Sergeyev sign contracts to get the project under way.
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