Why Moldova still has no 18-hole course, and what could help

Moldova still doesn’t have what you could fairly call an international 18-hole golf course. There are two places to play today: Dream Valley, a nine-hole course of mainly par 3s, and Merops Park, a three-hole course. Both are welcome, and both are doing real work to introduce people to the game. But neither is the kind of course that brings golf tourists in, or that lets a local player progress to a full-length round without leaving the country.

Why a full course is a long way off

Two things hold it back.

Golf is still an emerging sport here. The number of people who play regularly is small. Without a base of players, it’s hard to make the case for the scale of investment an 18-hole course needs, and hard to sustain one once it’s built.

Agricultural land can’t be sold to external investors. A full-length course needs a large site, and in Moldova that almost always means agricultural land. Because that land can’t be sold to foreign buyers, the international golf developers and investors who build courses elsewhere in Europe are effectively shut out of owning the site.

Put together, that means a full international course is unlikely any time soon.

The gap closer to home

There’s also no facility in Chișinău itself, or close enough to the city to make it easy to drop in for an hour after work. That matters more than it might seem. People take up golf when it’s convenient to try. If the nearest practice facility means planning a trip, most people who might have been curious never start.

What would help: an indoor simulator centre

A modern golf simulator facility in or near Chișinău would be ideal. A good example is Champ du Golf, which has opened in Otopeni, close to Bucharest’s airport. It uses TrackMan simulators, the same launch-monitor technology used on professional tours, and offers lessons and club fitting.

A centre like that would suit Moldova well:

• It needs very little land, so it sidesteps the land-ownership problem entirely.
• It works all year round, whatever the weather.
• It can be in the city, where people live and work.
• It lets people play famous courses virtually while they build their skills, and gives coaches precise data to teach with.

It wouldn’t replace a real course, but it could create the community of golfers that a future 18-hole course will need.

If you’d use a centre like this, or could help make one happen as an investor, operator or partner, register your interest.