HAVANA ONLY HAS A NINE-HOLE COURSE BUT ...

STAND BY FOR CUBA GOLF BOOM NOW 

THAT USA IS TALKING OF NEW ERA

FROM GOLFWEEK.COM
By BRADLEY S KLEIN
Sixteen years ago, I cozied up to the bar at Ernest Hemingway's favourite watering hole, Floridita, in Havana, Cuba, and saw the future coming through the bottom of yet another mojito. 
Though we've been waiting ever since, today it looks as if the future finally could be on the horizon. Eventually the walls of economic boycott will come down, and with it a flood of U.S. investment capital will pour into this beleaguered, impoverished island nation just 90 miles across the sea from Florida. 
When it comes, golf will flourish.
President Barack Obama's announcement on December 17 of a new era in Cuban-American relations, including normalized diplomatic recognition and some modest restrictions in trade, represent considerable steps.
These measures soon will lead to an opening of trade between the two countries – trade that has been suspended since Fidel Castro took power in 1959.
Back before the Castro-led revolution, Cuba was a hotbed of economic activity and U.S. leisure. Barnstorming Major League Baseball teams played in Havana. Its cigars were a staple of the country-club set. Singers and comedians regularly played the Havana nightclubs. And Cuba was an attractive vacation spot.
Much less of that remains today, though there is evidence of tourist trade from South America and Europe. But with the absence of its historically largest (and nearest) trading partner only 90 miles away across the Strait of Florida, economic development has been scattershot, at best.
There is scant evidence of the once-flourishing resort trade to be found today in Cuba. The capital city is served only by the nine-hole Havana Golf Club.
Two courses designed by Donald Ross are long gone. The one hopeful sign of development, now more than 15 years old, is Varadero Golf Club, which was designed by Canadian Les Furber. It was home to the European Challenge Tour Grand Finals in 1999 and 2000.
Varadero sits on a peninsula that is pinched by Cardenas Bay to the south and open waters to the north. It's land that would be the envy of any course architect, only 90 miles east of Havana. 
But access roads to Varadero still betray considerable neglect. They also reveal that the obstacle to development of such dramatic land is basic infrastructure – mainly highways and utilities. 
Eventually that will come. And when it does, the coastal region will become a haven for luxury-goers, mainly from Latin America – the same folks who have been parking their surplus capital and Rolls Royces in Miami.