Cuba embraces golf to boost tourism

HAVANA (Reuters) - The only time Cuba's Fidel Castro isknown to have played golf in 1961, in a stunt thumbing his noseat the United States.

Now that Fidel has handed over power to his brother, Raul,Communist Cuba is setting aside any ideological objections andis embracing golf, the most capitalist of sports.

Investors from Canada and Europe have proposed buildinggated communities with luxury hotels, villas and condossurrounding 18 and 36-hole golf courses near beach resortsacross the Caribbean island.

Some of the projects, which include one by top Britisharchitect Norman Foster's firm, have been on the drawing boardfor years and their backers are hoping Cuba's new president,Raul Castro, will give them the green light to revive golf.

"Old-school objections to golf on ideological grounds havefallen away," said Mark Entwistle, a former Canadian ambassadorto Havana who now consults to foreign companies planning to dobusiness here.

"Golf is seen as important to develop a more sophisticatedand repeat tourism beyond sun and sand," said Entwistle, who isadvising one of the golf community projects.

Since succeeding his brother, Fidel Castro, in February,Cuba's first new leader in almost half a century has set aboutlifting restrictions in the one-party socialist state, such asallowing Cubans to stay at hotels previously reserved forforeign tourists.

He does not appear to share his famous brother's abhorrencefor the bourgeois sport of golf. There are today at least 10golf resort projects in the pipeline at various stages in theapproval process, Entwistle said.

The only time Fidel Castro was seen armed with a putterinstead of a gun was two years after seizing power in therevolution in 1959 that ousted U.S.-backed dictator FulgencioBatista and changed Cuba from a Mafia playground into a Sovietally.

That was in March 1961, one month before the disastrouslanding by CIA-trained Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs.Tensions were running high between Havana and Washington, andCastro played golf with Ernesto "Che" Guevara, wearing militaryfatigues and boots, as a publicity stunt.

Guerrilla icon Guevara at least knew how to play the game,having worked as a caddy as a boy in Cordoba, Argentina.

But the Colinas de Villareal golf course where the tworevolutionaries played was soon turned into a military camp.

Havana's elite Country Club was taken over and its fairwaysbecame the grounds of Cuba's top arts and music school.

Today, Cuba's capital has only one 9-hole course, theformer British-owned Rovers Athletic Club, where foreignbusinessmen and diplomats play.

The rugged course has seen better days -- sticks are usedfor flag poles on the parched greens. Argentine soccer starDiego Maradona played there almost every day when he lived inCuba undergoing treatment for cocaine addiction.

XANADU CLUB HOUSE

The only new golf course since the Cuban revolution wasopened in 1998 at Cuba's prime resort of Varadero after thecountry opened up to foreign investment and tourism in the wakeof the collapse of the Soviet Union. The 18-hole Varadero GolfClub is on the grounds of Xanadu, a seaside mansion built byU.S. chemical industry millionaire Irenee du Pont.

Cuba's new interest in golf arises in response to thestagnation of its $2 billion-a-year (1 billion pounds) touristtrade, which saw the number of visitors dwindle in 2006 and2007.

Cuba has no choice but to build new golf courses if itwants to compete with other Caribbean resorts in Mexico,Jamaica or the Dominican Republic, a smaller country that drawsmore tourists than Cuba and has 22 golf courses, says Miamilawyer Antonio Zamora, an expert on Cuban real estate.

"If you have a tourist industry you have to offer touristswhat they want, and they want golf courses as much as they wantbeaches, pools and entertainment," Zamora said.

But no developer builds a golf course if there is no realestate involved, and that has been a hurdle for proposals madeby foreign entrepreneurs, who would need leases of 50 to 75years before they could commit to a project.

Cuba does not allow foreigners to own property and is notexpected to do so in the near future. The Cuban government hasyet to approve a single golf project as it debates whether toallow long-term leases, said Zamora.

Leisure Canada Inc, a Vancouver-based venture run by miningand real estate developer Wally Berukoff, has waited more thana decade for approval to build a gated community with sea-fronthotels, time-share villas, health spas and 18-hole golf coursesat Jibacoa, 40 miles (60 kms) east of Havana.

Leisure Canada has even signed a licensing agreement withBritain's Professional Golf Association to promote world classgolf and tournaments in Cuba, the company's website says.

One project that is likely to move ahead -- because it doesnot involve real estate -- is the Hicacos marina and golfresort to be built in Varadero by French engineering groupBouygues S.A. for Gaviota, the Cuban army's tourism company.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Eddie Evans)