Ozo Golf Club - Latvia

Ozo Golf Club, the only golf course in the Baltic Republic of Latvia, was founded by its namesake, National Hockey League star Sand is Ozolinsh, the greatest  player to come out of Latvia. Ozolinsh took up golf shortly after he was traded from the San Jose Sharks to the Colorado Avalanche during the 1995-96 season, when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup. After the Avalanche were eliminated from the playoffs in 1999, Ozolinsh took Latvia's leading sports journalist Armands Puce to playa round at Castle Pines in Denver. Afterwards, a casual conversation in the backyard of Ozolinsh's home about how nice it would be to have something similar back in Latvia hatched the idea for what was to become Ozo. When Puce returned to Latvia, he began looking for land for the course and found a site that had been used as a dumping ground just 10 minutes from the center of Riga. Ozolinsh hired Denver-based architect Rob Swedberg to design the course and Puce became the club's general manager. Ozo Golf Club opened on May 29,2002, two years after construction began, and hosted its first professional tournament in the summer of 2003, the Hansabank Baltic Open.

Krakow Valley Golf Club - Poland

Krakow Valley is located at the village of Paczoltowice, 45 minutes west of Krakow in the direction of Katowice, in a rural area where farmers with horse­drawn wagons are still the order of the day. Opened in 2004 and developed and owned by Zbigniew Lis, the site was previously a Communist collective farm growing wheat and barley. American golf architect Ron Fream created an open, prairie links-style look, taking advantage of the native grasses and wildflowers. The groves of trees around the perimeter of the course have been protected, with tall beech bordering some holes. Krakow itself offers the contrast of the 500­year-old town center with the Soviet-style architecture of the outer ring. The old barn adjoining the course has been refurbished into the 16-room Hotel Villa Pacoldi with a restaurant and bar.