Strong Figures Festival held in the Moscow region

The International Festival of Intellectual Sports "Strong Figures" was held in the Moscow Region. The program included golf and chess competitions, as well as a game invented by the organizers – curling golf. The tournament was held for the sixth time in the history of Russian competitions and for the third time this season.

“Golf is evolving. Just 10 years ago, we had only a handful of golf players. Now they’re many more especially since it has become an Olympic sport again, and we have now more fields and more children's schools, but so far, of course, still not enough compared to Europe, the United States, China having tens of thousands of fields. We also have new ones opening all the time in different cities. So, I think, we have something to look forward to. With more fields this sports will be cheaper, and more children will be engaged,” said First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Alexander Zhukov.
Let us remind that golf is popularized annually in Russia. In 2020, the organizers of the competition came up with a new discipline combining elements and rules from golf and curling. The new game was named "curling golf".

“Golf is a very difficult game to watch, the players are wandering around the fields, and the only way to watch golf is through the broadcast of American tournaments. This is impossible in Russia, and in order to interest ordinary people who have never played golf, we have come up with this discipline so that everyone can see it, so that it is interesting, and we attract our famous athletes,“ said Evgeny Kovtun, the festival organizer.

Curling golf is a team sport in which four teams of four players take part. The goal is to hit the ball as close to the hole as possible. As in curling, athletes can knock their own and others' balls, directing them closer or further from the hole. Each participant has two attempts.

In the next seasons, the organizers plan to increase the number of disciplines. From 2022, the festival program will be supplemented with tennis tournaments and sports, in which you can pair a professional and an amateur.