The Open<\/a>, his most vivid memories of Cam Smith\u2019s charge into the record books on that stunning back-nine four years ago.<\/p>\nGrinberg\u2019s win at the Home of Golf marked the next exciting chapter of a burgeoning career, which he says only ever happened by accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was in Ukraine,\u00a0I was in elementary school in the city,\u201d he tells TG. \u201cMy dad had a little weekend house, that\u2019s where he lived. We usually went there every weekend.\u00a0We had a tradition where we had a very big brunch every Saturday, then we would ride bikes after. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut one day, we took a different route.\u00a0We saw some people hitting golf balls with sticks. We were like, \u2018What is that?\u2019 My dad and I said, \u2018Let\u2019s try it.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Grinberg began hitting balls as a six-year-old at Kozyn Golf & Country Club, a nine-hole layout about 25 kilometers outside Kyiv. His father Illya, once an international badminton player, spotted his son\u2019s talents.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter my first hour of hitting golf balls,\u00a0I loved it so much\u00a0that I kept coming back every Saturday\u00a0for two or three years,\u201d he says. \u201cOnce I started making the progress,\u00a0we were like, \u2018Let\u2019s sign up for a tournament.\u2019 The first tournament I played,\u00a0I actually won.\u00a0Two years after that,\u00a0we realized that I\u2019m actually pretty good\u00a0and I need to try something else.\u00a0That\u2019s why we went to Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grinberg left Ukraine and moved to Belgium aged 11 to train and play in better conditions, before later relocating to France and joining the French Golf Federation. That was a few years before his homeland was invaded by Russia, and at a time when golf did not register in the public consciousness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t even know golf existed in Ukraine,\u201d Grinberg says. \u201cIf you walk around in England or Scotland,\u00a0it\u2019s like,\u00a0\u2018Oh yeah, I\u2019m just playing golf.\u2019 In Ukraine,\u00a0it\u2019s just football and boxing. There\u2019s only two golf courses. There were three,\u00a0but one got bombed in the war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grinberg\u2019s home club is still operational, but Golf Stream, a vast 36-hole facility to the north-west of the city, was decimated when the insurgent Russian military occupied the region in 2022. \u201cI have my grandfather\u00a0still living there,\u201d Grinberg says.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m in contact\u00a0with him every day. \u2018He\u2019s always like,\u00a0\u2018Did you win?\u2019\u00a0It was really nice\u00a0at St Andrews to say that after some time\u00a0that I actually won.\u00a0It\u2019s difficult,\u00a0I mean now it\u2019s much better\u00a0but he\u2019s in a safe place\u00a0and he\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially when the war\u00a0started it was pretty crazy\u00a0to think that\u00a0in [2022] you can still have\u00a0massive wars.\u00a0But I try not to\u00a0think about it a lot. I hate politics\u00a0from the bottom of my heart.\u00a0It\u2019s the worst thing possible.\u00a0The more peace, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Lev](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/lev-grinberg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Golf was forbidden when Ukraine was under Soviet juristiction, viewed as an elitist pastime of the western enemy. It was not until Ukraine gained independence in 1991, and then the Ukraine Golf Federation established six years later, that a semblance of a golfing footprint was formed. There are still fewer than 4,000 golfers in the country, but the game is now being used as an inspiring tool shaping national resilience during the war.<\/p>\n
Kozyn, the place where Grinberg learned his craft, is one of the surviving courses being used as a retreat to help Ukrainian war veterans rebuild their lives. Hundreds of amputees have been given access to the exclusive club free of charge in an invigorating \u2018Unite for Golf\u2019 program supported by the federation. While offering both physical and psychological therapy for war vets, the hope is that the slow-growing pre-war interest in the sport will also be revived.<\/p>\n
One day, Grinberg says he plans to return to Ukraine. But he won\u2019t be playing under the Ukrainian flag at Birkdale. His travel nightmare on his way to Southport comes after a jaunt to Estonia, where Grinberg began his Open prep by representing France in the European Team Championships.<\/p>\n
The switch came when Grinberg recently upped sticks from Antwerp to the outskirts of Paris, a two hour drive from the French Golf Federation\u2019s national performance centre at Le Golf National.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cI was searching\u00a0for opportunities\u00a0to train and get better\u00a0and I know\u00a0three of my best friends\u00a0are French,\u201d he explains.\u00a0\u201cI decided\u00a0to go to the\u00a0I tried to get\u00a0to the academy\u00a0in Paris\u00a0National.\u00a0It\u2019s like an\u00a0Olympic training centre, very\u00a0very golf\u00a0focused\u00a0and\u00a0they were very kind\u00a0to let me in. <\/p>\n
\u201cThen\u00a0they\u00a0they proposed me\u00a0to play \u2013\u00a0I obviously wanted\u00a0to play for France \u2013 and they proposed\u00a0to me. I had to learn\u00a0the language\u00a0to go through\u00a0all the process. It was a long,\u00a0long process\u00a0but it was smooth\u00a0and I feel like\u00a0the support that I\u2019m\u00a0getting from them\u00a0is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grinberg will leave his Parisian academy and head to the University of Arkansas in the fall as he plans a pathway to the PGA Tour. <\/p>\n
\u201cGolf is a very individual sport,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you play football,\u00a0you say,\u00a0\u2018OK, this is not about me,\u00a0it\u2019s about my team\u00a0and I have to connect with them.\u2019 When you\u2019re on the golf course,\u00a0you\u2019re alone\u00a0and you\u2019re there\u00a0with your own head\u00a0and you\u2019ve just got to\u00a0get it going.\u00a0Of course,\u00a0there\u2019s thoughts\u00a0for my friends in Ukraine\u00a0and everything, but I really love\u00a0what the French Federation\u00a0is doing for me. I think their support\u00a0is going to help me a lot\u00a0in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grinberg speaks four languages, including impeccable English, and has grown up idolizing Jon Rahm. He says he is similarly \u201cvery fiery\u201d to the Spaniard and his strength is his iron play. His big dream is to win the Ryder Cup with Europe as well as multiple majors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love shaping\u00a0the ball\u00a0left and right\u00a0and I love\u00a0hitting knockdown shots,\u201d Grinberg says. \u201cIt\u2019s very creative, not just robotic. You have to think no matter what.\u00a0You have to try to calculate the bounce somehow. You have to change your trajectories\u00a0and the ball reacts\u00a0with the way it lands. Everything can happen.\u00a0It\u2019s really fun. I can imagine that it\u2019s going to be\u00a0extremely challenging at Birkdale.\u201d<\/p>\n
Making his DP World Tour debut as a 14-year-old and dominating at the game\u2019s most iconic venue is evidence that the spotlight doesn\u2019t faze Grinberg, even if The Open is on a different scale entirely to anything he has ever experienced before. \u201cI love pressure\u00a0and if you don\u2019t\u00a0feel pressure you\u00a0shouldn\u2019t be\u00a0playing any\u00a0sport,\u201d he says. That\u00a0means you\u00a0don\u2019t care.\u201d <\/p>\n
Grinberg won\u2019t set any targets other than to enjoy himself at Birkdale, though. The thing he is relishing most is the chance to glean insight from the world\u2019s best players on how to prepare during these majors weeks, which he hopes to adopt on his own unique journey.<\/p>\n
A journey, of course, that would have never been had Grinberg taken the familiar route on a breezy summer cycle ride back in Kyiv all those ago.<\/p>\n
He smiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe it\u2019s just meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lev Grinberg will become the first golfer from the Ukraine to play in a major at Royal Birkdale.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-689196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}