From War-Torn Ukraine to the U.S.: Charting Golod’s Remarkable Golf Journey

All 264 players in the 77th U.S. Junior Amateur Championship have taken a different path to Trinity Forest Golf Club. None can match the journey that Mykhailo (Misha) Golod has followed to north Texas.

From a tearful exit out of war-torn Ukraine, to his relocation in central Florida and eventually a college scholarship to the University of North Carolina, Golod has packed more into the last 3½ years than most will in a lifetime.

“Very fortunate to have been able to leave the country and come to the U.S. on a tourist visa,” said Golod, who turns 19 in September. “A lot of people back home [in Ukraine] are not as fortunate.”

For nearly three weeks in 2022, Golod wasn’t sure if he’d ever swing a golf club again. He had just returned from a February tournament in Turkey when Russian troops invaded the sovereign nation that once belonged to the former Soviet Union. Everything in the country immediately shut down. Golf Stream Kyiv Golf Club, a sprawling 36-hole facility not far from his residence in the country’s capital city, was quickly occupied by Russian troops. The clubhouse was later destroyed by Ukraine forces and what was once a lush haven became a mine field. Only remnants of the layout remain.

Golod and his parents hunkered down as the bombs went off in the distance. For 2½ weeks, a scared Golod slept in the basement and stayed away from windows. School was canceled.What he knows now but didn’t at the time was the total destruction of Bucha, a town just 10 minutes from his home, where more than 400 were killed.

President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law, meaning any males 18 or over could not flee the country.

To this day, everything during that brief moment remains a blur to Golod. Thank goodness he had electricity and available WiFi. Golod escaped the horrors of the outside world by watching the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational from Bay Hill on his computer. When golf wasn’t live during the week, he viewed old golf telecasts via YouTube.

Anything to get his mind off the war.

Then an article was published in Golf Digest on March 3, detailing Golod’s tepid situation. It touched the soul of many, including Jim Nugent, an American Junior Golf Association board member who used his golf contacts to help facilitate Golod’s exit from Ukraine.

Noted Florida-based instructor David Leadbetter agreed to enroll Golod into his Orlando golf academy at the Reunion Golf Resort free of charge. A GoFundMe page also was set up. Through emails and WhatsApp, contact was made with the then-15-year-old. Because Golod had made numerous visits to the United States to play tournaments and attend golf camps – he had just been in the country a month prior to the Russian invasion – the teen already had a tourist visa good through 2027, alleviating a lot of the bureaucratic paperwork.

A year earlier, Golod had become the first Ukrainian to compete in a USGA championship as he qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur via his position in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®. That year’s championship at The Country Club of North Carolina, in Pinehurst, N.C., was the first to expand from 156 to 264 competitors, and thus more WAGR exemptions were added by the USGA. Golod shot 78-82 and missed qualifying for match play.

Golod had some international experience representing his country’s fledgling national team started by 33-year-old Ruslan Garkavenko in 2019. Garavenko, a four-time national champion who played sparingly on European professional satellite circuits, quickly turned the program into one of the best in eastern Europe, although not on par with more established associations in the West.

“I didn’t understand [at the time] that there was a different level of golf,” said Golod. “It was an eye-opening experience of how good these guys are.”

Before Golod set foot in Orlando, Leadbetter set up housing with his personal assistant and paved the way for him to attend Windermere Prep.

Golod’s father, Oleg, who owns two successful financial businesses (one remains), drove his wife, Vita, and Misha to the Ukraine-Hungary border. Because he couldn’t cross into Hungary, Oleg left the family vehicle to his wife and son and took a taxi from a nearby hotel back to Kyiv.

It was a highly tearful departure. Oleg had no idea if he would ever see his son again.

“That was the worst experience of his entire life,” said Misha, who has not physically seen his father since 2022 but regularly stays in contact through phone calls. “He couldn’t stop crying and I had never seen my dad cry. He cried for days. He left his son and wife at the border and he doesn’t know what to do.

“I know who David Leadbetter is, but he doesn’t. Where is he sending me?”

Misha and Vita completed the 10-hour drive to Budapest, caught a flight to London and then Orlando, where Leadbetter greeted them.

“A lot of people helped him [get here],” said Leadbetter. “It wasn’t just me. We got him enrolled in the academy. He was [already] a good player but still needed a lot of work…As Lee Trevino used to say, he was a walking 1-iron.”

Already fluent in English from his education at an international school in Kyiv, Golod did not take long to assimilate to American culture. This wasn’t the first time he had come to the U.S. due to war back home. In 2016, the Ukrainian Revolution forced Misha, his mother and older sister, Vitalina, to flee to New York City. Misha spent his fourth-grade year in an American school, while his sister, five years his senior, attended an area high school.

A competitive tennis player, Vitalina eventually played for Division I Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., and the now-23-year-old works in New York. Misha said her situation was worse because she lived through the Russian invasion from afar and if someone didn’t pick up the phone on the first or second ring, she would fear the worst.

Once in Orlando, Golod initially had to rise in the wee hours of the morning to finish classes online back home in Ukraine. By the fall, he was officially a junior at his new American school. Over the next 2½ years, his game and body matured. Golod added muscle to his thin frame and now fills out at 6 feet, 2 inches and 170 pounds. In the fall of 2022, he won three tournaments, including the 14-15 division of the Notah Begay National Junior Golf Championship in Louisiana and the Sunshine State Amateur. He’d win the 16-18 division of the Begay event a year later.

Working with academy instructors David Louys Maroney and later Zach Parker, Golod’s game continued to evolve. Colleges started taking notice. Golod cut his list to North Carolina, Virginia and Vanderbilt, all strong academic institutions with top-tier golf programs.

Not long after falling in love with Chapel Hill and committing to UNC, the school reached out to Vita to be a visiting professor. Vita has a Ph.D in economics but also is fluent in Chinese after spending a year in Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) when she was 19. This past spring, she taught a class in Chinese politics with a focus on how the country has affected the Russia-Ukraine War. Vita’s presence on campus made Misha’s transition to college a bit easier. But once she gets her visa situation straightened out, she’ll return to Ukraine this fall.

Misha, meanwhile, has applied to the UNC business school, although his ultimate goal is to play either on the PGA Tour or DP World Tour.

Despite playing in just four tournaments (11 rounds) this past college season, Golod was not discouraged. He was practicing and competing every day with the likes of David Ford and twin brother, Max. David, a member of the victorious 2023 USA Walker Cup Team, won the 2024-25 Haskins Award as the country’s top player.

“The big thing about his game is he’s a meticulous thinker,” said Leadbetter. “He’s a strategist. He doesn’t leave any stone unturned. He’s a very serious young man.”

Even as he approaches his sophomore campaign, Golod is not completely focused on being in the starting lineup.

“I always wanted to be in an environment where I am constantly challenged,” he said. “That first year was just that. I stopped caring about the lineup. If I keep learning from these guys and eventually if I keep getting better, I will be in the lineup no matter what.

“There’s no reason to force. My ultimate goals are so much above that.”

Golod’s summer of 2025 has been solid. He qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur via a 7-for-3 playoff at the Quixote Club, in Sumter, S.C., then finished second in the North Carolina Amateur, falling two strokes shy of winner Jackson Spires and an automatic berth in the U.S. Amateur. Prior to the U.S. Junior, he’ll travel to The Blessings in Arkansas for the Southern Amateur and then conclude his junior career at Trinity Forest.

“I’m still the same person but also not the same person,” he said. “Everything that has happened between the years. I’m seeing golf through a different lens. Qualifying for a U.S. Junior is a good achievement. But if my goals are higher … I’m looking at something so much bigger. If I really want to make it in the sport, I have to play at an amazing level and compete for [titles] in tournaments like [the U.S. Junior].

“This is such an amazing opportunity. While I am one of the oldest in the field and it’s my last junior tournament, it’s another golf tournament against some really good players. Unbelievable players. The USGA runs the best tournaments in the world. So, for my last junior event of my life, it’s a good sendoff.”

Indeed. Golod has endured a year of college golf and school, where he posted a 3.9 grade-point average. Raleigh-based instructor Ted Kiegiel has helped reshape his swing, and a UNC-based sports psychologist has worked on improving his mental game.

For Misha Golod, life in America is good.

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.