L. Bayasgalan is at the moment the First Lady of golf in Mongolia, though later the title might pass to someone who actually swings a golf club. That would be understandable, but before golf comes to Mongolia in 2011, Ms. Bayasgalan — a woman renowned for her botanical skills — will be charged with keeping her nation’s first golf course alive in one of the harshest climates in the world.

She was in San Diego recently to attend the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Education and Golf Industry Show, to see the latest and greatest in growing and maintaining grass. Her education included visits to golf links where she sat in on staff meetings and toured the courses to see how the turf is cared for. A California newspaper published an article on her.

The Sky Resort in Ulaanbaatar will feature the country’s first 18-hole golf course later this year. It will double as a ski resort as the golf season will be no more than six months. Snow-making machines might actually have to be used to insulate the grass before the most severe weather hits. The course is situated on a gentle slope that moves down to a river. .

“I’m interested in a new way of growing these new types of grass,” she said. She planted patches of 20 different grasses in the summer and watched as the snow arrived and buried them. Come late spring, it will be fairly obvious which variety will be most useful on the golf course. “The one that is alive,” she said.

Ms. Bayasgalan, 48, was not seeking a golf job when the developers of the Sky Resort came calling. She was sought because her family is renowned for its vegetable and flower growing practices. From a young age, she learned about botany from her father, who grew plants as a hobby away from his job as a chemical scientist and eventually became one of the country’s leading suppliers of vegetables. She said her curiosity is scientific, not sporting.