Water's Edge Golf Club- Sri Lanka

Water’s Edge Golf Club, Colombo – Sri Lanka-Sep 18th 2007.
Arriving recently in Sri Lanka after a long and tiring overnight flight, at the tail-end of an exceedingly well spent holiday, I was more than pleased, despite the lack of real rest, to get a chance to play a round with some friends at “Water’s Edge Golf Club”.
Again, as seemed to be fast becoming a habit with me, strategically steering the dear wife off to the tender mercies of some Retail Therapy at Odel, Noritake and Crescat Boulevard, I vanished in a cloud of dust and small pebbles to beat the ball off the tee at Water’s Edge!
This being the last leg of our holiday and faced with the immediate and not-so-welcome prospect of going back to work from the very next day onwards (somewhat the same feeling as at the end of the school holidays), I was very keen to make the most of our last day and play and enjoy this course. Additionally, the last time I had visited Sri Lanka, only 11 of its 18 holes were open for play and it is only in April this year (2007) that all 18 holes were readied.
Located in the Capital City of Sri Jayawardenepura, a mere 20 minutes drive from the Colombo city centre, this is a massive MICE resort facility set in about 200 odd acres of lush green landscape and targeted at Corporates, Institutions and the Wedding business.
The Emerald Green Island of Sri Lanka numbers just Four Golf Courses amongst its varied attractions, two of these being in Colombo proper; the traditional and classy Royal Colombo Golf Club and Water’s Edge with the other two being Victoria in Kandy and Nuwara Eliya in the Hill country respectively. However, each of these four courses embodies considerable differences in character and “feel”.
Adjoining the luxurious club house and spa etc at Water’s Edge is an 18 hole, par 72, 6500 odd yard golf course. Apparently this entire area was a lowland swamp in the not too distant past and this fact can readily be believed if one were to consider the extensive water bodies all over the course.
My friend Jehan had very kindly arranged with his Brother Senaka and two other friends, Raju Chandiram and Chanaka (fondly known as Casper the Friendly Ghost), to take me around Water’s edge. The round was great fun, though pretty chaotic for all of us in the foursome comprising the three Merry Islanders and myself.
Playing off the black markers, the first hole is an interesting Par 4 360 yard devil, with a water body ahead and another long strip of water between the fairway and the green, where the ideal play would be to lay up and smoothly cross the strip to get on the green for a decent score.
Senaka having kindly purloined a beautiful set of his father’s clubs (a complete set of forgiving Taylor made R7 Irons, an dreamboat of an Odyssey 2 Ball Putter, a couple of Oil Can finish Cleveland Wedges, a Ping Rapture Rescue, a Regular Flex Ping G 2 Driver with the additional choice of a wicked Nike SQ monster, I was completely spoiled for choice and it certainly would be very bad form to blame my scores on the tools given to me!)
I observed here that after holing out, it was a bit of a walk to the next tee, which went on to a longing 376 yard par 4 where the urge was to pull out the Big Dog, to complete, un-utterable, indubitable destruction!
The fourth hole of Water’s Edge is a lively Par 3 of some 214 yards – with the Wind in evidence that afternoon, some of us hauled off and trashed the ball with the Three wood but electing to play carefully, I preferred a four Iron, but only for a bogey unfortunately.
All sorts of dangers abounded on this course, not the least of which were the bulrushes abutting almost all the fairways – fuelled and fed by the abundance of water, these serve as superbly laid lurking traps for the wayward balls which most of us are guilty of clobbering.
Meandering along laughing, joking and generally having ourselves an afternoon of fun, I don’t think any of the four of us would willingly confess to the scores we racked up on our cards. Even our caddies were surreptitiously sworn to silence lest they unwittingly let the cats out of the bags!


There is really no signature hole as such on this course – it having been entirely designed by the firm of architects who were instrumental in building the main resort itself, but having said that, with the exception of the excessive criss-cross which could prove a bit of a walk, the course itself is scenically very beautiful and a near perfect setting for a leisurely round where time means nothing.
Moving up to the 8th hole, another Par 3 of 142 yards, we found ourselves faced with the usual water and rushes but didn’t do too badly with Bogey, considering…
The front nine ends quite close to the clubhouse, with a bit of a walk up from there to the actual terrace, where we sat for a while, sipping a soft drink and giving our caddies a drink too.
Then it was on to the second half of the course, wherein the 10th hole lies completely in a different direction and the whole back nine bears a completely different aspect to the front. For all of us it was completely unknown territory, since as mentioned before only 11 holes were first opened and the remaining 7 were opened for play only in April 2007. Consequently, all of us were playing that bit for the first time and making if I may say so, pretty much the same wrong judgements of club and distance.
The feel of the round was more like a familiarization exercise than anything else – however, this fact was more than compensated for, by the lovely setting in which we were.
Notable on the back nine is the 15th hole, a long and difficult par 5 which Senaka and Chanaka, made par on, the rest of us having fallen prey to the various hazards that infest that area.
Indeed, at one point Raju, even informed me sotto voce that a well known reptile research scientist had even released a few baby crocodiles into the water bodies on this course and this was done some time ago. Therefore, it may well be that one of our average wayward shots, might have been found if at all, reposing in the giant maw of a fully grown Saurian! (We didn’t however; see any such denizens and I can tell you quite categorically that this knowledge served to cure completely any urge that one might have had, to chase after mis-hit golf balls!)
By way of compensation for our lost balls and generally guffy golf was the lovely sight and photo op, of a pair of beautiful “Blue Coot”, water fowl, which were flapping about in one of the Water bodies along the Fairway. Apparently Water’s Edge is home to several varied species of birdlife, which will delight the nature and wildlife enthusiast. I’ve never seen this particular species before and they are really very pretty I may tell you.
The mantle of darkness was coming upon us as we were going over to the 17th which is a 193 yard Par 3, ideally met with a Three Wood if one is an accurate hitter or with a Number four if one wishes to control the ball better. At least this wasn’t a complete botch up!
The 18th and final hole is another long Par 4 of 441 yards – tough, because one has to again carry some water on one’s second shot, though the fairway is wide enough for a Driver off the Tee. With the fast failing light and the 18th green being lit up by the reflected lights of the clubhouse garden lamps, we finished a rather long round of over four and a half hours.
Meeting Mr. Billimoria, the amiable Pro, at the clubhouse, we were told a few home truths about this course – it would certainly not seem so daunting if one were to play percentage golf, carefully using one’s irons off the tees rather than horsing around with the Big Drivers etc. In hind sight (as with most other things in life), I realize that if one were to play humble as it were, one would be able to play to one’s handicap or even better it because though long and winding, the course per se is not really a monster!
Having said all this, I still do believe that it would be difficult to stage a tournament here, like for example the Sri Lankan Airlines Golf Classic, which has over 200 golfers on shotgun start on the course at any given time, because of the huge amount of criss-crossing that one has to contend with.
However, it would still prove to be an interesting and worthwhile challenge if they were to at least stage one of the practice rounds here, to show all those International Wolves that a healthy respect for Water bodies and the bulrushes at the Water’s Edge (Pun Intended), is absolutely necessary, for low scores!