Mercara Downs Golf Club, North Coorg – A Hidden Jewel.

Mercara Downs Golf Club, North Coorg – A Hidden Jewel.

Recently, on the red-letter day of our first wedding anniversary, my wife and I decided to take a quick week-end break by way of a little plantation holiday amidst the sylvan surroundings of Coorg. A very good friend/ schoolmate and now golf-bud of mine, who was at a loose-end that weekend, decided to join us, since of course I had also planned the added pleasure of some hill-country golf, at my home club; Mercara Downs Golf Club, which is located within easy driving distance of where we were staying.
Loading our golf bags and other paraphernalia into our brand new jeep (our anniversary present to ourselves!!), a couple of phone calls to make the necessary arrangements at the club; and there we were, on our way, roaring off in a cloud of turbo-charged dust and gravel! Arriving at our destination a scant four hours later, after an enjoyable drive, we felt that we had sufficiently proven to ourselves, the superb mile-munching abilities of the new Scorp.
Cheerfully steering the dear wife and her golf bag off to the pleasant club-house and consigning her to the tender mercies of the local caddies, for some chipping and putting practice, my friends and I teed off onto the wide, undulating fairways of MDGC.
Mercara Downs Golf Club was established by British Planters in the late 1800’s, making it a very serious contender for the distinction of being amongst the oldest golf courses on the Indian sub-continent. However, most unfortunately, all the original papers and articles of the club have somehow gotten lost or misplaced in the miasmic mists of time.
Located about 6 km from “Madikeri” or “Mercara”, the capital of Kodagu (Coorg) District, amidst 70 or 80 odd acres of swelling, rolling landscape and beautiful scenery, this is one of the lovely natural “parkland” golf courses in India, a living, breathing example of the setting in which the game was played by the home-sick planters of the early years. The course is clearly of “Mother Nature’s Design”, rather like the way The Royal & Ancient is said to be!
The Brits must have felt very much at home in these surroundings; The rolling “downs” are reminiscent of their own “Sussex Downs”, the weather varying from temperate and pleasant to sometimes chilly, clean, fresh air, lush vegetation, the quick build-up of thunderclouds disgorging large drops of rain; all these must have added considerably to their impression, topped off by the pleasant distraction of the pale grey mist rolling down the lush coffee and jungle clad slopes of the hills encircling the area. The club-house itself is relatively new and its position has been picked not for commanding views and imposing presence, but rather, for coziness and warmth, nestling as it does, in a little hollow amidst the undulating landscape.
MDGC is a full sized 18 hole golf course of 5194 yards, offering an interesting as well as testing experience for golfers of differing types and abilities. One of the unique points of this course was its 18 “Browns”, not greens, as we know them, which require to be played with great caution, fine tuning one’s game to meet the challenge. However, in the recent past, nine of these browns have been converted into greens, with the foundations having been laid for five more, which are coming up in the near future. All the “Browns” on this golf course will be converted to greens within the year 2008.
While the purists and others amongst us may jib at these changes and perhaps state in a mealy-mouthed manner that the “purity of the turf” etc is at stake, I for one, (as a golfer, writer and indeed, member of this club), whole-heartedly welcome the positive impact these changes will have!

Of course, all this costs very considerable sums of “Vitamin M”, but that hurdle has been overcome with the excellent efforts of the Captain of the Club, Mr. M.A. Bopanna and the Club Secretary, Mr. K. P. Ranjith, who, along with several of the club’s more active members, have secured a grant from the State Tourism Ministry, to develop and maintain the course, for the promotion of Tourism.
The fairways of MDGC are of the coarse local stubby grass which is “maintained” in a sense by some local four legged’s munching away at it, thereby causing little tufty outcrops to form all over the course. The earlier cattle nuisance has largely been contained now, so the grass is getting a chance to grow and renew itself.
The new greens have been carefully crafted using the special grasses generously donated by the KGA and imported from Bangalore. Since the greens are newly constructed, they require some little time to establish themselves and I am sure that they will “clutch and hold” the ball once they settle down a bit.
It is incidental that some of the greens have a distinct “Army Golf Course” feel to them, rising in a slight slope off the fairways, with small-ish aprons and deep-bunded collars falling away on the far side. When we visited, it was the time of the first few cuts, but given the kind of effort the green keepers there are putting in, I may safely say that this course will truly be a pleasure to play after the impending monsoons!
Of particular importance is the mammoth task of irrigating the fairways, which the club has already embarked upon - laying gravity tank fed pipelines with sprinklers mounted at regular intervals, to ensure that the quality of year- round growth remains unhindered by lack of rainfall.
MDGC does not abound in the thick golfing roughs, lurking buffalo grass, gorse bushes, thorns, inconveniently placed bushes, water bodies, trees whose branches almost reach out to grab the ball and all the other wicked hazards that we amateur golfers are exceedingly familiar with, but don’t let this lull you into a false sense of security because, believe me, if one were to be guilty of a mis-hit, one would most certainly have to pay a heavy price by way of strokes, since the ball rolls a great deal on the Downs, covering a good distance in a surprisingly short space of time!
There are some interesting local rules here (which were probably more attuned to play on the “browns”) but one assumes that these rules will undergo a series of amendments and modifications, since they have to adapt to the changing nature of the course itself, with the advent of the “greens”.
However, since at MDGC they do encounter some amount of damage and interference from some of the more recalcitrant members of the animal kingdom, notably Wild Boars and Pigs, I am reasonably sure that local rule (b) at least will remain; i.e.; one gets a free pick through the green if the ball lies within fresh pig diggings/ cow dung and footpaths/tracks only in the fairway!
Almost all of the holes on this course are of open aspect with wide sweeping vistas of fairway which fill the eye, coupled with some superb views of the collar of lush green hills surrounding the course. My own particular favourite though, is the 7th, which is the real “Signature Hole” at Mercara Downs and which is indeed, somewhat reminiscent of the 7th hole at the Ooty Gymkhana Club.
Walking downhill from the 6th green, one is awe-struck by the sheer beauty of this hole. Step onto the 7th tee and unfolding before one, is a sharp 45 degree drop, with a water body below, around 100 yards away, with the ground sloping very steeply above and behind the tank towards the green located 180 yards away. Normally met with a well struck 4 iron, rescue or in some cases a 5 wood, in case of a miss, one may as well concede the hole. This is because a water trap lies lurking there to swallow the ball, or the lovely lush expanse of thick jungle on either side of the narrow fairway, will put paid completely, to any chances of recovery, however slender, that one may have! And I am sure that if one were to mis-hit here, regardless how much of a nature lover one may be, all thoughts of admiration for the jungle will swiftly turn to deep dislike and one will shuffle along thinking somewhat unkind thoughts of it!
Another interesting thing is that both the front nine and the back nine end with Par 3 Holes, the ninth being about 129 yards long and the 18th about 149 yards long. This is a little experience that I haven’t personally come across before.
The day we played, we were forced, rather reluctantly, to choke off play after the 14th, because the rain was threatening to come down in buckets! More than the rain, with the entire area being of open aspect, with relatively few tall trees, there is a possibility of being struck by lightning, if playing in the midst of a thunder storm, since there are few other targets for lightning to hit.
Now while along with my friends, even I may subscribe to the belief that “even God can’t hit a One Iron”, we still preferred prudence, exercising discretion over valour and made for the clubhouse and a welcome cup of tea! (The haste also occasioned perhaps, because none of us actually had a “One Iron” in our bags!)
Mercara Downs Golf Club welcomes golfing visitors all year round and indeed, the guests at the nearby Club Mahindra Resort in Madikeri, will find it a breeze to visit the club and enjoy a round there. It would be sensible though, to make arrangements with the Secretary, reasonably in advance, for caddies and other accoutrements, or at least inform the club through the hotel/ resort management where one has booked to stay.
Probably the best time to play this course would be in the post monsoon season when the heavy rains have come and gone, but as mentioned earlier, with all the arrangements being made there and all the huge efforts going in to improve the facilities and services, I am very sure that this “Hidden Jewel” of a club will soon be on the map as a great year-round golfing destination, located within a Good Drive, (Pun most certainly intended!) of towns like Mysore and Bangalore!