Golf in the Blue Mountains – Ooty Gymkhana Club.
On the weekend of my birthday (I won’t tell you which one though!), I decided on the spur of the moment to show my wife the truly lovely sights and landscape of the Nilgiri Hills where I had spent all of my schooldays and indeed, much of my childhood and early youth, since my dad was a planter in the district. (After all, what’s better than to spend one’s birthday, marking the passing of yet another year, while at the same time, renewing association with the surroundings one loves most in the world, with the added bonus and pleasure of some golf thrown in!)
Therefore, on 8th March, we loaded up our assorted paraphernalia and our golf bags, hopped into the jeep and drove the 290 odd km up the hills from Bangalore. Using the steeper but considerably shorter approach via Masinagudi and the Sigur Ghats; some 5 and a quarter hours later we were pulling up in front of the Ooty Gym Club-house.
Founded in 1896 by British Planters and situated about 7000 odd feet above sea level, the Ross Thompson designed, Par 72, 6700 yard, Ootacamund Gymkhana Club (Ooty Gym) Golf Course is a veritable treat for the Golf Enthusiast. Practically everything in the main club-house, save the modern-ish bar, is redolent with history, steeped in heritage and evocative of the expansive comforts of days gone by.
Meeting and fixing up the afternoon round with Ashok Kumar, the obliging local pro/ course superintendent was short work. Since the dear wife has also taken up the game seriously, we assigned her a caddie/ coach and sent her along to get in some practice at the 17th which doubles as a driving range at OGC. Giving my bag to Ilyas, my elderly caddie and enjoying the fresh, clean, crisp, eucalyptus scent-laden air, I toddled along to the first tee, located on the hill above left in front of the club house.
Tee-ing off on this longish par 5 (583 yds), one typically has to place the ball to the right in the direction and line of the clubhouse, so as to make maximum use of the undulations of the course and find one’s self in good position to get on the smallish green which is located deep down in a natural hollow. If you’re a wolf, you are welcome to smack the driver on this, so as to be sure of distance. I chose to play my rescue which landed me fair and square, positioned well for the second. It is certainly better, in my opinion, to be humble.
The second is a relatively peaceful Par 3 of 223 yards, requiring you to place a little to the right with a 4 or 5 iron, so as to take advantage of the natural rolling landscape.
This golf course is carved from the natural rolling landscape, much of it similar to the original landscape of the Nilgiris, largely undulating grass and scrubland, with clumps of bushy trees, tree shrubs like Rhododendrons in part, loads of gorse and brambles (imported and introduced no doubt, by some home-sick Scotsman in the dim, distant past), and guarded by stands of Eucalyptus trees, those tall, timeless sentinels, watching and waiting to see some hapless soul hunting for his lost ball!
The fairways are neither manicured nor carefully tended like the newer, city-slicker type golf courses that one sees these days. Indeed, while the course is irrigated with a system of ingenious gravity tanks and pipelines laid by the British, there are no other real modern aids (except a recently acquired TORO Green trimming machine!). In fact, the fairways are pretty much kept in mown condition by the stray cattle, sheep, horses and other livestock that somehow, despite all precautions AND perimeter fencing, find their way onto the course. However, if you are fond of the game of golf, are a bit of a traditionalist at heart and maybe want to experience the game the way those original Scottish shepherds must have played it, then, this is a pretty good approximation!
Having said all this, it would be very remiss of me if I didn’t appreciate the quality of green keeping at OGC. No matter what the time of day, the greens were well moistened, nice and soft, almost reaching out at times to clutch and hold the ball! The putting lines held true, with a bit of a twist occasionally, but then, that is an occupational hazard in golf!
The 5th hole is worth talking about because it really tries your soul, with its awesome 500 yards going steeply uphill at first, with lots and lots of wicked gorse and bramble bushes lying in wait quietly to swallow your ball, possibly smiling to themselves, in anticipation of your frustration! Coming down and located right-ish is the green, guarded by a flattish, rough-ish bunker.
Clamber up to the 7th Tee at OGC which overlooks a deep valley, with a multitude of gorse bushes scattered all over. Once you have regained your breath and your heart has stopped thumping with the exertion and when your eyes have stopped bubbling and regained their focus, you will be greeted by a sweeping vista ahead with the green about 200 yards distant, guarded by a steep-ish rise to the right side, a bunker to the front right and a wicked drop to the left.
This is the real signature hole of the Ooty Gymkhana Club, according to my estimation. I can compare it in some measure to particular holes on two other golf courses I have played, the 7th hole at the Mercara Downs Golf Club in Coorg and the 4th hole at Victoria Golf Club, Kandy, in Sri Lanka.
It is as well to take a little break at the ninth, where one can arrange before-hand with the club dining room staff for a light snack of tea and some of the most wonderful scrambled egg sandwiches I have ever eaten. A sense of déjà vu for me, certainly, coming back home to Ooty again. First class Colonial style or in local terms, “Dorai” style at its best, with a uniformed bearer in attendance, catering to your every whim! This level of service with this peculiar Colonial flavour can be seen only in a few “hill” golf clubs in my experience – OGC, Wellington Gymkhana Club, High Range Club, Kundale Club in South India and Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka. (Please don’t forget to order some tea and biscuits for your poor caddie though, since it is certainly not an easy task lugging all your equipment and golf bag up and down).
Take a few minutes here to enjoy the crisp air around you and the fact that even food and drink actually taste so much better. This is a land that time has thankfully forgotten and if one seizes the moment to commune with one’s self, one would do very well to leave one’s cell phone and PDA and the other rubbishy, nonsensical trappings of so-called “civilized city life” behind.
Since this place is in the lap of nature and relatively less populated (and may it stay that way!!), one is quite likely of a morning on the course, to come across some wild boar damage or porcupine damage on the fairways, which they dig up to uncover some juicy morsel. It is equally likely that you will hear the peculiar wailing crowing cry of a wild fowl or “jungle fowl” as also catch a flash of its brilliant plumage when you walk along.
Going over to the back nine, one will find that it is relatively flatter, with wider fairways and relatively easier approaches to the greens, provided of course, that one plays to place the ball well – local knowledge certainly helps and one would be very well advised not to argue club selection with one’s caddie unless one wants to experience the vicious thorns of the abundant gorse bushes at first hand!
Worth mentioning on this is the lovely Par 3, 212 yard 11th hole, which is pretty well met with either a rescue or a 4 iron, placed slightly to the left of the green so as to allow it to trickle down to the green for birdie or at the very least, par.
On the 15th, (Par 4, 308 yds) one shoots a three wood off a far-away and down-below tee, avoiding a stand of tall eucalyptus interspersed with gorse, to come onto the steep uphill fairway, leaving one with only a well hit Pitching Wedge to the green. Once you crest the rise one is welcomed by the glorious sight of the ball sitting pretty on the green!
The 16th (Par 5, 576 yds) is simply brilliant, shooting the driver onto the right-sloped fairway, smashing the second with either a three wood or even a rescue a little left-ish so that the ball rolls down to the right and onto the semi-sunken green. Careful though, if you fall short of this green on the left side and are chipping on to it, because there is a wicked bunker behind!
The 17th (Par 4, 328 yds) is probably the only green which has some interesting upward undulations – if one is below, with the pin placement in the centre, it does become a bit of a poser but if you putt decisively and firmly you should be home for par.
The 18th (Par4, 370 yds) homeward is a nice semi- blind shot with a driver. Placing one’s self to the right side would be better because the slope is to the left and the ball does tend to kick and roll a great deal. However, there are not many other dangers on this hole (as if in compensation for the trials and tribulations that one has already faced if one has played the entire course), and one should be quite comfortably on the green in two, putting for birdie!
I will leave a cautionary statement here, for the typical cigar or cigarette-puffing, whisky-swilling, out-of-condition city-slicker type. Let me tell you quite plainly that the front nine at the OGC will leave you huffing and puffing, rather short of breath as you reach the ball, leaving you to negotiate very hard with your mind and body and requesting, nay, begging them to do your bidding! It will take you all your time to get your jelly like limbs, trembling knees and runaway legs under control and then try and address the ball, prior to taking your next shot!
If one is on the wrong side of 35 and normally leads a sedentary, desk-bound life, with little exercise, it is worth investing a little time in getting fit, acclimatizing one’s self to the slightly thinner air there and then embarking on a round of golf at Ooty Gym! This is quite decidedly NOT a course for the unfit, the faint hearted or the lazy amongst us.
However, all things said and done, considering the very reasonable access and comfortable driving distance from Bangalore, this land that nature has blessed with such beauty, is well worth the effort of visiting, if only for the golf experience alone! I loved it and so I am sure, will you!
Showing posts with label Sport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sport. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Finchley Golf Club, London Sep 3rd 07
Finchley Golf Club – Suburban Heaven.
The chill, bright morning of 3rd September dawned, the third day of our Honeymoon Holiday in the UK.
Donning my kit, I bid a hasty though fond farewell to my dear wife. (Choosing a round of Golf over the dubious prospect of half a day’s meandering around mouldy museums, was for me a foregone conclusion.) Leaping jauntily into the Tube, I meandered from Paddington to Finchley Central, in the North West of London, to meet David Brown, the estimable and amiable Pro at Finchley Golf Club.
Arriving at 730 am, after about an hour’s silent subterranean communion with my fellow commuters (I now know how a mole or a miner probably feels!), I found rather to my chagrin that there were no obliging local cabbies around to take me to Frith Lane, the lovely wooded parkland area in which the club is located. David was most kind when I called him and very obligingly drove over to pick me up.
Kitting me out with a nice set of Ping Eye 2 Irons, a G2 Driver and a Course Planner booklet was the work of a moment and we turned to the next job of finding me a partner. Luckily Sydney Levy, one of the members drove up just then and I was able to join him and the members of his regular company to make up the fourth.
We decided to play partners with the stakes for the round being a Golf Ball each to the winning twosome. Tossing our Golf Balls, it panned out that Sydney Levy and Leon Smith would be partners and that I would partner Derick Petter. It was rather enjoyable to be a part of the easy camaraderie of these three gentlemen of middle years, all of whom are sportsmen in the best traditions of the game of golf! Walking down to the first tee, I was seized with the familiar addictive feeling of playing hooky from school, on a Monday morning, running off as it were, to play Golf!
Located in Frith lane since 1930, Finchley is a challenging par 72 course, designed by the great James Braid and laid out over some 6000 odd yards in beautiful, rolling landscape once belonging to a Victorian stately home, now converted into Finchley’s well appointed clubhouse. It is a picturesque course and being bounded by great trees and numerous shrubs, quite easily gives one the illusion of being deep in the countryside whilst actually being located in the middle of a great city.
The beauties of Nature bathed in the morning sun were apparent all around us and adding to our enjoyment was that ever-so-slight nip in the air – crystal clear atmosphere, birds chirping, the fragrance of freshly mown grass and all the other intangibles that go to make up a truly wonderful morning golf experience.
The first hole is an interesting Par 4 of 282 yards – a pretty straight approach with no lurking dangers so we had a net five, losing to our opponents.
I hadn’t frankly had time to refer to the course planner and was quite literally flying blind as it were, but I am of the firm belief that those of us who play golf for the camaraderie, fun and exercise enjoy ourselves much better when we judge the lie of the land for ourselves, without relying on the more modern aids. Of course, it is not so often that one gets a “second chance” as it were and this fact is nowhere more evident than on the golf course where one must try and make each shot count, but having said that, I enjoyed myself so much on the course, that the scores didn’t really matter very much!
The 126 yard par 3 third hole is a sheer joy to play, thramming the ball with a Pitching Wedge to land on the edge of the green for a chip, a putt and a par. Very satisfying indeed!
The beauties of James Braid’s design became more and more apparent when we saw that not one fairway criss-crossed with any other, the whole course being laid out in a clear forward progression with each tee and fairway being set away from the previous one.
I must pause here to compliment the quality of maintenance of the fairways and greens. Having played most of my golf in India, it genuinely was a pleasure to play through the “roughs” at Finchley whenever it was occasioned by a mis-hit, because apart from the lurking dangers of some few Gorse bushes here and there, the roughs are certainly so much more civilized than the ones I am used to!
Worthy of mention is the quality of the green-keeping – while the pin positions were quite straightforward, the greens are very lively indeed, with all sorts of hidden dangers from sudden slopes, different breaks and extremely slick surfaces!
The 7th hole, a pretty testing Par 3, 198 yard hole, was well tried with a 4 Iron for accuracy and coming down in four, I didn’t feel too bad, because I was pleased with the way I had judged the tee shot and then approach wedged the second onto the green.
Finishing the front nine are the longest hole, the par 5, 505 yard, 8th where I am pleased to have had a bogey and an equally daunting 470 yard par 5, 9th where we went down for par!
Moving on to the back nine, I must mention the 12th Hole in particular, as this is considered to be the real signature hole of the Finchley Course. A wicked 152 yard Par 3, with terrifying Pines and Conifers bounding the right side of your approach will surely cause any but the toughest minds to quail!
However, the terror of this hole is amply compensated when you walk up to the steeply sloping green and behold the imposing view of the Club house behind it! My partner Derick and I made a 4 on this, which we promptly forgave ourselves for!
I had been warned that the fairways were narrow and one might get a bit tangled up in the tall trees which abounded, but to my mind, the fairways seemed much wider than those at our Bangalore Golf Club!
Throughout the round, my three playing partners kept each other and me regaled with much good natured ribbing. I was witness, at regular intervals to their strange battle cry of “hot cheese” whenever one of their esteemed number landed in one of the numerous bunkers around!
The 122 yard Par 3 15th hole is also a joy to play off with an 8 iron to get one sufficient distance coupled with the necessary loft.
The course has its ups and downs, with rolling fairways and some decent climbs, but all in all, it is a relatively “user friendly” course, which doesn’t tax one too much in the physical sense.
Of course those of us who play regularly in India and Asia, need to get used to the fact that there are no caddies and so on, but truth be told, pulling one’s own trolley along, judging one’s own distances, choosing one’s own clubs and figuring out one’s own putting line are very good things, since one learns immense self reliance and at the same time, begins to appreciate the little things which one takes for granted here at home in India!
Finishing the 17th, another Par 5 of 442 yards in 6, we meandered along to the 18th and final hole of the day, a deceptive Par 4 of 412 yards. You are required to place your shot well to the left, in order to guarantee reasonable success being on the clubhouse green in two. While the green is a decent sized one it is not always true that “the bigger the target the easier it is to hit”, as I found out to my cost. Going down in 5 we bogeyed our last hole that day to lose a Golf Ball each to our opponents!
In the best spirits of sportsmanship the four of us repaired to the 19th and had ourselves a couple of tall glasses of tissue restorative tonic each prior to exchanging email id’s and parting ways. A fitting finale indeed, to a good round of golf and for me a highly enjoyable experience!
I will wholeheartedly endorse Finchley’s claim to being one of the friendliest clubs in North London – they certainly are very welcoming and make a visitor feel completely at home there!
The chill, bright morning of 3rd September dawned, the third day of our Honeymoon Holiday in the UK.
Donning my kit, I bid a hasty though fond farewell to my dear wife. (Choosing a round of Golf over the dubious prospect of half a day’s meandering around mouldy museums, was for me a foregone conclusion.) Leaping jauntily into the Tube, I meandered from Paddington to Finchley Central, in the North West of London, to meet David Brown, the estimable and amiable Pro at Finchley Golf Club.
Arriving at 730 am, after about an hour’s silent subterranean communion with my fellow commuters (I now know how a mole or a miner probably feels!), I found rather to my chagrin that there were no obliging local cabbies around to take me to Frith Lane, the lovely wooded parkland area in which the club is located. David was most kind when I called him and very obligingly drove over to pick me up.
Kitting me out with a nice set of Ping Eye 2 Irons, a G2 Driver and a Course Planner booklet was the work of a moment and we turned to the next job of finding me a partner. Luckily Sydney Levy, one of the members drove up just then and I was able to join him and the members of his regular company to make up the fourth.
We decided to play partners with the stakes for the round being a Golf Ball each to the winning twosome. Tossing our Golf Balls, it panned out that Sydney Levy and Leon Smith would be partners and that I would partner Derick Petter. It was rather enjoyable to be a part of the easy camaraderie of these three gentlemen of middle years, all of whom are sportsmen in the best traditions of the game of golf! Walking down to the first tee, I was seized with the familiar addictive feeling of playing hooky from school, on a Monday morning, running off as it were, to play Golf!
Located in Frith lane since 1930, Finchley is a challenging par 72 course, designed by the great James Braid and laid out over some 6000 odd yards in beautiful, rolling landscape once belonging to a Victorian stately home, now converted into Finchley’s well appointed clubhouse. It is a picturesque course and being bounded by great trees and numerous shrubs, quite easily gives one the illusion of being deep in the countryside whilst actually being located in the middle of a great city.
The beauties of Nature bathed in the morning sun were apparent all around us and adding to our enjoyment was that ever-so-slight nip in the air – crystal clear atmosphere, birds chirping, the fragrance of freshly mown grass and all the other intangibles that go to make up a truly wonderful morning golf experience.
The first hole is an interesting Par 4 of 282 yards – a pretty straight approach with no lurking dangers so we had a net five, losing to our opponents.
I hadn’t frankly had time to refer to the course planner and was quite literally flying blind as it were, but I am of the firm belief that those of us who play golf for the camaraderie, fun and exercise enjoy ourselves much better when we judge the lie of the land for ourselves, without relying on the more modern aids. Of course, it is not so often that one gets a “second chance” as it were and this fact is nowhere more evident than on the golf course where one must try and make each shot count, but having said that, I enjoyed myself so much on the course, that the scores didn’t really matter very much!
The 126 yard par 3 third hole is a sheer joy to play, thramming the ball with a Pitching Wedge to land on the edge of the green for a chip, a putt and a par. Very satisfying indeed!
The beauties of James Braid’s design became more and more apparent when we saw that not one fairway criss-crossed with any other, the whole course being laid out in a clear forward progression with each tee and fairway being set away from the previous one.
I must pause here to compliment the quality of maintenance of the fairways and greens. Having played most of my golf in India, it genuinely was a pleasure to play through the “roughs” at Finchley whenever it was occasioned by a mis-hit, because apart from the lurking dangers of some few Gorse bushes here and there, the roughs are certainly so much more civilized than the ones I am used to!
Worthy of mention is the quality of the green-keeping – while the pin positions were quite straightforward, the greens are very lively indeed, with all sorts of hidden dangers from sudden slopes, different breaks and extremely slick surfaces!
The 7th hole, a pretty testing Par 3, 198 yard hole, was well tried with a 4 Iron for accuracy and coming down in four, I didn’t feel too bad, because I was pleased with the way I had judged the tee shot and then approach wedged the second onto the green.
Finishing the front nine are the longest hole, the par 5, 505 yard, 8th where I am pleased to have had a bogey and an equally daunting 470 yard par 5, 9th where we went down for par!
Moving on to the back nine, I must mention the 12th Hole in particular, as this is considered to be the real signature hole of the Finchley Course. A wicked 152 yard Par 3, with terrifying Pines and Conifers bounding the right side of your approach will surely cause any but the toughest minds to quail!
However, the terror of this hole is amply compensated when you walk up to the steeply sloping green and behold the imposing view of the Club house behind it! My partner Derick and I made a 4 on this, which we promptly forgave ourselves for!
I had been warned that the fairways were narrow and one might get a bit tangled up in the tall trees which abounded, but to my mind, the fairways seemed much wider than those at our Bangalore Golf Club!
Throughout the round, my three playing partners kept each other and me regaled with much good natured ribbing. I was witness, at regular intervals to their strange battle cry of “hot cheese” whenever one of their esteemed number landed in one of the numerous bunkers around!
The 122 yard Par 3 15th hole is also a joy to play off with an 8 iron to get one sufficient distance coupled with the necessary loft.
The course has its ups and downs, with rolling fairways and some decent climbs, but all in all, it is a relatively “user friendly” course, which doesn’t tax one too much in the physical sense.
Of course those of us who play regularly in India and Asia, need to get used to the fact that there are no caddies and so on, but truth be told, pulling one’s own trolley along, judging one’s own distances, choosing one’s own clubs and figuring out one’s own putting line are very good things, since one learns immense self reliance and at the same time, begins to appreciate the little things which one takes for granted here at home in India!
Finishing the 17th, another Par 5 of 442 yards in 6, we meandered along to the 18th and final hole of the day, a deceptive Par 4 of 412 yards. You are required to place your shot well to the left, in order to guarantee reasonable success being on the clubhouse green in two. While the green is a decent sized one it is not always true that “the bigger the target the easier it is to hit”, as I found out to my cost. Going down in 5 we bogeyed our last hole that day to lose a Golf Ball each to our opponents!
In the best spirits of sportsmanship the four of us repaired to the 19th and had ourselves a couple of tall glasses of tissue restorative tonic each prior to exchanging email id’s and parting ways. A fitting finale indeed, to a good round of golf and for me a highly enjoyable experience!
I will wholeheartedly endorse Finchley’s claim to being one of the friendliest clubs in North London – they certainly are very welcoming and make a visitor feel completely at home there!
Friday, March 23, 2007
The Kundale Golf Club
Golfing in Munnar – The Kundale Golf Club.
Probably the last preserve or bastion of the British Raj in India, an absolute jewel of a place located a matter of 9 hours easy drive from Bangalore, the lovely scenery of Munnar district certainly qualifies it to be considered as a fore-runner for the title of the “Sanctum Sanctorum” of God’s Own Country!
A sense of déjà vu for me, since as a child, I was privileged to grow up amongst these lush tea plantations spread all around like a lovely green carpet, nestling amongst mist wrapped hills with a constant drizzly rain falling down and seemingly impermeable tropical rain forest everywhere with the superbly refreshing fragrance of tea wafting up from the numerous tea factories…I could go on and on.
We were visiting some friends, a tea planter and his family and understandably, I was more than happy to join him in a round of golf while there, at the Planter’s Private Preserve - The Kundale Club! The club is located a little off the beaten track and quite close to the highest point in Munnar, aptly named Top Station. On the drive there, one passes the lovely Madupatty dam and reservoir which once, (not so long ago), used to be quiet and pristine, but whose placid waters are now torn asunder with the wakes of high speed boats, not to mention the roar of their high revving engines.
Luckily, the Kundale Club cannot be accessed by the general public and one can only go there along with a member at his express invitation – so while I may not quite agree to being a complete elitist, I most certainly am rather pleased that at least this lovely place is still free from the evil depredations of the cohorts of uncaring, noisy, litter-bug tourist types whose ubiquitous and raucous presence almost everywhere else worth visiting, is a guaranteed irritant to normal civilized human beings.
The Golf course is beautiful– a nice nine hole course carved from the contours of a natural valley, bounded all around by hills with some steep climbs, where one plays the front nine beginning off the first tee, above and behind the clubhouse. As with most of the golf courses of this type, one needs definitely to be reasonably fit in order to labour up the bridle paths to each tee box and then muster sufficient energy to clobber the ball with reasonable force and of course, reasonable accuracy as well!
There are no serious water hazards and sand traps as one may encounter on the new fangled manicured golf courses of the cities, but playing on such a course is an absolutely charming experience in itself and well worth it, I may add.
Don’t be lulled by the sheer beauty of the place into a false sense of security though, because there are other, somewhat wicked hazards – notably the ditches that run criss cross around the fairways, a couple of streams bridged by rickety old timbers and last but not least, a proliferation of God’s rather unpleasant creatures, namely leeches of different shapes and sizes, including a vicious sub species - the dreaded tiger leeches (as if the normal ones weren’t enough for the unsuspecting golfer to contend with!
You can see these little monsters in the monsoon rearing their blood sucking heads up as you pass, almost sniffing the air like trained bloodhounds. They lurk in large gangs in the wet grass and on the tee boxes. They are silent and deadly because if they attach themselves to one, (even through one’s thick golf socks and by finding gaps in one’s shoes), one will never realize till one comes back to the clubhouse and sees them sticking to one’s person, feasting as it were!
The most effective antidotes to these so to say are common salt and of course tobacco – so here is one of the few times where being a smoker has its advantages (at least in the defence of one’s person against the full fledged offensive mounted by legions of leeches)
There are some interesting local rules - while playing the front nine, one can shoot to the road which passes through the fairway and still be within one’s rights, but while playing the back nine round (off different tees) of course, the self same road is completely out of bounds! Can be tough-ish for the first timer I assure you!
On the brighter side, the course is bounded all around by lush shola or forest to the uninitiated, where during one’s leisurely afternoon round, one can quite comfortably bump into a bison, quite possibly a pack of wild dogs and if one is really lucky, catch a glimpse of that beautiful big cat, the panther.
The Kundale Golf Course is one of the lovely natural golf courses of India – built by the British Tea Planters in their sporting tradition. It is today an inheritance, which we simply must preserve as part of our heritage.
The lovely old clubhouse is a typical bungalow style building, with sloping tiled roofs to enable the constant rain to run off and its long verandah dotted with easy chairs offering a pristine view of the golf course.
There is a quaint little bar inside (well stocked, I may add), where one simply helps one’s self and writes down in a register what one has imbibed (albeit in large quantities) – a truly gentlemanly and decent system, which is entirely dependent on one’s innate sense of honesty and personal honour. I shudder to think of the consequences that may arise if such a system were transplanted into some of our new fangled clubs though!
Well worth mentioning here is the fact that despite the advance of modernity everywhere else, this club is still not on the telephone and is staffed solely by an elderly and soft spoken major domo, who is quite possibly the last remnant of a dying breed of club staff.
In conclusion, I would suggest that you pull out that old diary of yours, search most diligently in it till you locate some old acquaintance or friend who has some kind of live connection with Munnar and see this jewel of a place for yourself. I will wager a substantial sum that you will not be disappointed!
Probably the last preserve or bastion of the British Raj in India, an absolute jewel of a place located a matter of 9 hours easy drive from Bangalore, the lovely scenery of Munnar district certainly qualifies it to be considered as a fore-runner for the title of the “Sanctum Sanctorum” of God’s Own Country!
A sense of déjà vu for me, since as a child, I was privileged to grow up amongst these lush tea plantations spread all around like a lovely green carpet, nestling amongst mist wrapped hills with a constant drizzly rain falling down and seemingly impermeable tropical rain forest everywhere with the superbly refreshing fragrance of tea wafting up from the numerous tea factories…I could go on and on.
We were visiting some friends, a tea planter and his family and understandably, I was more than happy to join him in a round of golf while there, at the Planter’s Private Preserve - The Kundale Club! The club is located a little off the beaten track and quite close to the highest point in Munnar, aptly named Top Station. On the drive there, one passes the lovely Madupatty dam and reservoir which once, (not so long ago), used to be quiet and pristine, but whose placid waters are now torn asunder with the wakes of high speed boats, not to mention the roar of their high revving engines.
Luckily, the Kundale Club cannot be accessed by the general public and one can only go there along with a member at his express invitation – so while I may not quite agree to being a complete elitist, I most certainly am rather pleased that at least this lovely place is still free from the evil depredations of the cohorts of uncaring, noisy, litter-bug tourist types whose ubiquitous and raucous presence almost everywhere else worth visiting, is a guaranteed irritant to normal civilized human beings.
The Golf course is beautiful– a nice nine hole course carved from the contours of a natural valley, bounded all around by hills with some steep climbs, where one plays the front nine beginning off the first tee, above and behind the clubhouse. As with most of the golf courses of this type, one needs definitely to be reasonably fit in order to labour up the bridle paths to each tee box and then muster sufficient energy to clobber the ball with reasonable force and of course, reasonable accuracy as well!
There are no serious water hazards and sand traps as one may encounter on the new fangled manicured golf courses of the cities, but playing on such a course is an absolutely charming experience in itself and well worth it, I may add.
Don’t be lulled by the sheer beauty of the place into a false sense of security though, because there are other, somewhat wicked hazards – notably the ditches that run criss cross around the fairways, a couple of streams bridged by rickety old timbers and last but not least, a proliferation of God’s rather unpleasant creatures, namely leeches of different shapes and sizes, including a vicious sub species - the dreaded tiger leeches (as if the normal ones weren’t enough for the unsuspecting golfer to contend with!
You can see these little monsters in the monsoon rearing their blood sucking heads up as you pass, almost sniffing the air like trained bloodhounds. They lurk in large gangs in the wet grass and on the tee boxes. They are silent and deadly because if they attach themselves to one, (even through one’s thick golf socks and by finding gaps in one’s shoes), one will never realize till one comes back to the clubhouse and sees them sticking to one’s person, feasting as it were!
The most effective antidotes to these so to say are common salt and of course tobacco – so here is one of the few times where being a smoker has its advantages (at least in the defence of one’s person against the full fledged offensive mounted by legions of leeches)
There are some interesting local rules - while playing the front nine, one can shoot to the road which passes through the fairway and still be within one’s rights, but while playing the back nine round (off different tees) of course, the self same road is completely out of bounds! Can be tough-ish for the first timer I assure you!
On the brighter side, the course is bounded all around by lush shola or forest to the uninitiated, where during one’s leisurely afternoon round, one can quite comfortably bump into a bison, quite possibly a pack of wild dogs and if one is really lucky, catch a glimpse of that beautiful big cat, the panther.
The Kundale Golf Course is one of the lovely natural golf courses of India – built by the British Tea Planters in their sporting tradition. It is today an inheritance, which we simply must preserve as part of our heritage.
The lovely old clubhouse is a typical bungalow style building, with sloping tiled roofs to enable the constant rain to run off and its long verandah dotted with easy chairs offering a pristine view of the golf course.
There is a quaint little bar inside (well stocked, I may add), where one simply helps one’s self and writes down in a register what one has imbibed (albeit in large quantities) – a truly gentlemanly and decent system, which is entirely dependent on one’s innate sense of honesty and personal honour. I shudder to think of the consequences that may arise if such a system were transplanted into some of our new fangled clubs though!
Well worth mentioning here is the fact that despite the advance of modernity everywhere else, this club is still not on the telephone and is staffed solely by an elderly and soft spoken major domo, who is quite possibly the last remnant of a dying breed of club staff.
In conclusion, I would suggest that you pull out that old diary of yours, search most diligently in it till you locate some old acquaintance or friend who has some kind of live connection with Munnar and see this jewel of a place for yourself. I will wager a substantial sum that you will not be disappointed!
The Kundale Golf Club
Golfing in Munnar – The Kundale Golf Club.
Probably the last preserve or bastion of the British Raj in India, an absolute jewel of a place located a matter of 9 hours easy drive from Bangalore, the lovely scenery of Munnar district certainly qualifies it to be considered as a fore-runner for the title of the “Sanctum Sanctorum” of God’s Own Country!
A sense of déjà vu for me, since as a child, I was privileged to grow up amongst these lush tea plantations spread all around like a lovely green carpet, nestling amongst mist wrapped hills with a constant drizzly rain falling down and seemingly impermeable tropical rain forest everywhere with the superbly refreshing fragrance of tea wafting up from the numerous tea factories…I could go on and on.
We were visiting some friends, a tea planter and his family and understandably, I was more than happy to join him in a round of golf while there, at the Planter’s Private Preserve - The Kundale Club! The club is located a little off the beaten track and quite close to the highest point in Munnar, aptly named Top Station. On the drive there, one passes the lovely Madupatty dam and reservoir which once, (not so long ago), used to be quiet and pristine, but whose placid waters are now torn asunder with the wakes of high speed boats, not to mention the roar of their high revving engines.
Luckily, the Kundale Club cannot be accessed by the general public and one can only go there along with a member at his express invitation – so while I may not quite agree to being a complete elitist, I most certainly am rather pleased that at least this lovely place is still free from the evil depredations of the cohorts of uncaring, noisy, litter-bug tourist types whose ubiquitous and raucous presence almost everywhere else worth visiting, is a guaranteed irritant to normal civilized human beings.
The Golf course is beautiful– a nice nine hole course carved from the contours of a natural valley, bounded all around by hills with some steep climbs, where one plays the front nine beginning off the first tee, above and behind the clubhouse. As with most of the golf courses of this type, one needs definitely to be reasonably fit in order to labour up the bridle paths to each tee box and then muster sufficient energy to clobber the ball with reasonable force and of course, reasonable accuracy as well!
There are no serious water hazards and sand traps as one may encounter on the new fangled manicured golf courses of the cities, but playing on such a course is an absolutely charming experience in itself and well worth it, I may add.
Don’t be lulled by the sheer beauty of the place into a false sense of security though, because there are other, somewhat wicked hazards – notably the ditches that run criss cross around the fairways, a couple of streams bridged by rickety old timbers and last but not least, a proliferation of God’s rather unpleasant creatures, namely leeches of different shapes and sizes, including a vicious sub species - the dreaded tiger leeches (as if the normal ones weren’t enough for the unsuspecting golfer to contend with!
You can see these little monsters in the monsoon rearing their blood sucking heads up as you pass, almost sniffing the air like trained bloodhounds. They lurk in large gangs in the wet grass and on the tee boxes. They are silent and deadly because if they attach themselves to one, (even through one’s thick golf socks and by finding gaps in one’s shoes), one will never realize till one comes back to the clubhouse and sees them sticking to one’s person, feasting as it were!
The most effective antidotes to these so to say are common salt and of course tobacco – so here is one of the few times where being a smoker has its advantages (at least in the defence of one’s person against the full fledged offensive mounted by legions of leeches)
There are some interesting local rules - while playing the front nine, one can shoot to the road which passes through the fairway and still be within one’s rights, but while playing the back nine round (off different tees) of course, the self same road is completely out of bounds! Can be tough-ish for the first timer I assure you!
On the brighter side, the course is bounded all around by lush shola or forest to the uninitiated, where during one’s leisurely afternoon round, one can quite comfortably bump into a bison, quite possibly a pack of wild dogs and if one is really lucky, catch a glimpse of that beautiful big cat, the panther.
The Kundale Golf Course is one of the lovely natural golf courses of India – built by the British Tea Planters in their sporting tradition. It is today an inheritance, which we simply must preserve as part of our heritage.
The lovely old clubhouse is a typical bungalow style building, with sloping tiled roofs to enable the constant rain to run off and its long verandah dotted with easy chairs offering a pristine view of the golf course.
There is a quaint little bar inside (well stocked, I may add), where one simply helps one’s self and writes down in a register what one has imbibed (albeit in large quantities) – a truly gentlemanly and decent system, which is entirely dependent on one’s innate sense of honesty and personal honour. I shudder to think of the consequences that may arise if such a system were transplanted into some of our new fangled clubs though!
Well worth mentioning here is the fact that despite the advance of modernity everywhere else, this club is still not on the telephone and is staffed solely by an elderly and soft spoken major domo, who is quite possibly the last remnant of a dying breed of club staff.
In conclusion, I would suggest that you pull out that old diary of yours, search most diligently in it till you locate some old acquaintance or friend who has some kind of live connection with Munnar and see this jewel of a place for yourself. I will wager a substantial sum that you will not be disappointed!
Probably the last preserve or bastion of the British Raj in India, an absolute jewel of a place located a matter of 9 hours easy drive from Bangalore, the lovely scenery of Munnar district certainly qualifies it to be considered as a fore-runner for the title of the “Sanctum Sanctorum” of God’s Own Country!
A sense of déjà vu for me, since as a child, I was privileged to grow up amongst these lush tea plantations spread all around like a lovely green carpet, nestling amongst mist wrapped hills with a constant drizzly rain falling down and seemingly impermeable tropical rain forest everywhere with the superbly refreshing fragrance of tea wafting up from the numerous tea factories…I could go on and on.
We were visiting some friends, a tea planter and his family and understandably, I was more than happy to join him in a round of golf while there, at the Planter’s Private Preserve - The Kundale Club! The club is located a little off the beaten track and quite close to the highest point in Munnar, aptly named Top Station. On the drive there, one passes the lovely Madupatty dam and reservoir which once, (not so long ago), used to be quiet and pristine, but whose placid waters are now torn asunder with the wakes of high speed boats, not to mention the roar of their high revving engines.
Luckily, the Kundale Club cannot be accessed by the general public and one can only go there along with a member at his express invitation – so while I may not quite agree to being a complete elitist, I most certainly am rather pleased that at least this lovely place is still free from the evil depredations of the cohorts of uncaring, noisy, litter-bug tourist types whose ubiquitous and raucous presence almost everywhere else worth visiting, is a guaranteed irritant to normal civilized human beings.
The Golf course is beautiful– a nice nine hole course carved from the contours of a natural valley, bounded all around by hills with some steep climbs, where one plays the front nine beginning off the first tee, above and behind the clubhouse. As with most of the golf courses of this type, one needs definitely to be reasonably fit in order to labour up the bridle paths to each tee box and then muster sufficient energy to clobber the ball with reasonable force and of course, reasonable accuracy as well!
There are no serious water hazards and sand traps as one may encounter on the new fangled manicured golf courses of the cities, but playing on such a course is an absolutely charming experience in itself and well worth it, I may add.
Don’t be lulled by the sheer beauty of the place into a false sense of security though, because there are other, somewhat wicked hazards – notably the ditches that run criss cross around the fairways, a couple of streams bridged by rickety old timbers and last but not least, a proliferation of God’s rather unpleasant creatures, namely leeches of different shapes and sizes, including a vicious sub species - the dreaded tiger leeches (as if the normal ones weren’t enough for the unsuspecting golfer to contend with!
You can see these little monsters in the monsoon rearing their blood sucking heads up as you pass, almost sniffing the air like trained bloodhounds. They lurk in large gangs in the wet grass and on the tee boxes. They are silent and deadly because if they attach themselves to one, (even through one’s thick golf socks and by finding gaps in one’s shoes), one will never realize till one comes back to the clubhouse and sees them sticking to one’s person, feasting as it were!
The most effective antidotes to these so to say are common salt and of course tobacco – so here is one of the few times where being a smoker has its advantages (at least in the defence of one’s person against the full fledged offensive mounted by legions of leeches)
There are some interesting local rules - while playing the front nine, one can shoot to the road which passes through the fairway and still be within one’s rights, but while playing the back nine round (off different tees) of course, the self same road is completely out of bounds! Can be tough-ish for the first timer I assure you!
On the brighter side, the course is bounded all around by lush shola or forest to the uninitiated, where during one’s leisurely afternoon round, one can quite comfortably bump into a bison, quite possibly a pack of wild dogs and if one is really lucky, catch a glimpse of that beautiful big cat, the panther.
The Kundale Golf Course is one of the lovely natural golf courses of India – built by the British Tea Planters in their sporting tradition. It is today an inheritance, which we simply must preserve as part of our heritage.
The lovely old clubhouse is a typical bungalow style building, with sloping tiled roofs to enable the constant rain to run off and its long verandah dotted with easy chairs offering a pristine view of the golf course.
There is a quaint little bar inside (well stocked, I may add), where one simply helps one’s self and writes down in a register what one has imbibed (albeit in large quantities) – a truly gentlemanly and decent system, which is entirely dependent on one’s innate sense of honesty and personal honour. I shudder to think of the consequences that may arise if such a system were transplanted into some of our new fangled clubs though!
Well worth mentioning here is the fact that despite the advance of modernity everywhere else, this club is still not on the telephone and is staffed solely by an elderly and soft spoken major domo, who is quite possibly the last remnant of a dying breed of club staff.
In conclusion, I would suggest that you pull out that old diary of yours, search most diligently in it till you locate some old acquaintance or friend who has some kind of live connection with Munnar and see this jewel of a place for yourself. I will wager a substantial sum that you will not be disappointed!
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