Belgaum's Best Kept Secret

Who would have thought that in the small and dusty, army town of Belgaum, one would find a golfing paradise?! 170 acres of a golfer’s dream, green fairways, and brilliant white sand. It truly is a spectacular sight.

This is the Belgaum Golf Association, (BGA) created by a few enterprising golf addicts from the surrounding area of Kolhapur and Belgaum. This course was created 10 years ago, offers membership, and has a fully functioning clubhouse and driving range, along with guest bungalows for those who wish to spend a weekend at the golf course.  The golf course itself is very well laid out, and features wide forgiving fairways, with quick greens that demand prudent putting from the golfer.  The grass on the greens is a Bermuda variant found commonly across golf courses in India while the grass on the fairways is a native grass. For the golfers in this region the BGA proves to be a great option, as there are only two other golf courses in the area, an EPTA course in Belgaum, and another in Kohlapur. Over the years these two courses have unfortunately fallen into disrepair and leaving the BGA as the best alternative.

This course is located approximately 10 Kms away from Belgaum, and is nearly an hour and half drive from Kohlapur. Yet every Saturday and Sunday this course is bustling with activity, as children and avid golfers alike make this paradise their home for the weekend.

Accessing Belgaum is relatively straight forward, with trains and comfortable buses that leave from both Bangalore and Pune. Or if one chooses to drive, the roads are very good between Bangalore and Belgaum (I am told one can make the trip in 5 hours time). Once here, any local taxi can take you to the golf course. If required, one can even stay in Belgaum, as the drive to and from the golf course is about half an hour each way.

So, if the time sheets get you down in Bangalore, or if one needs a little holiday away from the bore of the city and the old city golf courses, make a trip to the Belgaum Golf Association. Here, you can catch a little bit of the beautiful Karnataka country side and food, after you have worked hard at getting that birdie out there on the course.