An Organic Golf Course

The Kodai Golf Club, situated on 95 acres of forest in Kodaikanal is one of India’s more beautiful golf courses. During the summer season its fairways are lined with flowering trees that make some of the holes look truly magnificent. At a height of 7000 ft the course is long, very hilly and is by no means easy to play. It also does not help that the ball flies much further here than at sea level. Playing a round of golf here is very affordable, requiring only a valid handicap card from ones home golf course. A round of golf costs USD 5 for 9 holes and USD 10 for 18 holes.

The Club House of the Kodai Golf Club (approx 116 years old)

For the better part of the year this course remains quite empty; this allows the members to have a relaxed round of golf (at times the number of players are down to even 4 for the day). This golf course is small in terms of total membership, with only 339 members. Out of these, only 20 are from the local area. Most of the members are from the metros and use this club as a holiday destination during the summer.

As this golf course does not see very much play, it can be costly to maintain. However this golf course has developed methods to overcome this, which could be worthy of emulation by small and remote golf courses. No chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used on this course. It follows the practice of bio dynamics that attempts to return nutrients to the soil through the application of prepared manure. On the greens the golf course uses a mixture of cow dung, urea, eggshells and some sand that is dried in a compost pit. This mixture is spread over the greens, and has yielded good results, where the greens stayed alive even through the harsh winter. The golf course also uses an interesting mix as fungicide and pesticide. For this, cow dung, urea, ghee, over ripe bananas and tender coconut are mixed and allowed to ferment together. Water is added in a 1:10 ratio. This is sprayed on the grass of the fairways and greens when required. This opens up many possibilities in terms of reducing the cost of course maintenance. This organic focus would also cause less harm to the environment.

The in house fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing area

On the other hand, this golf course is small in terms of its local membership size (20 members), and total number of rounds. Further this course is located in the mountains where the numbers of ‘pests’ are less. Cow dung is a great source of nutrient and can attract some unwanted pests especially in the warmer climates. It remains to be seen if these methods can be applied to the courses in metros that see far more footfalls and usage in a single day leading to intensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to maintain the green appearance of the fairways.

The organic maintenance of golf courses is a very new subject, and I believe, in a place like India, it has a real potential. Golf courses are generally located away from the city and transporting fertilizers can be a huge cost. Locally available growth promoters could be an answer although organic solutions may not yield quick results.  It remains to be seen if the Kodai Golf Course organic model can be effectively used by golf courses in other locations as well.