My visit to the Bhubaneshwar Golf Club

Bhubaneshwar is another fast growing Teir-2 city of India. Located in Orissa, this city truly is a  shining examples of well planned infrastructure and growth. This city is poised to explode, the infrastructure is truly spectacular, with most major roads in the city upgraded to a dual carriage way. Traffic is orderly and free flowing due to the more accommodating wider roads. Currently the city is adding numerous flyovers to ease the traffic further. It is not surprising to see that many companies are choosing to setup here. Already Wipro and Infosys have large campuses in the city and many more IT giants are sure to follow.

Over the years the city added sporting facilities to balance out the heavy investment into infrastructure. It is not surprising that out of this the Bhubaneswar Golf Club was born. The story of this club is fascinating. It was founded in the 80’s by enterprising and enthusiastic golfers of Bhubaneswar. The first location of the golf course was around the runway of the Bhubaneswar airport, because the land became available and hardly any flights arrived at Bhubaneswar in those days. However as the city grew it was no longer feasible to be located at a place where ‘movable obstructions’ were planes…! so the club decided to find a more permanent address.

The course has 9 greens that can be repeated from a different set of tees to provide the golfer with 18 holes. The course was designed and built by the same group of golfers at the new location away from the city. The holes have some blind tee shots and some long par 4 that make for an enjoyable round of golf overall. The grass is a local variety chosen to withstand the harsh summers. The greens are hard and severely pitch marked which make putting a very irritating affair. All in all the average golfer can have an enjoyable round and that is the broad aim of the promoters of the golf club.

Though this is not a complete 18 hole golf course it is still quite popular with the players from the city. Its location is a drawback; almost 20 km away from the city center. There are talks on to try and extend the golf course to 18 holes so that it will be on par with other urban golf facilities in the country. I thought this small 9-hole golf course is ideal for such smaller cities, as it not only takes up less space, but also can be used effectively to train and build interest in the game.

It is my hope that more tier 2 cities can follow this pattern and build more 9-hole courses. These are easy to setup with less land requirement reducing the cost of development. This can allow many more government agencies and sporting authorities to consider establishing golfing facilities as part of their sport development programs. In the future 9 hole golf courses will become the most cost effective way for the sport to develop in India.

Golfing in Jamshedpur

When people speak of the city of Jamshedpur they usually only have the Tata industry in mind. The city was founded around the Tata Steel plant and the Tatas have played a very active role in the growth and the development of the city. Jamshedpur was one of the first private cities in this respect and is one of the finest examples of corporate social responsibility in our time. Through the years the Tata Company never forgot the importance of the city and always put the good of society before the good of the organization. In fact it is this attitude that sets the Tata’s apart from other large business houses in India.

In spite of its size Jamshedpur still boasts of two well-designed golf courses, the Beldhi Club Golf Annex and the Golmuri Golf Club. The older Beldhi golf course is a nine hole facility. The Golmuri Golf Course was recently extended to 18 holes and features wide fairways. It is located on land that was part of the Tata Tin Plate Factory. However, the roughs are  treacherous and a ball in there would almost certainly be a ‘lost ball’. The course features a Bermuda variant on both fairways and greens. The greens are quite large, with only some holes severely sloped. The greens are generally on the slower side, except for tournaments where the greens stimp at nearly 10.  There are not too many hazards on this course, but it should not deceive the golfer into over confidence. The thick roughs demand accurate drives and prudent approach shots are needed to ensure a par on all holes. Perhaps the most distracting feature on this course is the High Tensions cables that run across the fairways.

The golmuri golf course and the Beldhi golf course provide valuable lungs for the fast expanding city. Sadly I believe the glory days of the Tatas involvement in the city are drawing to a close. The old well-designed streets that people imagine are only found in pockets of the city and it now resembles any crowded and bustling, fast developing city in India. The only difference is the solid foundation in terms of essential services and town planning that were put in place by the Tatas. In this respect it remains as a true testament to what can be achieved if the private and the public sector in India worked together for the greater good.

As this section of my journey draws to a close, I reflect on what I have seen. It is very clear that golf as a game is only partially developed in these two cities.  A common feature of both the golf course I visited was inactivity in the afternoons, uncharacteristic of any other urban golf course. Another is the investment in large driving ranges on these courses that eventually end up inadequately utilized by members or the community. I feel this has to change. The golf courses need to open their doors to the community to draw in new players and interested youth and organize special programs which will fully untilize the down time of the facilities.  

I feel the future of golf depends upon how effectively courses like the Golmuri and the East point golf Course encourage participation from the community to promote the game. If they began to utilize the valuable resource for promotion and growth of the game rather than narrow commercial interests, I believe this could bring about a positive change for the game in India.

The final stop on this journey is Bhubaneshwar and the newly created Bhubaneshwr Golf Club.