A Golf Tour of India is a very exclusive
holiday in the "tee" gardens of India !
With the pick of golfing circuits and hill-station
resorts, it is a holiday in a colonial setting,
with gymkhanas, bungalows and "Burra Sahib"
clubs. It evokes an old-world atmosphere
reminiscent of Nawabs and Viceroys, of garden
parties and tall cool drinks. The Golf clubs
of India are veritably period settings that
have for long retained the stately grandeur
of the British Raj.
The visiting golfer can look forward to
much more besides a challenging test of
his skill --- for most Indian courses combine
a sense of history, scenic surroundings
and a variety of other leisure activities
with great game possibilities. Golf is as
much a part of the British legacy bequeathed
to India as parliamentary institutions,
electric trams, the game of cricket, or
the skirl of bagpipes Beating Retreat in
the softness of an Indian sunset.
The oldest golf club in the world to be
founded outside of England and Scotland
was in CALCUTTA in 1829. As British influence
spread over the vast sub-continent, golf
courses and clubs were established wherever
"a patch of grass grew", and in many places
where it did not ! India's second golf club,
Royal BOMBAY became in 1842, the second
oldest in the world outside of Scotland
and England. Thirty years had to go by before
BANGALORE in south India started a golf
club in 1876, followed in 1878 by the scenic
Shillong Club in Upper Assam some 2000 miles
northeast in the eastern Himalayas. AHMEDABAD,
India's textile city, started a golf club
in 1884 and two years later the MADRAS Gymkhana
Club started a golf section. In 1887 a golf
course was created in the dusty army cantonment
in the erstwhile princely Nizam's dominions
of Hyderabad.
Thus golf had already been played in India
for 59 years before the first major courses
were started in the USA and Europe in 1888.
Before the end of the 19th century India
had nearly a dozen golf clubs. Out of 73
"Royal" golf clubs in the world, the designation
being bestowed by favour of Sovereign, India
was honoured with three such patronages:
Royal Calcutta, Royal Bombay and Royal Western
(in Nasik). The latter two now no longer
exist.
With memories that go back a hundred years
or more, and many a record waiting to be
broken, this is a holiday that goes beyond
tees and greens. While you can golf sun-up
to sun-down at picturesque settings with
verdant greens and rolling pastures in absolutely
bracing cool mountain air, you can also
explore the art and architecture of an ancient
land and visit monuments that have not lost
their splendour over thousands of years.
This is a holiday with a difference. Not
only are you the 'guest of honour' at luncheons
hosted by ardent golfers. Destination India
itself extends you a 'green-carpet' welcome.
