Top 20 Golf Courses of India 2018
Top 20 Golf Courses of India 2018
When we last updated our listings for India we doubled the number of courses for this country to a Top 20 but this newly re-ranked edition of the chart is all about consolidating what was established last time around, with seven courses moving up, seven falling down, four remaining the same and two dropping out. It’s also worth noting the top two Indian layouts occupy positions within our inaugural Top 100 of Asia.
At the top of the table, moving up one position to number 1, we have the Gary Player course at DLF Golf & Country Club in Gurugram, which was built by the Black Knight’s design firm in 2015. The course comprises of nine brand new holes and nine laid out over half of the former 18-hole Arnold Palmer course (which is now reduced to a floodlit 9-holer). The Gary Player layout was the stage for last year’s Hero Indian Open, with local favourite SSP Chawrasia winning this European Tour event for the second successive year. The course features quarry holes at the 16th and 17th, with water coming into play at the closing hole on both nines.
Easing one place up to the runner-up spot, a position it last held in 2011, the Lodhi course at Delhi Golf Club is a late 1970s redesign by Peter Thomson that has evolved into a championship venue of some stature, having hosted two consecutive editions of the Hero Indian Open before it moved to DLF last year. Lodhi’s famous Australian architect, when asked his opinion about the course, had this to say: “built on the rubble of the old Moghul metropolis, the Delhi course, set amidst the grandeur of such architectural monuments, has a fascination and beauty all of its own.”
Also nudging up one place in the new chart to number 7, the course at Royal Calcutta Golf Club doesn’t date as far back as the club itself. Founded in 1829, the club is the oldest in the world outside the British Isles, formed as the Dum Dum Golfing Club on a site near Calcutta airport but the club eventually moved to its present premises at Tollygunge in 1910, the year before receiving its royal prefix. A 36-hole facility originally operated at this new location but land furthest from the clubhouse was later sold off, allowing the club to concentrate on the Commander John Harris and Peter Thomson-designed 18-hole layout that’s in play today.
Also rising within the Top 10, the course at Karnataka Golf Association in Bangalore (up two to number 8) is yet another Indian golf production that Peter Thomson’s design company has had a hand in constructing. Howard Swan upgraded the course to remedy drainage issues a decade ago, twenty years after it first opened for play, and in 2012 the club became the first golf facility outside New Delhi or Calcutta to host the Indian Open when the 49th edition of this prestigious international tournament was held here.
Two new names appear in our revised Indian standings. The first of these new entries at #12 is a challenging 7,500-yard Ron Fream design that’s set within the 150-acre Zion Hills Golf County residential golf development near Bangalore and the second newcomer at #19 lies 2,500 kilometres further to the north at Chandigarh Golf Club, where its 18-hole course, with a floodlit front nine, is renowned as a tight track which is characterised by an abundance of tree-lined, doglegged holes.
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To view further details of our India Top 20 click the link.
If you think our Indian chart’s not quite what it should be then please make use of the “Respond to this article” link at the top or the bottom of this page to let us know your thoughts. We welcome criticism, both good and bad, and are always open to suggestions on how to enhance our rankings.
By all means give us your opinion on what you think we’ve got right or what might be improved. We never claimed to publish “definitive” listings but we do believe our rankings are “the most informed” that you’ll find anywhere so fire away with some feedback – all contributions gratefully received.
Jim McCann
Editor
Top 100 Golf Courses