Karachi (Blue & Red)

Karachi Golf Club – founded in 1888 as an offshoot to the Sindh Club, an exclusive gentleman’s club – is the oldest golfing institution in Pakistan. Seventy years after it was formed, the club moved from its original site to its current location and it was here in the early 1990s that Peter Harradine fashioned a modern 27-hole layout across a generous 217-acre property.

Golf at Karachi is played out over three circuits of nine holes, with the Blue and Red nines forming the championship 18-hole layout. It’s a course that favours long, straight hitters as a number of the par fives measure in excess of 600 yards. Although shorter than its two siblings, the Yellow nine is by no means an easy option as an abundance of water features on this loop help to protect par.

Inaugurated in 1967, the Pakistan Open has been held at Karachi on several occasions. At one of the more recent Open events, the 38th edition of the tournament in 2006 to be precise, Englishman Chris Rodgers became only the second non-native golfer to win this national competition.

After asking Harradine Golf to elaborate on what the company did at Karachi Golf Club in the early 1990s, we received the following summary of work carried out at that time:

“Our company was involved in the design and construction supervision for the up-grading of the existing 18 holes and extension to a 27-hole facility. The master and detailed construction plans were designed in January and February 1992. The construction was "in house" which meant that there were no tender documents but only performance specifications and bills of quantities.

Due to the very limited budget the club did not employ a specialized shaper or any other expat specialist. The complete works were carried out by a large local work force with rudimentary machinery. Gravel and top soil was carried on to the greens with wheelbarrows and all fine shaping was done manually with a rake.

Peter Harradine visited the site fifteen times up to October 1994. The construction was quite difficult as the workforce had limited knowledge of what they were supposed to be doing. Peter regarded the project as a great challenge and accepted the task mainly because he wanted to help the club and encourage golf in the region.”