The five States and three Union Territories that constitute the Southern India region account for around 20% of India’s land mass and it’s here that more than 250 million people live. Peninsular in shape, the region’s coastline runs from the Bay of Bengal in the East, past Kanyakumari (formerly Cape Comorin) in the south to the Arabian Sea in the West, with an astounding 89 ports situated along this seaboard.

Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) in the state of Karnataka, Chennai (once known as Madras) in Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad in Telangana are where the largest groups of inhabitants live in South India and each of these three sprawling cities has a metropolitan population of more than seven million people. Unsurprisingly, most of the courses in the region are located around these large conurbations.

The course at Bangalore Golf Club is the oldest outside the British Isles and Continental Europe, having been established in 1876 on a site that was previously used as a rifle range by the Pioneer Regiment stationed in the city. The original 12-hole layout was recorded as a full 18-hole course in 1919 and it underwent a major new millennium makeover by Pacific Coast Design, with the fully grassed course reopening in 2002.

There are three top tracks around Bengaluru currently listed in our Indian Top 20 chart. Karnataka is a Peter Thomson-designed layout located near the city centre, Eagleton is a late-1990s Pacific Coast Design creation situated an hour’s drive southwest of the central business district and the semi-private course at Prestige Golfshire, which lies in Nandi Hills, some 50 kilometres north of downtown Bengaluru.

Situated 60 kilometres north of Hyderabad, the 18-hole layout at Haldi Golf Country opened for play at the start of 2021. Designed by Phil Ryan and Paul Reeves of Australian-based firm Pacific Coast Design, the course anchors a residential development and 5-star hotel within a 250-acre gated community located next to the River Haldi.