The many quirks of the Delhi Golf Club
The DGC is unique and its combination of elements throws up unexpected results
The 15th at the Delhi Golf Club (DGC) is short, but tricky. Those who are good at the game generally hit a long iron off the tee down a narrow chute and then look on nervously, hoping to avoid the sand trap on the right edge of the sharp curve, and the punishing patch of jungle that runs along both sides of the fairway almost till the end. The green on this par-four is small and two-tiered, not offering much of a target even with a wedge in hand. It’s a typical DGC golf hole.
The final round of the 50th Hero Indian Open (7-10 November) and Siddikur Rahman, already wobbly on top of the leader board, is punched in the guts by the dog-leg 15th. The drama is taken in by a sizeable gallery, among them a group of grizzled DGC regulars. “That was a five,” says a checked shirt as the stunned Bangladeshi golfer taps in his putt.
“No, gan.. (a Punjabi term of endearment which translates into an important body part dealing with waste matter),” says the tweed jacket. “That was a seven.”
“This is how you count your strokes as well,” he pushes on.
A hole later, Rahman’s playing partner Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia’s ball is inadvertently stopped from rolling into further trouble by a club member who is not supposed to be standing where he has parked himself. “Typical committee member, always wants to be in the spotlight,” mumbles somebody from the opposite side, drawing guffaws from his neighbours.
The DGC is unique. It’s a heady mix of Punjabi, Mughal and Anglo-Celtic. Needless to say, there’s nothing quite like it. A golf course littered with sandstone relics smack in the middle of a teeming metropolis. The layout, with dense clumps of the original flora which house an impressive variety of bird-life, reptiles and deer, has been tweaked and refined by an Aussie golf legend who stopped by during his travels around the globe. Peter Thomson’s contribution to Indian golf did not end there. He also set up the Indian Open.
Having said that, Pawan Munjal, managing director and CEO of Hero MotoCorp Ltd, didn’t mean to draw any perverse pleasure by dragging the golfers over hot coals when he decided to have this year’s championship at the DGC. After all, this is the venue where the first one was held in 1964 and has been staged there for close to 30 times since. Given its location, it draws in spectators like no other golfing venue in the country. So, festival season and milestone event, and short commute from home. The DGC was the logical place to party.
Munjal’s initial entry into golf almost two decades ago was with a hole-in-one prize. No prizes for guessing what that prize was. This year’s print advert for the tournament said, “50 years of trying to keep an eye on the ball”. I don’t know what that meant since Munjal did keep his eye on the ball when he “grabbed the opportunity to sponsor the national open” in 2005 on the same golf course. The refreshments at the Hero hospitality enclosure next to the 18th green would have gone down well for the casual golfer despite the $1.25 million (around ₹ 8 crore) Munjal coughed up in prize money. His company did sell their 50 millionth motorcycle on 8 August. By the looks of it, quite a few shared in his joy as they merrily staggered out of the makeshift entertainment area while a keen contest was being played out a short distance away.
It was exciting and I can’t remember the last time, if at all, I have seen such a large and enthusiastic turnout at a golfing event in this country. Given the narrow fairways and the fact that spectators can be accommodated only on one side, it was actually a struggle to catch the players in action towards the closing stages. A happy struggle, I must say. After having come close on many occasions at the DGC, Rahman tried his best not to win again but this time around the golfing gods nudged him over the finishing line just ahead of Chowrasia and Anirban Lahiri.
Prabhdev Singh is the founding editor of Golf Digest India and a part-time golfer.
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Business NewsOpinionThe many quirks of the Delhi Golf Club
First Published:27 Nov 2013, 08:55 PM IST
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