Course correction: The new face of Delhi Golf Club greens

In the spring of 1931, when King George V announced the transfer of India's capital from Calcutta to New Delhi, he unwittingly turned a corner in country’s then young golf history. The new capital already had two golf courses — a seven-hole course at the Roshanara Club, and a defunct nine-hole facility where much of modern-day Delhi University North Campus stands.

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Sir Edwin Lutyens, handed the onerous task of building the new capital, decided to shift the nine-hole course to its present location, leading to the creation of Lodhi Course. Of course, it wasn’t that simple.

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Old-timers recall an unnamed Scotsman with a secret passion for excavations being awarded the responsibility of scouting for the ideal location for the course. He arranged for a couple of elephants and embarked on a reconnaissance mission, zeroing in on the thick forests surrounding Humayun’s tomb and modern-day central vista. Delhi Golf Club (DGC) thus came into being in the early 1930s.

The course has been hosting international events since 1964, and everything about it, from the delicate woodwork of the clubhouse to the sandstone ruins dating back to Delhi Sultanate, speak of a storied past. Retouching such a course is always tricky, even though the slowing greens, absence of drainage system, and an outlived turf were reasons enough. Enter Gary Player.

The nine-time major winner, Player is also an accomplished course architect, having designed over 300 courses across the world. The 86-year-old calls DGC one of his favourite courses, and hands a creditable “nine out of ten” to it.

“I am my harshest critic. I never give a 10/10 to a course,” he said.

With its lush and narrow fairways and reasonably flat greens, DGC was always a driver’s paradise. A good tee-off pretty much secured a par, even a birdie, but following Player's intervention, the greens have been playing a lot tougher. The scores at the recently-concluded DGC Open are a fair indicator. The cut at the end of Round 2 stood at five-over, underlining the struggle of the 138-strong field that also had a strong afternoon headwind to deal with. The winning score was a paltry under-7.

‘Need a good second shot’

“You need a versatile game to succeed here,” remarked Gaurav Ghei, who knows the course inside-out, having won multiple times here. “Earlier, the course put a lot of premium on the tee shot. If you hit it in the fairway, the greens were pretty simple targets. There were not too many undulations, and even if you missed, your chipping and putting were not challenged. Now, you have to hit a good second shot to give yourself an opportunity to make par or birdie.”

“The characteristic of the hole is pretty much the same. From tee to green, there are very minor changes in some of the holes. But, the targets are a lot more challenging. The greens have more undulations and run-offs. If you miss the greens, the up and down around the green is very difficult. That is the main difference,” said Ghei, 53.

The changes in holes, as Ghei points out, are largely subtle, but enough to test the skills. Hole 6, for instance, was a straightforward par-4 until Player built a bunker that cuts across the fairway. “Most players will lay up just short of the bunker with a hybrid or a fairway wood which will leave them with a second shot of anywhere between 160 to 190 yards depending on the pin position. The second shot should avoid the valley short right of the green as it is a very tough up and down from there. If you play too safe, the green slopes sharply on the left edge making second putts a tough task,” said Ghei.

Then, there’s hole 9, one of the toughest on the course. At around 450 yards, it requires a pin-point tee shot favouring the left centre of the fairway. Hitting the fairway is not enough though; one has to hit it around 270 yards to the top of the slope to have easy access to the green, which has now been contoured in the front. The top right pin position over the greenside bunker is one of the toughest pins to get close to on the course and a par there sets one up nicely for the back nine.

The gamechanger in the back nine is the 13th hole. The deception comes into play in the left-to-right wind, which makes it tough for the tee shot to hit the fairway. To find the green with the second shot from the rough is another challenge, and a miss on the right side of the green leaves one with a tricky undulation. Not surprisingly, Ghei describes it as a “Jekyll and Hyde hole.”

The 18th, witness to many an exciting finish, has reverted to its earlier design, with Player removing the fairway bunker. The second shot needs to carry all the way to avoid the collection area to the right or short left. “Getting up and down from either is a really tough job. Some great pin positions are in play on this green now, with the front left being a real sucker pin,” explained Ghei.

There has been a change in the yardage too. With modern golfers becoming lot stronger and men like Bryson DeChambeau and James Hart du Preez ushering in a paradigm shift in range hitting, the classic course has added 250 yards, even though Player is a staunch advocate of the short game.

“Despite the additional yardage, I have made sure the putting and chipping skills are tested adequately here,” he winked. “Golf is still about putting, chipping, and using your head. That’s why I rate Tiger Woods highly; he is among the best putters I have seen. A lot of golf courses have an excess of undulating greens, which I don’t like, because the members, who are not professional golfers, can’t play. I have retained some challenging undulations for the pros, but wherever the pin is, it's flat. That makes me happy.”

Making of the course

The idea of redoing the course was first mooted by DGC’s late president Siddharth Shriram in 2017 and was met with significant unrest within the management. It took a written assurance from Shriram, guaranteeing a contribution of Rs. 1.5 crore from his pocket, for the dissenters to relent. By September 2018, Sriram's tenure ended and Maj Gen (retd) RS Bedi took over.

A month later, DGC hosted the Panasonic Open, and the greens were far from impressive. “For a club of our stature to have an underwhelming green was embarrassing. I decided the time was right to push for a renovation,” recalled Bedi. Thus began a nine-month, ₹12.5 crore exercise that started with the formation of a six-member Empowered Committee, headed by then DGC captain, Rohit Sabharwal.

“Gary Player's firm was already approved by Shriram, so we had a starting point. We went about working out budgets, shortlisting contractors, discussing technologies. There were a few heated discussions, for sure,” said Bedi. Money was raised through corporate fundraisers. The 5000-odd DGC members were won over through a series of open house discussions to dispel doubts and misgivings.

Player decided that each of the 50-odd bunkers needed to be changed, the largely-flat course needed some strategic undulations, and the essential character of the course —the tree-lined fairways— needed to be retained. The logistics involved in pulling this off were mind-boggling. Over 2,80,000 cubic feet of ‘Jamuna sand’, a sand variety culled from the eponymous river bed, was procured from Yamunanagar in Haryana. Each truckload of sand was lab tested for quality and sieved for the finest grain before being put to use.

“Finding a supplier for that kind of quality and quantum of sand was not easy. There were suggestions that we renovate six holes first, followed by six next year, and the rest a year later. Another suggestion was to do nine holes each in two years. I wanted to get everything done in a year despite being told it can’t be done,” said Bedi.

The contractors who had worked on the DLF Golf Course, also redesigned by Player, were brought in. Four new bunkers appeared on the first fairway, two new bunkers came up on the eighth green, and a fresh bunker was built on the fourth green. As a result, attacking the greens, particularly on Par 5s, has become challenging.

Greens and bunker technology

The greens of the ancient club had slowed down with ageing and overuse. Player had recommended the grass be changed, and the Empowered Committee decided on MiniVerde, a leading provider of hybrid Bermuda grass greens. Known to offer excellent ball roll, better tolerance to weed and disease, and deeper roots, the choice was fairly obvious. The only problem was a Ministry of Agriculture ruling that mandates a nine-month quarantine for turfs being imported.

“We obviously wanted to circumvent that. We dug deep to find out where can we find MiniVerde in India,” said Bedi. Only three courses in India had it at that point of time: the DLF course in Gurugram, and two courses in Ahmedabad. Bedi contacted DLF chairman Kushal Pal Singh, who he knew from their army days, and Singh decided to give away the 18-hole MiniVerde turf that was resting in DLF nursery.

DGC needed two more turfs for their practice greens, which they bought from the Ahmedabad courses for a combined fee of ₹30 lakh.

The next step was to complete the plantation by July-end for roots to gain enough strength to last the winters. By November-end as temperatures hit the single-digit mark in north India, the grass enters a phase of dormancy. Timing, thus, was imperative.

The DGC team and Player’s architects also worked on implementing Better Billy Bunker Technology, a game-changing European innovation that ensures quick drying during monsoons. It involves resting a two-inch layer of gravel at the base, over which a suitable polymer is installed. The bunker sand sits over this sheet and the water moves through it at a rate of over 350 inches an hour.

“I am very happy with what we have done with the bunkers, both in terms of positioning and technology,” said Player.

“It takes less than 10 minutes to dry a brimming bunker. Earlier, we had to empty the bunkers with buckets and then hope the sun to dry the sand. This is a game-changing technology," added Bedi.

Water woes

The DGC Committee chanced upon an unlikely underground jewel while poring over their design and architecture plans: a sewage line running right under the course. The idea to refine the effluents and redirect the treated water on the course was mooted and ratified, leading to the decision to build an in-house sewage treatment plant. Being built at the cost ₹4.5 crore and sponsored by SRF Foundation, the three million-litre capacity facility will be operational by next month and will end club's reliance on the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

“We spend nearly ₹80 lakh a year purchasing water tankers from DJB, but there’s always a shortage, particularly during summers. The quality of water was also below par. Once we hit on this plan, we approached the NDMC and Ministry of Urban Development for approval, and they were happy to assist. The water at our plant will be refined to potable standards,” said Bedi.

“This is the best thing about this course. It is environment-conscious. The world is staring at an impending water crisis, and I am glad to see that a golf course is leading the way. I am super proud," said Player.

Having successfully hosted the Asian Tour event that marks the return of international golf to India post-Covid, Bedi is a proud man. He credits his decision-making and resolve to his 11 years in the army, where the 1965 and '71 battles hardened the erstwhile tankman for life. When he was 23, Bedi's outmoded Sherman was hit by a Pakistani anti-tank gun, and Bedi lost all his crew. He lived to tell the tale. Renovating a golf course in record time was always going to be easier.

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