Crowd alert at transformed Cosmo TNGF course

CHENNAI: ON July 10, a bowl of kesari distributed among the playing golfers signalled the opening of the newly designed hole 11 at the TNGF course and with that, all 18 holes came into play after a few months. Necessitated by the Ministry of Defence claiming a portion of land, the course had to be revisualised.

Mood swings:

A golf course is a living entity – constantly changing in character and whose behaviour is subject to ‘mood swings’ like any animate being. A flowering grass or a colony of beetles in the fairways calls for immediate action. While small adjustments to a course, like changes in tee positions, trimming or not trimming of trees, are made regularly to provide some variability to a player’s game, a major makeover is a rare occurrence.

The Cosmo TNGF course underwent a transformation at the turn of the millennium through a series of improvements, starting with providing an international standard subsoil instead of bricks below the fairways. Tifdwarf grass was brought from Delhi for the greens. A strict maintenance regimen was put in place. The layout, however, was the same primarily.

Realignment of forces:

The loss of over six acres of land late last year, impacting refreshment huts, office areas and washrooms for players, necessitated immediate action on various fronts. KC Raghunathan, associate secretary, TNGF, says that the first concern was to ensure caddies, whose livelihood depends upon the golf course being open, and paying golfers, who had already lost over two years of play due to COVID-19 related lockdown, did not suffer in any manner.

While retired containers were turned into office cubicles and washrooms, the construction of a new par 3 hole (hole 11) was the real challenge. The chosen spot lies at the lowest point on the course adjoining the Adyar river. With the 2015 floods in mind, provision has been made for drainage into the river, by laying two foot drainage pipes underneath at eight points along the contour, as a measure to contain flooding. Tifway Bermuda 419 grass has been used on this fairway and the slopes, and everyone agrees that it is a beauty. A 90-yard long net has been erected on the compound wall, ensuring that dhobis who work adjacent to it are protected from stray, miscued balls.

With thousands of grass to choose from, TNGF has opted for the Bermuda grass for the new tee boxes on holes 1, 5, 11, 12 and 13. No effort or cost was spared.

All these changes and the introduction of a new “sequence of play” present a different feel to the old-timers on the course. The new first tee – the old hole 17 – which requires an accurate and well-struck shot off the tee was trolled by many. Between the tee box and the green flows the Mambalam Canal, making the 90-yard crossing far tougher mentally rather than physically. Within days, however, with many golfers putting out for a par or bogey, the debate has died down. Those still faltering at the tee? It is more from apprehension than from a lack of skill.

Walking the course, with different shades of green, the decade-old trees in full bloom standing like sentinels along fairways, parrots flying overhead and kites winging down on a few fairways, is a sight to die for.

Preparations are on to welcome the PGTI tournament to be held between August 23 and 26; also to start the home tournaments after a gap of nearly three years. The roughs, allowed to grow to the maximum permissible height to meet the expectations of the professionals, is probably not what the old-timers expected.

Complaints or not, it is crowded out there. With fabulous weather over the last few days, many, including celebrities, are burning the course. Former and current cricketers are a notable bunch, obviously excited by the challenge of a realigned course.

- (The writer is the Lady Captain at Cosmo TNGF)