{"id":634,"date":"2023-06-23T06:35:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T06:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coorggolflinks.in\/?page_id=634"},"modified":"2023-09-22T10:55:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T10:55:10","slug":"captains-club","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/coorggolflinks.in\/?page_id=634","title":{"rendered":"Captains Club"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Captians Club<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A Brief History <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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On a monsoon morning with a string of cirrus clouds lurking in the southwestern sky, CGL\u2019s four captains to date, gathered in the veranda of the clubhouse to relive 25 years of the club\u2019s existence. From its humble beginnings as a supposedly absurd idea born on a barstool, to one of India\u2019s finest 18-hole courses, KK Aiyapa, Maj Gen SK Kariappa, DA Uthappa and KS Uthaiah recall the good times as well as the hard spells they had to weather. Together they\u2019ve carved a picturesque course from an impossible countryside with marshes, paddy fields and a hillside strewn with boulders. Collectively they\u2019ve built Coorg Golf Links, a course that combines all three schools of golf design \u2013 heroic, strategic, and penal \u2013 in effect creating a course that\u2019s as challenging to play as it is beautiful.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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KK Aiyapa:<\/strong> Coorg has a long history with golf. The game has been played here by some accounts, for over a century. And golf can be both addictive and evoke the strongest passions. It was this passion that drove a few golfers like us to dream of building our own golf course.<\/p>

Maj Gen Kariappa:<\/strong> Did he tell you where he got the inspiration? The moment lightning struck? Literally, from the seat of his pants. He was sitting on a bar stool and drinking\u2026<\/p>

KK Aiyapa:<\/strong> [laughing] This was in the late \u201980s. As members of the Bamboo Club in Pollibetta we could play golf on an adjoining small 9-hole course that belonged to TATA Coffee. A game of golf was always followed by long beer sessions at the Bamboo Club. The conversation at these sessions was almost always about golf \u2013 the rules of golf, the handicap of players and so on. It was at one of these late night affairs in 1987 that the idea of starting an independent golf course was born.<\/p>

Maj Gen Kariappa:<\/strong> He was a little upset that the TATA Coffee course was not up to the standard. After the second or third drink he had a brainwave \u2013 that we will have our own course. And he had a bunch of likeminded friends sitting with him and between them they decided to go ahead with this plan. KK Aiyapa: It seemed a rather far-fetched dream at that point.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cWhen we started it was difficult to\ngather 200 members, today we are at\nabout 1400 members.\u201d<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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But undaunted, we started working towards this dream. And mobilized funds to acquire the land needed for the course. In 1990, we identified about 40 acres of land at Bittangala near Virajpet. The place itself was a neglected wetland, which had become marshy due to stagnation of water. No one ever thought it possible that a golf course could come up on marshy land without adequate finance and equipment. For golfers from outside Coorg it seemed absurd to use bullockdriven ploughs and plank levelers to bring the land into shape. It was sheer determination and faith in ourselves that helped us realize this dream. Acquiring land, raising finances and the struggle to get members was at times frustrating. It was only the trust and positive attitude of members in the committee that kept the project on track.<\/p>

Maj Gen Kariappa:<\/strong> I took over as a captain in 2005, reluctantly. Aiyapa had a big advantage. He was my senior in school, so I think he still wields that stick. \u201cYou will come\u201d, he said. I joined the committee in 2000 and was with the committee for five years before I became captain. Now, I don\u2019t think Aiyapa in his modesty has told you the exact conditions in which this course was developed.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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There were actually no resources available \u2013 no machinery and no money. We collected a small subscription from all the members. Those days we had about 300 to 340 members, each of them paying us about `3,000 a year. That made it about `10-12 lakhs a year and there was no money beyond that. The situation was so difficult at times, that we had to go to our members for loans, which some of them were kind enough to extend to the club. There was many a time when our friend Aiyapa would take out his personal cheque book and pay the labour wages for the staff. Of course that was one thing I told him when I became captain, that I didn\u2019t have a cheque book. [laughing]<\/p>

KK Aiyapa:<\/strong> In Coorg it\u2019s not an easy job to get members. Financially, people are a little conservative. It was difficult to get members initially. So we introduced the concept of founder members. 200 founder members got benefits like nominating their children to the club without being charged entrance fees. Initially we had to do this to get more members. When we started it was difficult to gather 200 members. Today we are at about 1400 members.<\/p>

It took them about 6 months. We had to actually claw our way through that hill face. It took a lot of effort and planning. But eventually the course came up and the fairways were drawn out and we had an 18-hole course. Slowly, we were getting a few more members and the funds started to improve. Enough to pay the wages and to buy some small equipment. Even then, I remember, we could only afford to buy one brush cutter. And when it used to break down, we had to send it to Mercara and keep our fingers crossed and hope it got repaired. We then got a small grant from the Central Tourism Department, which helped us put a basic structure for the guestrooms and a little dining room. Initially it was just a shack\u2026 It was nice but when it rained, it was a challenge to stay dry.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cDespite the fact that we were short of funds, we had big ideas.\u201d<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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But undaunted, we started working towards this dream. And mobilized funds to acquire the land needed for the course. In 1990, we identified about 40 acres of land at Bittangala near Virajpet. The place itself was a neglected wetland, which had become marshy due to stagnation of water. No one ever thought it possible that a golf course could come up on marshy land without adequate finance and equipment. For golfers from outside Coorg it seemed absurd to use bullockdriven ploughs and plank levelers to bring the land into shape. It was sheer determination and faith in ourselves that helped us realize this dream. Acquiring land, raising finances and the struggle to get members was at times frustrating. It was only the trust and positive attitude of members in the committee that kept the project on track.<\/p>

Maj Gen Kariappa:<\/strong> I took over as a captain in 2005, reluctantly. Aiyapa had a big advantage. He was my senior in school, so I think he still wields that stick. \u201cYou will come\u201d, he said. I joined the committee in 2000 and was with the committee for five years before I became captain. Now, I don\u2019t think Aiyapa in his modesty has told you the exact conditions in which this course was developed.\u00a0<\/p>

Maj Gen Kariappa:<\/strong> The problem back then was shortage of funds. But despite the fact that we were short of funds, we had big ideas. We wanted to make this a full-fledged 18- hole course. If you look at the front nine, the first challenge was visualising the layout of course in an area that was a hillside. You had to visualise four to five fairways there \u2013 that is what Aiyapa had planned. Having visualised the fairways, then came the question of constructing them. The area had huge boulders. Manually there was nothing that could be done. Fortunately we had a few friends in the defence services and they were able to send us their heavy dozers.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captians Club A Brief History On a monsoon morning with a string of cirrus clouds lurking in the southwestern sky, CGL\u2019s four captains to date, gathered in the veranda of the clubhouse to relive 25 years of the club\u2019s existence. From its humble beginnings as a supposedly absurd idea born on a barstool, to one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-634","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coorggolflinks.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coorggolflinks.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coorggolflinks.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coorggolflinks.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coorggolflinks.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coorggolflinks.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coorggolflinks.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}