The DGC Open tournament was held at the Delhi Golf Club over the last weekend of March. Like many times in the past, I went to see the action on the final day. While following the players on familiar grounds, memories of my association with the Club flashed through my mind.
I have been familiar with the DGC for almost as long as I have been playing golf. I had taken up the game in NDA Kharakvasla end-1964 at the insistence of my friends Lalit 'Tiger' Talwar and Subodh 'Guppy' Gupta under the tutelage of the inimitable czarist pretender, Dimitry 'Dimmy' Jouralov. Soon after, I was transferred to Delhi and applied for membership of the DGC. A short interview with the Managing Committee headed by Major General Virinder Singh and I was a member in September 1965. There were very few golfers in those days and I remember many games played in solitude without objections from anyone. At times, I could find someone looking for company as, on one occasion, a smart, dapper looking Air Vice Marshal Ranjan Dutt decided to join me. He was impeccably attired and, looking not too pleased with my golf equipment, asked me to get myself some shoes and a dozen gloves from abroad. How and at what cost was left for me to figure out.
The first major tournament I watched was the 1966 Indian Open. The inaugural Open in 1964 was played at the DGC and was won by the great Australian Peter Thomson. The next year, the tournament was played in Calcutta and Major PG 'Billoo' Sethi, an amateur, was the runaway winner with a score of -10, a lead of 7 over the British professional, Guy Wolstenholme. Incidentally, to this day, Billoo Sethi remains the only amateur to have won this tournament.
The Open returned to Delhi in '66 and we were all waiting for it anxiously what with Peter Thomson coming back to take part facing the red hot Billoo Sethi and other famous professionals mostly from UK. On the final Sunday, it looked as if the home crowd was going to be delighted with the result. Billoo Sethi and Peter Thomson came to the 10th tee with the former leading by 2 strokes. Both were on the green in two on the par 4 hole with Billoo lying just 15 feet level with the hole while Peter was about 50 feet away at the bottom of the green with an up-slope to manoeuvre. The crowd was secretly hoping for Peter to 3-putt and Billoo to make a birdie and extend the lead to 4. But we hadn't reckoned with Peter's capabilities which made him win the British Open a record 5 times; he made the huge birdie putt which must have shaken Billoo because he scrambled for a bogey. Lead neutralised! Peter continued with his magic making 4 birdies in the next 5 holes and eventually emerged winner by 6 strokes.
I was continuing my golf at the Club and had Flt Lt (later Air Marshal) KC 'Nanda' Cariappa as my regular playing companion. Nanda had been taken prisoner of war when his plane was shot down in the '65 war. On release, Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh took him as his ADC. I was Flag Lieutenant to the Commandant National Defence College, Air Marshal L Rajaram, and Nanda and I used to meet at all Air Force and Defence Services' functions. Both being fond of golf and members of DGC, we naturally started playing together.
Through the year, there were many amateur tournaments to witness at which the prominent figures were Billoo Sethi, Ashok Malik and my favourite player in those days, Rajkumar 'Pit' Pitamber. With Ashok's father, the respected HS Malik keeping a benevolent eye on all, a new crop of young golfers was emerging consisting of Vikramjit Singh, Manmohan Singh and Manjit Singh. The last named is presently the President of the Club.
I was transferred out of Delhi in early 1967 but never lost the chance to play at the Club whenever in Delhi. In particular, I remember a smooth round of 9 over with 9 pars and 9 bogeys at the Services' Championships in '69. I had two postings in Delhi, '75-'76 and '80-'82, during which I made good use of the Club.
In 1989, I left the Navy and settled down in Delhi. That has given me the chance to watch a number of Indian Opens at the DGC. I was a witness to Ali Sher making history in 1991 by becoming the first Indian professional to win the Open. He repeated this feat when the Open returned to Delhi in '93 after the previous year in Kolkata. Meanwhile, the golf bug had bitten Ruchir who took up Ali Sher as his coach. That gave us a chance to play with the champion many times.
In 2008, I was there when Shiv Chawrasia was hoisted on the shoulders of fellow Delhi caddies who went wild with delight on his winning the only Indian Masters held so far. For this Championship, my friend and neighbour, Champika Sayal, one of the organisers of the tournament, invited me to be one of the Marshals, an offer I quickly accepted as it gave me an opportunity to closely follow some famous players like Ernie Els, Thomas Bjorn, Graeme McDowell and Mark O'Meara in action. All the more remarkable for Shiv Chawrasia to have beaten them all!
DGC has proved to be a good hunting ground for Shiv Chawrasia who won the Open there in 2016. Thereafter, the Course underwent a major overhaul and redesign by one of the best golfers of all time, Gary Player, also known as the Black Knight because of his craze for always playing dressed in black which was odd considering that Gary was a supporter of apartheid in his younger days. The Course was readied in time for the 2022 Open and the 86-year old Gary Player was not only present at the opening but also played a couple of rounds.
Back to the finals, I was walking with the last threeball consisting of the Indian Ajeetesh Sandhu and two Thai players, Nitithorn Thippong and Settee Prakongvech. Going into the last round, Thippong was leading Ajeetesh by two strokes with the other Thai a further stroke behind. By the 16th hole, Ajeetesh had turned the tables leading Thippong by two strokes and it looked as if we would have an Indian winner. On the short par-3 17th hole, however, Ajeetesh's tee shot found the bushes and he dropped two strokes. Lead blown and both were even now. All three scored birdies on the par-5 18th resulting in Ajeetesh and Thippong ending up tied while Prakongvech remained one behind to settle for third position. For the two tied players, it was back to the 18th tee for the sudden death playoff. Thippong made a perfect drive but Ajeetesh found the bushes again and lost the hole by a stroke thus losing the trophy to Thippong and ending runner-up.
Now for the untold part of my story. I have written about my DGC association earlier too and have been asked by some why I am not seen on the Course or the Club now. Therein hangs a sorry tale.
My membership was active till end-1982 when I had a tiff with the then Secretary who was actually a friend of mine. In my life, there has hardly been any act of mine which I have regretted subsequently but here is a rare one. In a senseless huff, I sent the Secretary a letter resigning my membership. The resignation was based on two wrong premises; one, that the Secretary being a good friend would not take any action on my letter without asking me to reconsider; two, by that time I was 50% sure that I would be leaving the Navy soon and would settle down in my hometown of Jaipur and not Delhi.
As it turned out, I was wrong on both counts. Firstly, the Secretary processed my letter forthwith and secondly, though I did leave the Navy, I was offered a job in Delhi and fetched up there!
In 1989 when I came to Delhi to take up my civilian job, I met Mr. Sankaran Nair, ex-President of DGC and High Commissioner in Singapore when I was the Defence Adviser there. He was fond of me and we had got along well in Singapore and played a lot of golf together. I told him my golf story and he said he would see if something could be done. He spoke to some members of the Committee and asked me to speak to a few others at the end of which Mr. Nair expressed optimism that the membership would be restored at the next Committee meeting.
However, it was not to be. Unfortunately, a couple of blacklisted members who had been stripped off their membership for disciplinary reasons contrived to combine their cases for restoring membership along with mine. When the matter was put up in the meeting, a prominent member and past President, Mr. Dharma Vira, expressed his indignation at the blacklisted members trying to effect a backdoor entry and the item was summarily rejected without considering my case at all.
Apart from the fact that the two other cases were unjustified and should not have been clubbed with mine, the major irony was that the one member both Mr. Nair and I overlooked to speak to was Mr. Vira. With common roots in Bijnor, Mr. Vira was a very good friend of my father-in-law and if we had apprised him of my case, the outcome might have been different.
For a long time, I rued my decision to resign the DGC membership and felt bad speaking about it. Over the years, however, I have come to terms with it and am now content with playing at the Army Golf Course (AGC) which, I am glad to say, has progressed very well. Of course, as far as the golf course itself is concerned, it does not have the space or finances to compete with the DGC. But its bar, restaurants and the party venues are second to none. While the DGC sitting spaces open up only to the south-west, the rooftop of the AGC Clubhouse gives a 360* view of the lush greenery all round. With a band playing on weekends and moonlight to boot, one can have a memorable evening at the Club 'With a flask of wine, and thou beside me singing in...paradise enow'.
I could have had the best of both worlds though!
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