History

THE INCEPTION

RCGC was established in March 1829 as the Calcutta Golf Club and is the oldest golf club outside Britain, and perhaps the second oldest outside Scotland, with only The Royal Blackheath in England being older.
The title of Royal was added when the ‘Royal Charter’ was granted to the club in 1912. The record of this is available in the minutes of a meeting held in November 1912, from where we learn that the then Chief Secretary of Bengal conveyed the grant of the Royal Charter to our club by informing that His Imperial Majesty, the King Emperor, had been graciously pleased to grant the title of “Royal” to the Calcutta Golf Club in commemoration of his visit to Calcutta earlier that year.

THE EARLY YEARS

The club saw modest beginnings in 1829, starting with a nine-hole course in Dum Dum. In addition to this, the club soon started two nine-hole courses in the Maidan area. While the Dum Dum facility shut down in 1897, one of the Maidan courses may have been closed or modified when the Victoria Memorial came up while the second one closed down much later in 1939.

A NEW HOME

With the closure of the Dum Dum course, the committee started looking for a new site, primarily in the area around the Tollygunge Club. The present location, consisting mainly of paddy fields at that time, was finally confirmed and work started in 1907 even though land acquisition was slow, and all the land was not in possession. As can be imagined, a new course meant a large requirement of funds and this was primarily garnered through the issue of debentures, and by raising the annual subscription from Rs.30 to Rs.60 and entrance fee from Rs.70 to Rs.75. It will not be too far-fetched to imagine the 100% rise in subscription causing a great deal of debate and furore even back then.

The initial 9-hole course at the new premises was started on November 20, 1910 and the fully operational 18hole course opened for play from December 22, 1912. The designers of the course were our very own members, J.A. Tassie, member of the committee from 1908 to 1913, and J.A. Anderson, the Honorary Secretary.

RCGC, in fact, built another 18-hole course when the membership swelled after the first course was opened. The Committee kept purchasing the adjacent land, and by 1923, 11 holes were opened, and by 1925, a full additional 18-hole course was operational. Much like the two courses at the home of golf, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Scotland, ours were also called the old course and new course. Both courses were kept busy till the 60’s but following the big devaluation of the Rupee, many expatriates left the country. The situation The Redesigned Course in 1978 worsened during the difficult period from 1967 to 1972 and there were frequent skirmishes around the periphery of the course and sometimes on our land as well. It was not uncommon to find bodies on the course as well. In 1972, the committee reluctantly decided to shut down the new course and sell a part of the 208 acres of land to CMDA. After the sale of the land, the course was redesigned by the legendary Australian golfer, Peter Thomson, and forms the basis for the layout of the course we see today.

The Royal has been a very popular venue for many prestigious amateur and professional events including our very own Indian Open. Many a renowned International golfers have walked the fairways of Royal – the most significant ones being – Walter Hagen, Pamela Barton, Peter Thompson, Payne Stewart, Charles Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen amongst others. Our own greats – I.S. Malik, H.S. Malik, Billoo Sethi, Ashok Malik, ‘Bunny’ Lakshman Singh, Jeev Milkha Singh, Arjun Atwal, Jyoti Randhawa, SSP Chawrasia and Anirban Lahiri have all been a part of the Royal golfing heritage and history!