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Photos: S. Mahinsha

Link to the past A copper pot and cast iron putting cup.

Little seems to have changed as one enters the Trivandrum Golf Club through a majestic gate flanked by granite pillars that bear the insignia of the royal house of erstwhile Travancore. A short driveway leads to the heritage club house, a gracious blend of traditional, Chinese and colonial architecture. Exquisitely crafted antique doors, ornamented with trellis work, open into the club’s 7,000-square feet club house. Worked wooden pillars and carved gables add to the old-world charm of the building while the blue hills of the Western Ghats bathed in the rays of the rising sun form a picturesque backdrop for the course.

It was a royal order that made the course on a par with the best in the world.

“An English officer stationed in Trivandrum requested the then ruler Uthram Tirunal Marthanda Varma (1847-1860) for a ‘golf playing area.’ Probably, the golf course came into existence during the reign of Aayiliam Thirunal (1860-80) or his successor Visakham Thirunal (1880-85),” says Philipose Thomas, a former president of the club.

The picture-perfect club house

An article in the centenary souvenir brought out by the club in 1983 mentions Chitira Tirunal, the last ruler of erstwhile Travancore, saying that the course was set up during the reign of Visakham Tirunal, a good golfer himself.

However, Philipose points out that documents prove that it was during the reign of Mulam Tirunal that the work on the club house was completed. “A letter from the palace to the then Chief Engineer requested him to expedite the work on the building and asked for the accounts of the construction.”

Mulam Tirunal, an avid golfer, played with wooden clubs and gutta percha balls.

As water was not scarce in those days, the course remained emerald green all though the year. The pump house itself is an architectural delight with its red-tiled, pagoda style roof. Two artisan wells fitted with hand pumps were used to draw the water that was filled into tanks. Gardeners carried the water in copper and brass pots to water the greens and the fairway.

“A huge lawn-mower was pulled by bullocks to maintain the greens. But the fairway was not mowed. Instead sheep were brought from Thirunelveli to clip the grass on the fairway,” remembers Bhaskaran, the last shepherd on the golf course. A good golfer himself, Bhaskaran recounts that the sheep were kept on the premises of the golf course till they were auctioned off in 1964.

A view of the course

The ownership of the golf links passed into the hands of the Government of Kerala in 1950. Till then it was for the exclusive use of the royal family and their guests. Prior permission had to be secured from the palace administration to play on the course. “In those days, an unusual approach to one of the greens was up and over the pump house. It was the late Col. Goda Raja Varma, my brother-in-law, who ensured that the game did not fade into oblivion after 1950,” recalls Uthradom Tirunal Marthanda Varma, head of the royal family of erstwhile Travancore. Goda Varma Raja motivated many residents in the city to take to the game and trained them himself.

“In those days, it was a very exclusive club and membership was by invitation,” remembers S. Padmakumar, a former president of the club. He recalls renowned Australian golfer Peter Thompson coming down to Thiruvananthapuram. He was brought to Kerala to study the feasibility of developing a golf course in Kovalam. But he found the terrain in Kovalam quite unsuitable for a golf course. His advice was to develop and maintain the course of the Trivandrum Gold Club. Reputed golf correspondent Dick Severino and R.F. Loving, a golf architect from the United States, also visited the golf links.

“A nine-hole golf course located in Trivandrum with a beautiful club house probably has more enthusiastic members than any golf club in India . …. The group of golfers in Trivandrum …, have a very old heritage and trace their origin back a century or more. Trivandrum should be kept alive and well even though it is only nine holes…” wrote Loving. However, time and weather had taken a toll of the heritage buildings on the premises of the golf club.

“A beautiful wooden structure near the second green called ‘Ettu kotta pura’ was destroyed when a mahogany was uprooted during a storm in the Eighties. Beautifully carved and decorated, the building had wooden railings all around. I remember my father, Ramaswamy, telling me that carpenters from North Kerala were brought to the city for the wood work,” remembers Bhaskaran.

Extensive conservation measures were initiated in 2002 to preserve the heritage buildings. ‘One of the pillars had given way and we had to bring down the roof to replace the pillar. Prior to that, the entire club building was extensively photographed from different angles. We found that almost the entire roof was covered with copper sheeting, probably to prevent seepage. Beneath that came reapers to support the sheeting. Some of the sheets had to be replaced,” says Raghuchandran Nair, a former secretary of the club.

The brass and copper pots that were once used to water the greens and a cast iron putting cup are now showcased in the club house. So are the wooden clubs, most likely used by Sri Mulam Tirunal himself. “We found several golf-based drawings by Bhawani Amma Thampuran, granddaughter of Raja Ravi Varma. Those were framed and mounted on the wall of the club house.”

The exquisitely worked antique doors of the club house

These drawings are apparently reproductions of caricatures that had appeared in Punch, which were reproduced by Bhawani Amma Thampuram. The conservation measures restored the architectural grandeur of the ‘golf pavilion’ which has been highlighted as an ideal blend of Kerala architecture in T.K. Velu Pillai ‘The Travancore State Manual’ (Vol IV). Tourists visit the course to play as well as to gawk at the heritage building and the marvellous view.

“The course is home to more than 3,000 species of flora and birds of all kinds. It is a vital green lung of the city that has to be preserved at all costs to prevent it from being swallowed by concrete jungles,” points out John Thomas, captain of the course.

Avid golfers hope the Government of Kerala preserves the heritage course that has weathered many hazards but still retains it links to a gracious past.

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