Golf in Ranchi: The CEPTA (Cockerel) Eco Park course

By Rahul Banerji

Returning to Ranchi after a near 26-year break was like taking a step back in time. Not very much has changed in the quarter-century between visits except that the city has grown, vertically.

Main Road is still Main Road, narrow, crowded, and chaotic. Firayalal’s is still the way it was all those years ago, the railway station is unchanged, and St Xavier’s has a new coat of paint on its high walls and not much else.

Genteel old Morabadi, where my grandfather settled after retiring from Eastern Coalfields, is now a bustling colony, unlike the quiet backwater it once was. The roads and lanes though are as they were the last time I saw them.

Ranchi is where we went every other year to visit my paternal grandparents. It was a quiet town where retirees settled or moneyed Bengali families from Calcutta sent their ailing relatives for convalescence.

Rabindranath Tagore has a memorial perched atop a hill in Morabadi which once looked out over rolling fields and streams where we roamed as boys.

Today it is a halt en-route to new colonies that have come up in the hinterland.

Twenty-six years ago, Ranchi was still part of undivided Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav was chief minister, and Shibu Soren a fiery agitationist for a new state. That happened in November of 2000, and while much changed with the creation of Jharkhand, a lot did not.

As my friend Krishnan Subramanian says of Madras, where we attended college years ago, “same old, same old”.

Today, Shibu Soren’s son Hemant is chief minister, Ranchi is a thriving city and the flights are packed. The airy and well-designed airport looks spanking new, and the roads outside are clogged with traffic. Same old, same old.

The only difference on a personal level was that 26 years ago, golf was only a gleam in the eye. Today, it is a part of life.

Seizing the moment

So when an opportunity came along recently, it was a chance to get in some miles on an unvisited course, in this case, the CEPTA (Cockerel Ecological Park and Training Area) in expanded form, at Dipatoli, Ranchi’s Army cantonment that sits on the road to Hazaribagh.

The Indian Army’s 23rd Division, formed in 1942 has a red cockerel (a fighting cock) as its badge that is based out of Dipatoli. The 23rd has a storied existence, having been part of the gallant defence of Imphal against the attacking Japanese forces in 1943 and 1944 during World War II.

The large and sprawling CEPTA golf course covering some 130 acres is a par-72, 18-hole layout that is somewhat unusual in that it has only one par-5 and one par-3 on the front nine, and three of each on the back nine.

Though only 6,304 yards from the tips, the Cockerel course is a good test for the visiting golfer. The fairways are rough and tough to say the least – preferred lies are in operation through the year – and the greens are handkerchief-sized tables.

Two features stood out for me, the par-5 second hole that is guarded on three sides by fearsome ponds, and the par-3 12^th on which one has to clear literally a mini-forest straight off the box. It is 177 yards to the green and getting a clean tee shot is vital.

Otherwise, add a bogey at the very least to your card. And mind the narrow gaps on more than one tee shot.

All in all, CEPTA is an enjoyable experience, especially once you get a hang of the layout and your yardage sorted out. The only issue is one of accessibility and one needs a member’s introduction.

And for that and much more, many thanks, Raj C. Verma, long-time family friend and avid golfer.

Also read: Golf in the Nilgiris-2: The Wellington Gymkhana Club