Srinagar Swing: Royal Springs is a real test of accuracy and stamina

By Rahul Banerji

If you intend to play at the Royal Springs Golf Club in Srinagar, make sure to take two things along; a good supply of spare balls and a bag load of stamina.

First of all, as some of you may have noticed in these columns, get your timing right.

Spring isn’t a great time for golf in the Kashmir Valley, no matter what the official websites of the territory’s tourism department tell you.

Of the four working courses in the Valley, three are presently non-functioning.

The Lidder Valley GC in Pahalgam shut as a Covid precaution a year ago and is still closed. The Kashmir Golf Club in the heart of Srinagar is “undergoing renovation”.

The Gulmarg GC is only thrown open when the snow stops, and this year the white stuff was coming down in buckets till late April.

So that leaves the youngest and best-known course in the Kashmir Valley, Royal Springs, as a viable alternative.

Here’s an early word of caution to intending visitors, though. Spring isn’t the best time at this track either.

Rough stuff

A great deal of what the literature, and stories, say about Royal Springs is true.

It’s spectacular. Has a great location, a superb layout designed by “world famous golf architect, Robert Trent Jones II, who has designed more than 500 golf courses all over the world”, as J&K Tourism informs us.

But there are traps in all the exquisiteness that will quickly envelop the golfer walking onto the course.

Early on in the season as I got to play Royal Springs, the roughs are thick, the turf unfamiliar to us flatlanders and the layout a fairly testing one.

It’s not a very long course, 6,985 yards from the tips and 6,515 yards from the blue tees but there’s a small catch.

Hole distances on the card are marked in metres, so for those used to gauging in yards, remember to add the extra distance to every hole, some of which can be disruptive if you have forgotten.

Great views

Overall, Royal Springs offers not just a solid golf test, it also comes with a spectacular layout and some great views, with the Zabarwan Mountains on one side, and Dal Lake on the other.

The signature hole five in fact is called “Dal’s Vista”, the tee being at the highest point of the course from where fairway slopes down to the green, with the lake spread out behind that.

The view in fact is sometimes enough to distract, with water waiting on the right for the unwary golfer.

Before that though, you have to negotiate four, a seriously tricky par-4 that forces all the accuracy that you can find before reaching the small green.

The rest of the front nine is relatively unthreatening and after the turn and a break at the well-appointed restaurant that has great views of the hills is the start of the real fun.

Of either side, the back nine was personally more testing, but that’s thanks to my lack of accuracy. But there are two hellish tests on the way back to the clubhouse.

Twisty challenge

The par-3 12^th curves all the way from the tee to the green with thick rough on either side waiting to trap wayward balls. Just reaching in regulation was a test on both days I got to play, and once that is done there’s worse to come.

The par-5 14^th can squeeze the life out of the casual hitter. Like almost every hole on the course, it twists and turns (some holes are in fact double dog-legs) and leaving the fairway is punishment in itself.

In short, be prepared to be very patient and limited in aim to get a readable score on your card, or to pay heavily for ambition and a total that is best forgotten as quickly as possible.

Let me also add a short description of the course from the club’s website itself:.

“Play starts at the long par-5 bordering a lake. An easy par 3 (follows) and a tricky par 4 which looks straight-forward enough, but is perhaps the most difficult hole on the course.

“Having summoned this challenge the golfer may feast his eyes on the downhill fifth par 3 green.

“At the tee (the highest point on the course), the splendid vista that reveals itself may take the golfer’s concentration astray when it is needed the most.

Some relief

“The 6th and 7th holes are a relief for the average golfer before the par-4 dog-leg eighth with its temptation to the ambitious golfer and the lakeside ninth brings him into the club house for a much needed drink.

“Going out, suitably refreshed the par 5 tenth is a double dog-leg across a natural marsh filled with reeds (my note: a real soul-buster).

“Caution pays at this hole as well as on the next par 4 eleventh, an intimidating stretch of fairway between marsh and lake.

“The wicked par 3 twelve between marsh and hillside can pose serious problems from the championship tee.

The par 4 thirteenth is a great relief after these challenging holes before the par 5 fourteenth which poses no problem to accurate players.

“The fifteenth is an easy downhill par 4 and the par 4 sixteenth too should pose no problems to accurate green readers.

“The par 4 seventeenth needs a correct drive from the tee and its green demands putting control.

Skill needed

“The long eighteenth requires all the skills in the golfer’s bag from the championship tee. A long accurate drive followed by expert Iron-play. The lake to the right after the fairway extends all the way to the green.

“Loose shots mean lost balls.”

Put that in your pipe and mull on what it could mean. This is of course, for the weekend warrior, not the big girls and boys who know one end of the stick from the other.

Green fees are at Rs 2,500 for 18 holes, and the starter was extremely kind in waiting till I finished the round in case the weather shifted as it was drizzly on the my first day on the the course, a courtesy that was much appreciated.

Caddy fees round off at Rs 500 including a tip but they will squeeze an extra 200 out for the trolley, again not a totally new experience.

If expectations are realistic, Royal Springs is very much a course to put on your bucket list.

An additional reason to visit is the small but extremely toothsome menu at the restaurant which has the option of panoramic vistas of green that go very well with a refreshing drink.

And I cannot even begin to describe to you the sheer pleasure of a proper breakfast that the restaurant offered after six straight days of nondescript ghas-bhoosa fare back at the hotel.

There’s a lot to be said about two smiling fried eggs, crisp buttered toast, and a pot of hot, strong tea.

Soon though, it was time to hop on to a flight, and a return to the expanding cloud of Covid reality that has enveloped us all in its deathly embrace.

Also read: Srinagar Swing: Of a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow