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usinessmen from all over the world are finding themselves in India for the outstanding business opportunities that now exist there. Therefore for the keen golfing businessman this section of golf in India should be of considerable interest.

Bombay Presidency golf course

India has become a very attractive country for investment with Bombay and Delhi the major

The Royal Calcutta GC clubhouse

The Delhi Golf Club course

New Delhi itself, I must admit, was a slight social shock with its teeming roads and open anarchy of the drivers, but then the sub-continent of India does have a population of nine hundred million, although I got the impression most of them went everywhere I did. Unfortunately you do see considerable poverty but as my guide pointed out, ten per cent of India's population can afford anything they want in the world, which means there are more or less ninety million millionaires and as he said you cannot ignore that buying power; you certainly can't. But apart from unlimited wealth and poverty, golf is becoming popular.

Agra's most famous monument, the Taj Mahal

Naturally wherever the British have been there have to be golf courses and the New Delhi Golf Club has become so popular there is a waiting list stretching far into the future and a problem with tee times at weekends. The course itself is unmistakably Indian with old tombs or temples nestling throughout the course that has a returning nine to the clubhouse where one can sip a beer or have a very leisurely lunch.

Carpet weaving in Agra

During my visit I had a white knuckle four and a half hours drive to Agra where stands the Taj Mahal mausoleum, well worth seeing and most probably the most beautiful building I have ever set eyes on. The wonderful story of Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to their fourteenth child and to whom it is dedicated matches its beauty. Watching local craftsmen at work in marble and weaving exotic carpets was fascinating and like all good tourists I returned home with reminders of their work.

The Hyderabad course

Eagleton course, Bidadi in Bangalore

Nevertheless there are some major resorts under construction close to Delhi and Calcutta involving such commercial names as Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman - as yet they are not open, but should be next year. Historically India has it over most countries with the oldest golf course in the world outside the UK, in Calcutta, which I believe is in the throes of having a facelift. It will be interesting to see whether golf in India takes hold the way it is beginning to in other developing countries, but it has certainly started.

The camel is widely used for transportation

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