Shillong Golf Course
Shillong Golf Course, located in the East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya, is one of the oldest, biggest and finest natural golf circuits around the world. It is situated in a mesmerizing beautiful vale that is surrounded with thick pine and rhododendron forestation.
The United States Golf Association and Museum has given the title ‘Gleneagle of the East’ to the Shillong Golf Course citing its greenery and scenic splendor. It was started as a 9-hole golf course in the year 1898, at an altitude of 5200 feet and then it was converted it into an 18-hole course in 1924, by Captain Jackson and C.K. Rhodes. Since then, it has been a favorite haunt of golfers around the country. The then British officers often linked it to the golf course around Wales. The locals then could not have secured such plush land for a silly game like golf which they did not have any idea of. They would have preferred it in using the land for agricultural purposes. If the Britishers had not made it a golf course, this place would have been utilized as rice fields or occupied by a builder to make some mansions for some rich people. It consists of many small knolls covered in the green mat that rise and fall like sea waves, and seldom sprinkled by golden pine trees. The best part about the golf course is that it is just not for people who can swing the golf club; it is open to common people as well. This is the place where some of the most well-known figures of the British history swung their golf sticks during the scorching Indian summers some seventy years ago and still continues to be a destination for main golfing events to this date.
Photographers will have the best time at the golf course witnessing the implausible 18-hole golf course in Shillong. Lose yourself in the shades of green as you walk along the pitch road overlooking the spectacular green stretch.
Frequently visited by college students and school kids, it has become one of Shillong’s favorite spot to hang out. The big open space surrounded by pine trees makes one forget worries and anxiety. The Golf Club House at the twilight of the golf course was built in British style is a great pull for the first-timers. As the name suggests it might not be mistaken that this golf course is for single purpose use. Tourists who come to visit this place can spot many young college boys playing cricket, football, volleyball and so on.
Some of the local schools of Shillong opt for this place for carrying out their extracurricular activities such as outdoor games, picnic, etc.
In addition to the greenery, scenic beauty and calmness that the air of Shillong Golf Course has, people who are fond of street food can have a great time as the streets beside the Shillong Golf Course are crowded with local street food vendors. Some of the local street foods are Aloo muri, Pani Puri, Aloo Chana which are every day favorites’ of the thousands of youth as well as some old aged people of Shillong.
To conclude, the Shillong Golf Course is a boon to the Shillongities as well as the tourists who come to visit Shillong. This tourist spot itself describes the beauty of Shillong with its greenery, clean streets beside it and lots of old Assam-type cottages nearby and also the pine trees which are the reasons why Shillong is called the ‘Scotland of the East’.
