The Bombay Presidency Golf Club

Overview: The Bombay Presidency Golf Club is an 18-hole parkland course in Chembur, eastern Mumbai. The club's official factsheet lists a par of 70 and 6,148 yards, making this a compact but demanding city course rather than a long resort layout. Mature trees, seven water bodies, 43 bunkers and 11 other hazards are part of the published course profile. The setting is unusually urban: land that was once on the edge of Bombay is now surrounded by the expanding city, so the round combines traditional club character with the close-up energy of metropolitan Mumbai.

History: BPGC was built in 1927 and originally reflected the British-colonial parkland tradition, with mature trees but comparatively little change in elevation. Nelson & Haworth were commissioned to prepare a comprehensive renovation plan in 1996; work eventually proceeded in stages, with nine holes renovated at a time. The redesign focused on drainage, fairway construction and putting surfaces while retaining the established look and feel of the course. That balance explains the club's identity today: a historic Mumbai membership institution with a substantially modernised playing surface, while the 2009 project completion marks the major renovation rather than the club's founding.

Did You Know? The fourth hole is both the longest and the toughest hole in the club's official factsheet: a 508-yard par five. By contrast, the tenth is listed at only 140 yards and is the shortest hole, a par three. The contrast captures BPGC's scale well; length is not the only defence, and the course asks players to manage very different kinds of risk across a relatively tight urban site.