In conversation with Gaurav Pundir, Golf Superintendent at Tolly Club

There is an aged gentleman who takes care of the basketball courts I frequent. We all appreciate the work he does, brushing the four courts clean of the dry leaves, sweeping away the water on rainy days and chasing away the stray dogs. He keeps the courts in playable condition. The courts must be about 360×170 feet of area combined, and it takes quite some time for him to keep the courts clean.

Now picture a golf course of over 100 acres, and imagine the amount of work and expertise it would require to keep it in top-notch condition.

The 18-hole golf course would make one stagger in disbelief at the incredible magnitude of the task of the greens-keeper. The grass has to be cut precisely down to the last millimetre. 4 millimetres on the putting green, a different size on the fairway, a different one on the first and second cuts and different on the rough.

Think of a billiards table, an expensive piece of equipment because of its immaculate green carpet. Now extrapolate the size of that table over 100 acres and you get some idea of the herculean task the golf course superintendent has to undertake. They have to plant the grass and trees, rake the bunkers, and keep it all clean and well maintained. It is a full-time job. The greens are in use half the time. You need to figure your way around that schedule and at the same time ensure that the course is operating properly.

Gaurav Pundir is the Golf Superintendent at the Tolly Club. To put it in a nutshell, he takes care of the golf course and the entire ecological environment enclosed inside the Tolly club premises.

“I am a qualified forester,” said Gaurav Pundir. “My job is to take care of the trees, the shrubs, the wildlife and the landscaping. It is a full-time gig. Every day I go around every stretch of the greens four or five times. Often the duties overlap. Beautifying the landscape while some construction is going on, to mask the behind the scenes work. “

Getting started

Pundir has done an MBA in Human Resource Management, which enables him to be better equipped to manage the workforce.

“I’m very passionate about my job. I enjoy it and it does not seem like very hard work to me. I was born in Dehradun. The army had a golf course adjacent to my school, Cambrian Hall. It wasn’t always meticulously well maintained as the army’s budget was a little less. It made me look at the niche of maintaining a golf course.

“The Indian Golf Union was formed by six golf clubs. The Delhi Club, Bombay Club, the Wellington Golf Club, the Tollygunge Golf Club and the Madras Gymkhana (which is no longer a golf course). I have been involved with five of those six clubs. Each club has a different climate conditions, different fungal infections and diseases which come on the golf course, different soil profile, and I acclimated myself to all of them. Before working at the Tollygunge Club, I worked at the Delhi Golf Club and the Bombay Presidency Golf Club.

“In India, there is no course which qualifies you as a turf manager. I learned on the job and worked on my knowledge of forestry and horticulture. I studied pathogens, entomology, physiology of grass; everything which I felt was relevant. Knowing is half the battle. You need a lot of skilled manpower to do the basic minimum maintenance.”

More of an art, than a science

The kind of material used to feed the greens nutrients is quite important. Resourcefully, Gaurav has come up with his own mix.

“This club has some unique variables. There are four kitchens here, which cater to the club and there’s a stable where horses are reared. I use the waste products from both, combined with the dry leaves of the course to prepare compost. A similar model was applied at ITC Sonar, and we have implemented it here. We use it for the horticultural work and landscaping. We don’t use any chemical fertilizer; the club generates its own compost.

“There are a lot of variables which come into play. The grass needs to be mowed, watered and assured of sunlight for preferably six hours every day. The grass affects the game in so many ways. Like a sunflower which follows the sun, the grass does so too. Some areas on the course are shaded by trees so they don’t get as much sunlight as the others.

“Earlier, courses would be watered manually. At the Tolly club we have installed an automatic irrigation system, designed by Rainbird. Tolly is the first club in India to use an Integrated Controlled Module system. You just press a few buttons and the sprinklers pop out of the ground. I regularly interface with experts in USA and Australia about equipment.”

Versatility

“Maintaining a golf course is more of an art than a science. You need to rely on your instinct instead of expecting to get precise numbers, which help you make a decision. You need to read the greens and act accordingly. If a section of the greens is shady, it needs less water. If it experiences sunlight for long periods of the day, it needs more water.

“There are 18 holes and all have their own distinct characteristics. The course needs to be designed and maintained according to the profile of the golfers who frequent the links.”

Natural preserve

The Tolly Golf Club is rich with a variety of flora. “The head of pathology, a taxonomist from the Forest Research Institute of Dehradun, came to asses our flora. In collaboration with the FRI, we identified 140 different species in the 108 acre area.” said Gaurav.

Having that much variety in such a small space is indeed quite astonishing.

Keeping animals in check

“A golf course is huge. Flora and fauna abound. There are also jackals here, something rare in a metro city. Because of wildlife preservation laws you need to be careful about how you deal with them. There are also storks on the course. It’s not just plants that we have to take care off. Tolly club is one of the few courses in India which allows domestic animals.”

Animals keeping grass in check

Bleating about the bush a bit, at Settler’s Golf Club in Canada there are two goats named ‘Whipper and Snipper.’ They help maintain the course by chewing the grass. Has Gaurav ever used animals too?

“Not intentionally, but that reminds me of an instance at the Delhi Golf Course. We were keeping some red grass, Iresene grass which is used as a hedge in the landscaping area, and one morning I went to find that it had been neatly trimmed. I gathered the workers and gave them a tongue lashing for disturbing the grass. The next day, once again the grass was trimmed neatly. Two days in a row the grass was cut with nobody owning up. I ordered the guards to keep an eye on that section, and the next morning they reported that the grass was cut by Sambar deer (Cervus Unicolor). That gave us all a good laugh! We made sure to keep them away from the grass from then on.”

Making the sport accessible

“We really want to shatter the stereotype that golf is a sport for the upper class. The Tolly club in its effort to promote junior golf and produce champions in the city has a junior program where deserving juniors of the city are given an opportunity to come and hone their skills. Getting the next generation involved in the game is one of our priorities.

“To be where I am you need to have a passion for the sport. The doors will open for you if you put in the work. Someday I hope to write a book about maintaining golf courses in tropical climate of India. There are books released by the USGA (United States Golf Association) but that is about the temperate climate. While that helps, it doesn’t apply in India. I’d like to see specialized teaching about turf management in India soon.”