Success mantra for realty projects: Golf

Even as cricket grabs most of the revenue pie in the sports market in the country, irrespective of the Indian team's performance, golf, with its corporate backing and rising marketing initiatives is slowly establishing a foothold.

Developers say that by 2009, corporate India would have established 220 golf courses in their office premises, residential complexes, integrated townships, SEZs among others.

Moving away from the traditional practice of offering facilities like a club house, swimming pool, gymnasium and others, developers are now adding in-house golf courses. Most of the leading players like Emaar MGF, DLF and others have already started the trend of setting up golf courses at their residential facilities and many more are in the fray.

Moreover, the trend is being encouraged by the local authorities too. For instance, the City Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), the planning authority for Navi Mumbai has made it mandatory to have a golf course alongwith residential complexes in a 70:30 ratio at two suburbs, Kharghar and Nerul.

According to Dharmesh Raichura, Managing Director, Mumbai-based BSEL Infrastructure Realty Ltd, the trend will pick up in the coming years.

"The possibilities of developing golf courses as one of the amenities in these projects is more on the outskirts of the city. Although, cities like Mumbai are jam-packed, the new suburbs like Navi Mumbai do provide opportunities since more area is available there," says Raichura. The developers are lately finding golf courses as enhancers of their project value.

"Typically, developers want to set up 18 hole golf courses of around 120 acres for SEZs and integrated townships and nine-hole golf courses of around 50-70 acres for smaller projects. In terms of quality, they are willing to pay premium in spite of the fact that it takes two years to grow the right kind of grass and build other infrastructure for the golf course," said Brandon D?Souza, MD, Tiger Sports Marketing, which holds the exclusive marketing and management rights of the Professional Golfers Association of India (PGAI) Tour, the Amateur Golf Tour and the junior/sub-junior Golf Tour.

Developing the greens is, however, an ordeal.

"Roughly, Rs 60-70 lakh per acre of investment is needed for these golf courses. But special care has to be taken on the greens. Some developers even opt for imports of Australian greens for their golf courses," says Shekhar Patel, managing director of Ahmedabad-based Ganesh Housing Corporation Ltd.

Patel's Ganesh Housing Corporation Ltd, itself will develop a 120-acre wide 18-hole golf course at its proposed 400-acre huge integrated township in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Patel is estimating a project cost of Rs 50 crore for developing the golf course itself.

"Golf-facing villas are carrying the highest demand across the world these days. Not only do these golf courses improve the living environment but increase the value of the property," adds Patel.

Joining the developers are banks and corporate houses including HSBC, Standard Chartered, UB Group, Hero Honda and Crompton Greaves who have taken up corporate golf seriously by organising national and international golf tournaments for professionals, amateur players, celebrities and for their employees.

Sponsorship is at an all-time high this year with the BILT Open, Crompton Greaves Open, AIS Open and DLF Open offering close to Rs 70 lakh in prize money. Corporates have also started inviting top golfers to conduct golf clinics for their employees and customers.