Cement Czar Trains Sights On Golf Course

India Cements managing director N Srinivasan has done it again. After a series of acquisitions on the cements front, he has now trained his sights on a golf course in the city.

A Srinivasan-promoted organisation of golfers, bunched under the Tamil Nadu Golf Federation (TNGF), have bagged the rights to tee off at the golf course at Guindy with retrospective effect since February 1 this year.

The Guindy course, which was until recently part of the Gymkhana Club under the name Gymkhana Golf Annexe, is bang in the middle of a track used for horse racing. Hence, the lease for the land is held by the Madras Race Club, which in a recent communique authorised TNGF to play at the course.

 

For Srinivasan and TNGF, the Race clubs move could not have been better timed. While launching its membership drive last year, TNGF was on shaky ground as it did not really have a golf course that its members could use.

TNGF was until now taking in members but did not have a place (of its own) to play, says V S Dhanasekar, vice president, TNGF. This will also pave the way for TNGF to become a part of the powerful Indian Golf Union.

From the Race Clubs point of view, the move makes good business sense. It needs someone, pref-erably with corporate clout, to maintain the course for a six-month period in the year when horse racing comes to a standstill. In Chennai, the racing season lasts from November to March each year and the club cannot afford to maintain the tracks for the remaining six months without putting it to alternate use.

Moreover, the move has been in the offing since the course was heavily damaged during the heavy rains that lashed the city in the months of November and December last year. Although considerable revenue from the Annexe goes to the main club, golfers say nothing was done to restore the greens.

So far so good. However, the Race Clubs communique does not forbid Gymkhana Golf Annexe members from playing at the course, a top source said. And here, perhaps, is where the dark clouds start gathering with TNGF pitted head-on against the Annexe.

But for Srinivasan, it may be all in the game. As Dhanasekar says: It is now for the Gymkhana main Club and TNGF to sort out the matter. While TNGF is a new organisation, Gymkhana has been running the Annexe for more than a hundred years now. It is only a matter of financial understanding, he said.

TNGF had in a similar move taken on the Cosmopolitan club which runs another course in the city last year. TNGF had then accused the main Cosmopolitan club of failing to maintain the Cosmo golf links.

The situation at the Guindy Golf Annexe is no different. The greens have been badly damaged and despite repeated requests to the main club, no money has been released to relay the course, says Dhanasekar.

With a sizeable spurt in the number of golfers in the city (the spurt in the number of MNCs based in the city has seen the number of golfers nearly double in number in the last year alone), Gymkhanas loss has been Cosmos gain as many golfers have shifted to playing at the Cosmo golf annexe.

The key question now being asked is whether Srinivasan with his corporate clout will be able to bring the Guindy course up to international standards and wean Cosmos golfers back again?