Royal Colombo Golf Club

Campo que merece la pena jugar si estás por Colombo. Es bastante caro para lo que ofrece y el calor y humedad son verdaderamente agobiantes. El campo es entretenido y no está mal cuidado. Merece la pena jugarlo una vez aunque solo sea por su larga historia.

The SLAICE AGM which was held yeasterday was very well organised. The participants were very happy about the excellent buffet and the facilities provided. Special thanks to Mr. Thilanka, Mr. Vincent, Mr. Pradeepan and other friendly staff for making the event successful.

First time visiting Sri Lanka and not the kind of country you’d expect to take your golf clubs to but why not, there’s a few courses to play so would be rude not to. First stop is Royal Colombo, a course set in the heart of a bustling city.

While contacting the club I was offered tee times before 7am or after 3pm which seemed quite weird to me but once you’ve spent a few days in Sri Lanka and experienced the humidity you don’t want to be starting much later than that. A caddy is compulsory and is much needed, after 18 holes I was dripping in sweat and exhausted and I’m someone who carries my bag religiously on courses where possible. What does help is before 7am it is only 2 balls so pace of paly is pretty good, I didn’t experience many hold ups.

The course itself is a pretty nice design, has some cool holes but also a train track running through the middle which is quite unique. I’m sure the novelty of it would wear off to members but I found it quite funny seeing carriages full of people coming through the course.

The course has the old colonial feel to it with a great big clubhouse and veranda overlooking the 1st tee and 9th & 18th greens. Great place to stop for a beer and refresh yourself. From chatting with the caddy it is clear that the club isn’t the most efficiently run operation. The maintenance of the course is quite poor, the greens are quite bobbly and the fairways aren’t incredibly lush which you’d kind of expect from a tropical destination like Sri Lanka. The bunkers were very well designed, you could see a lot of thought had gone into them but lacking sand.

$75 seems a bit steep for the course given the lack of good maintenance and you also have to pay a 2,000 rupee caddy fee on top in the pro shop. Quite shocked to find out that they don’t pay all of this to the caddy and take a cut and there are 100 caddies at the club, so they struggle to make ends meet.

Worth noting there is a driving range there and a putting green in front of the clubhouse next to the first tee. Overall worth a visit but plenty of work to be done to be considered anything ‘Royal’.

Greenfee on a Wednesday was 77,50 Euro excl caddies. The bagboys wanted money for trolleys we didn’t ask for because we had caddies. The caddies were good. The golf course is overrated but we knew that in advance. If the golf club would have a leafblower the course should be much better!

The scenery is like the golf course is in the middle of a city. Not that great.

The golf course is like you can expect of a city course but it is a pitty that they all the leaves are on the fairway. If they should take them aware it would be much better. The bagcaddies who came to us when we arrived were the only people during our holiday who wants money from us for the use of the trolleys by our caddies. We did not ask them to use a trolley and the caddie master also said that we do not had to pay for caddies and trolley separate. When we left the golf club the bagcaddie (not our caddies in the course) blocked our way out. But we did not pay after all. To be clear we payed of course for our caddies and they got a good tip to but the bagcaddies where other type of caddies.