THE TIMES OF INDIA, BANGALORETUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 201418 TIMES SPORT

Set Amidst Intimidating Hills, CRGC Will Challenge The Best In Business

Vedam.Jaishankar@timesgroup.com

Bangalore: The BangaloreGolf Club, established in1876, was Bangalore’s lonenon-military golf course fora whole 90 years before KGAbecame golf-ready in 1986.KGA, in fact, was the firstcivilian golf course to be setup in India post 1947.

However, over the pastdecade, a string of golf cours-es have sprouted around Ban-galore, with the most promi-

nent ones being Eagleton,Clover Green, ChampionReef and Golfshire. Thistrend has caught on in otherKarnataka towns, notablyCoorg, Mysore, Chikmagalur,Mangalore, Shimoga, Hubliand Belgaum.

The explosion of interestin the sport has attractedsome of the best names ingolf course designing, the lat-est being Ronald Fream, anAmerican golf course coun-sel who was in the city to en-hance the Champion ReefGolf County (CRGC) coursein Kolar into an 18-hole fa-cility.

The ‘front-nine’, alreadyacknowledged as one of thefinest in the country, will beboosted by the ‘back-nine’where work was launched on

Sunday. When complete, itwill make this picturesquecourse set amidst intimidat-ing rocky hills one of themost challenging golf cours-es in the country.

The ‘front-nine’, with itstricky contours, design,windswept fairways andwell-guarded greens, is al-ready a tough nut to crack.“I don’t aim to make it anyeasier,” said Fream, who spe-cializes in conjuring brilliantcourses in seemingly impos-sible terrain.

“The biggest challenge inChampion Reef is the rocks.This is an incredibly rockyterrain and nobody in hisright mind would have ven-tured to put up a golf coursehere. But we learnt to workwith it. We buried somerocks under tons of mud,blasted many, made waterbodies of a few and workedaround others to make thisa course that has few peers,”said the American, whose 45years of experience in de-signing golf courses spans 60countries.

“It was eerie walking withFream about five years agoon this very property,” said

George Menomparampil,managing director, Champi-on Reef Golf Pvt. Ltd. “Wecould see only rocks, hilly ter-rain and wild inhospitablebushes. But he visualizedraised tee-boxes, beau-tiful trees, rollingfairways, chal-lenging greens,golfers walk-ing, takingshots, peoplecheering fromthe clubhouse,etc. We laughedwhen he de-scribed it. But nowwe realise that this tru-ly is a unique golf course.”

On Sunday morning, witha number of golfers

grappling on the front-nine,a small ceremony to get workgoing on the back-nine tookplace on the proposed 10thtee-box.

Miles of horrendousrocky terrain

stretched throughthe planned

‘ b a c k - n i n e ’with the onlyrelief comingfrom the nineplanted whiteand orange

flags in areasthat would house

the greens of thisseemingly inhospitable

territory. “Although we’vesigned an agreement withthe government for regular

supply of two million litresof treated sewage water fromKolar town and we ourselveshave used some innovativemethods of water harvestingand preservation, the truthis water will always be a chal-lenge in this part of theworld. This is unlike USAand Thailand where there isplenty of water,” Freampointed out.

Thus, he added, he had de-marcated areas as high main-tenance, low maintenanceand no maintenance.

“The design for the back-nine will factor the waterchallenge and consequentlyfeature smaller tee boxes,narrower fairways and tinygreens. These areas will bewell maintained while thearea from the tee-box to thefairways (about 100 yards inlength) will attract zeromaintenance. Likewise, oneither side of the fairwaysand beyond the greens, therewould be scant water usage.

“We’ll additionally devel-op huge water bodies to trapand retain any rainwater andother water,” he said, addingthat the course would be com-pleted in less than 18 months.

GOLFON THE ROCKS

GET READY TO BE ROCKED: Windswept fairways and well-guarded greens greet golfers at the Champion Reef Golf County in Kolar

CHOICE OF GRASSWater management is also about thechoice of the right grass. ChampionReef is the only course in India tohave Bentgrass on greens. It is thebest grass for putting. Too much heatand humidity would kill this varietyof grass. The balmy Bangaloreweather suits it fine. Bermuda grassis used on the tees and fairways.Constant watering can make thegrass roots lazy. So right care is vital

Theback-9 will play

long. The 18th holewill be a monstrous600-odd yard par-5uphill tread all the

way to the newclubhouse

SIGNATURE HOLE

New Delhi: U Mumba produced a clinical per-formance to thrash Puneri Paltan 44-28 in theirPro Kabaddi League match at the Thyagraj Sta-dium here on Monday.

UMumba stamped their authority as ShabeerPathapalem and Jeeva Kumar stole the limelightand were adjudged ‘Star Raider’ and ‘Best De-fender’ respectively while Paltan captain WazirSingh scored maximum points for his team.

The Mumbai outfit showed their attackingintentions from the start of the match as theyopened up a 9-1 lead but Paltans showed their re-silience as some defensive errors by their oppo-nents helped them reduce the margin.

With this win, U Mumba have now cementedtheir spot on the top of the leaderboard with 28points and still remain unbeaten in six matches.

They will now take on Bengaluru Bulls in thefirst match on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, hosts Dabang Delhi lost 31-36against Patna in the second match of the day. Ini-tially in the first half both the teams made un-successful raids as they looked to play safe. But itwere the visitors who got going by packing offthe entire home team twice.

Delhi tried hard to reduce the margin buttheir attackers looked off-colour as Patna took acomfortable 12-19 lead. Ravi Dalal led the assaultfor Patna as he tore apart the Delhi defence.

With a boisterous crowd behind them, thehome team looked much more positive in theirapproach and slowly staged a comeback in thesecond half and at one time were trailing by justthree points(21-24). On Tuesday:U Mumba vs Bengaluru Bulls (8pm); Dabang Delhi vs Jaipur

Pink Panthers (9pm). Live on Star Sports

Fiery U Mumba crushwoeful Puneri Paltan

A 16-member U-15 cricket team from Sri Lankawas asked to leave Chennai on Monday due tosecurity reasons. The team FROM Colombo hadreached Chennai on Sunday night to take part inthe JM Haroon Cricket tournament, but teamwas denied permission to participate in the tour-nament morning owing to security reasons.

Zimbabwe recall controversial Vermeulen: Zimbabwe has recalled batsmanMark Vermeulen to their cricket squad six yearsafter he was cleared of arson on psychiatricgrounds after setting fire to the national union’sheadquarters and an academy building.

Serena, Agassi to play in Singapore IPTL:Multiple Grand Slam champions Serena Williamsand Andre Agassi will turn up for their IPTL fran-chise Singapore 'Slammers' during their homeleg matches against UAE Royals, Team Manilaand Indian Aces at the Singapore Indoor Stadium(SIS) between December 2-4.

Serena wears crown: World No. 1 Serena Wil-liams climbed out of an early hole to beat third-seeded German Angelique Kerber 7-6 (7-1), 6-3on Sunday to win the WTA Stanford crown.Results (all finals): Stanford WTA: Serena Williams (US) bt

Angelique Kermer (Ger) 7-6 (7-1), 6-3. Washington Open: Wom-

en: Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt Kurumi Nara (Jpn) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Men: Milos Raonic (Can) bt Vasek Pospisil (Can) 6-1, 6-4.

Mauresmo link-up long-term, says Murray: World No. 9 Andy Murray has declaredthat his partnership with coach Amelie Maures-mo is a “long-term” arrangement, despite a dis-appointing experience at Wimbledon. Murrayhired the former women’s world No. 1 shortly be-fore the grass court season, but his defence ofthe Wimbledon title ended in the quarterfinals.The Scot, however, says that he has enjoyedworking with the Frenchwoman and is eager topursue their collaboration.

Woods aggravates back injury: Defendingchampion Tiger Woods pulled out of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, on Sun-day after aggravating his troublesome back, rais-ing more questions about the playing future ofthe 14-time major champion. His participation inThursday’s PGA Championship in Kentucky, the fi-nal major of the year, must be highly doubtful al-though Woods said it was too early to speculate.

McIlroy displaces Scott as No. 1 golfer: Ro-ry McIlroy continued his dominating form whenhe won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational by twostrokes on Sunday and regained the world No. 1ranking, replacing Australia’s Adam Scott.

Indian teams have it easy: Led by ParimarjanNegi’s fine victory on the top board, the Indianmen cruised to a 3.5-0.5 victory over Canada inthe second round of the 41st Chess Olympiad atTromso, Norway, late on Sunday. The eves de-molished Denmark 3.5-0.5.Results (Round 2): Men: India (4) bt Canada (2) 3.5-0.5 (Parimar-

jan Negi bt Anton Kovalyov; Eric Hansen drew with SP Sethuraman;

K Sasikiran bt Leonid Gerzhoy; Bator Sambuev lost to B Adhiban).

Women: India (4) bt Denmark (2) 3.5-0.5 (D Harika bt Sandra De

Blecourt; Esmat Guindy drew with Tania Sachdev; Eesha Karavade

bt Miriam Olsen; Thomine Stolberg-Rohr lost to Mary Ann Gomes).

Parvez finishes sixth: India’s Parvez Ahmedfinished overall 6th at the 14th Chinese Taipei In-ternational Tenpin Bowling Open at Taichung. Inthe stepladder round – a one game knockout --Parvez could manage only 190 as against 236scored by Hao-Ming Wu and 215 by Zhi-Nan Fangof Taipei. Earlier in the Masters round, Parvezscored an impressive total pinfall of 1666 in eightgames (ave 208.25) to finish 5th.

BPL in Mumbai: Devendra Joshi, Dhruv Sitwalaand Ashok Shandilya are some icon players whowould represent different teams in the BilliardsPremier League’s inaugural season scheduled inMumbai from August 16-24. Ten teams, pur-chased at a cost of Rs 1.25 lakh each for two sea-sons, would take part in the league to be held insix gymkhanas/ clubs in Mumbai, it was an-nounced on Monday.

Real sign Costa Rica goalkeeper Navas:Real Madrid said they have signed Costa Ricagoalkeeper Keylor Navas from Levante followinghis stellar World Cup campaign. The ChampionsLeague winners said on their website on Sundaythat Navas had agreed to a six-year deal and willbe presented at the Santiago Bernabeu stadiumon Tuesday after undergoing a medical.

Everton's Naismith gives tickets to home-less: Everton forward Steven Naismith has re-vealed that he has bought tickets for his side'sPremier League home games to donate to unem-ployed people from the Liverpool area. “Ithought this might be a small gesture to helpthose in that situation to enjoy a day out at oneof our league matches,” said the 27-year-old.

FIFA bans former Greece coach Santos: FI-FA has banned former Greece coach FernandoSantos for eight international matches for ver-bally abusing officials during his team's WorldCup elimination match against Costa Rica. FIFAsaid Monday that Santos displayed “several actsof unsporting conduct” and was banished fromthe dugout after extra time in the second-roundmatch. Greece then lost the penalty shootout.

Chelsea loan Romeu to Stuttgart: Chelsealoaned Spanish central midfielder Oriol Romeuto German side Stuttgart for the duration of the2014-15 season, the English Premier League clubannounced on Monday. “Oriol Romeu has todayjoined Stuttgart on a season-long loan,” read astatement on the Chelsea website. Romeu, 22,has not played for Chelsea since suffering a seri-ous knee injury in December 2012 that kept himout for the rest of the season, but he recentlysigned a new three-year contract with the club.

Nasri drops France retirement hint: Man-chester City's France midfielder Samir Nasri onMonday indicated that he has decided to quit in-ternational football. The 27-year-old has endureda fractious relationship with his national teamand was left out of the squad for this year'sWorld Cup in Brazil by France coach Didier Des-champs. “I've made the decision. I made it awhile ago, but I will announce it when the time isright,” he said in an interview, without specify-ing what that decision was.

Rodgers rules out Liverpool bid for Balotelli: Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgersrejected speculation linking him with a bid forAC Milan and Manchester City striker Mario Ba-lotelli. Rodgers spoke about the Italy interna-tional in glowing terms when he was askedabout him last week, but the Northern Irishmansaid that his admiration would not translate intoa former offer for the 23-year-old.

SNAP SHOTS

Sri Lankan Under-15 teamordered to leave Chennai

The Delhites have livedup to their reputationof being DABANG-

large hearted, as they contin-ue to come out in significantnumbers, and have been hig-hly energetic to demonstratetheir continuous support to-wards their Delhi team.

It was very encouraging tosee Delhi’s own internationalsporting icon, Virender Seh-wag, come to support the Da-bang Delhi team. His pres-ence further instilledpassion, confidence and con-viction in the team. As a cre-ative entrepreneur and theonly woman owner in ProKa-

baddi League (PKL), I takegreat pride in representingDelhi, which truly is a melt-ing pot of cultures from allacross India and in manyways the world. This multi-cultural fabric is also well re-

flected in our team,with players from allparts of India, SouthKorea, Iran and Ja-pan. Dabang Delhihas had some closeencounters, but un-fortunately the finaloutcomes have goneagainst us. However,there is immense be-lief in the team thatwe the have the skilland mental strength

to turn these results around,and get onto winning ways. Inthe process, it is hearteningto see the team learn and im-prove every day.(THE WRITER IS THE FOUNDER & CEO, DOIT

CREATIONS GROUP)

Delhi can turn things aroundRadha KapoorLondon: Trent Bridge has been

officially warned about its pitchby the International CricketCouncil (ICC) after the first Testbetween England and India lastmonth fizzled out into a run-ladendraw. In a statement on Monday,the ICC said its Pitch MonitoringProcess had concluded that thetrack failed to provide a fair con-test between bat and ball.

England made 496 in reply toIndia's 457 and the match endedearly on Day 5 after India declaredtheir second innings on 391 fornine. “In reaching the verdict, theICC observed that the pitch didnot provide a fair contest betweenbat and ball throughout, and con-cluded that the pitch prepared forthe match was of an unacceptable

standard for Test cricket,” thestatement said.

The ICC said it took into ac-count the England and WalesCricket Board's (ECB) and Not-tinghamshire County CricketClub's commitment to re-lay thewicket ahead of the next interna-

tional cricket season. The matchfeatured a Test world record 10thwicket partnership of 198 be-tween England's Joe Root (in pic)and James Anderson while In-dia's last pairing also put on morethan 100 runs in their first inningson the slow, flat track.

Trent Bridge is scheduled tohost the fourth Ashes Test againstAustralia next August. AFP

ICC issues warning over poor pitch

MIX OF TRADITION, MODERNITYManchester: Old timers inUK recall with fondness English people’s obsessionwith cricket in the early partof last century.

It is said that Countycricket continued to beplayed even after Englandjoined World War I by declar-ing war on Germany on Au-gust 4, 1914. They contendthat County matches contin-ued even after scores ofcricketers were called up formilitary duty. It was only af-ter a huge public outcry thatthe County cricket seasonwas abandoned prematurelyand the gloom of war en-gulfed the nation.

Exactly 100 years later, asUK commemorated its Warheroes on Monday by turn-

ing off lights for one hour (10-11pm), cricket is no long-er the pre-eminent sport in a nation that has seen a prolif-eration of other games thatare faster, trendier and areplayed over shorter periodsof time than Test matchesbut guarantee breath-takingaction and results.

If there is still a niche fol-lowing for the game of batand ball in its classical for-mat, it is because the EnglishCounties have managed topreserve the rich heritagecricket enjoyed in the coun-try of its birth and upgradeinfrastructure and facilitiesat their respective grounds,in keeping with the modern-day requirements.

The Old Trafford is ashining example of a cricketvenue where tradition merg-es seamlessly with modern-ity. Established in 1857, OldTrafford hosted its first Testmatch in 1884 in what wasAustralia’s first-ever three-Test Ashes series in En-gland. It has been a long jour-

ney for one of England’s fin-est Test venues whichcontinues to attract specta-tors for international match-es in spite of football giantsManchester United andManchester City holdingsway over the newer genera-tions of sports lovers here.

Former India wicket-keeper Farokh Engineer,who has been living here forthe past 40 years, reckonsthere is still a good followingfor Test cricket in England.

“You see, a lot of footballfans here also follow cricket.Moreover, many top foot-ballers are also cricket en-thusiasts,” said Engineerwho, like Clive Lloyd, is anhonorary vice-president ofthe Lancashire CountyCricket Club.

“Few people know thatthe Neville brothers — Garyand Phil — wanted to playcricket for Lancashire whenthey were kids. Current En-gland goalkeeper Joe Hart,too, is a cricket fanatic,” saidEngineer, adding that Unit-ed legends Bobby Charltonand Alex Ferguson are ex-pected to be at Old Traffordon one of the match days.“They are good friends and Ioccasionally play a round ofgolf with them,” he added.

Talking about cricketfans, Engineer pointed outthat India has been losingTest match fans back home.“It is really sad that groundsare no longer full during Testmatches in India but there isa huge demand for tickets inODIs and T20s. Even in En-gland, Indian supportershave been missing at Testvenues this summer, but I amsure they will turn up duringODIs.” Engineer said.

He, though, expects a fullhouse at Old Trafford, espe-cially during the weekendand is confident that Indiawill do better here than inSouthampton where it wasEngland all the way.

Sumit.Mukherjee@timesgroup.com

RICH HERITAGE

Old Trafford, Venue Of Fourth Test, Is A Shining Example Of England’s Obsession With Cricket

Manchester: After three days ofrest and recreation, Indian play-ers showed up at the Old Traffordnets to warm up for the fourthTest that begins here on Thurs-day. England players, though,chose to keep away for anotherday. Both teams plan to hit thenets in earnest over the next twodays before resuming their ‘war’— minus the shooting.

Both team managements havebeen guilty of making wrongchoices in all three Tests so farand face another ticklish testhere on a pitch that promises toyield good pace and bounce.

England and India both erredby playing four pacers on a killjoyof a track at Trent Bridge wherethe match ended in a stalemate af-ter five days of toil. Both sideswent into the Lord’s Test un-changed, but England selectorswere left with a red face, having

included left-arm spinner SimonKerrigan in the squad. India, too,persisted with their fourth pacerStuart Binny, who was however,under-utilised by skipper MSDhoni. At Southampton bothteams again erred by not includ-ing a frontline spinner in their re-spective line-ups.

While India are sure to bewithout Lord’s Test hero IshantSharma for the second Test in arow, England have lost LiamPlunkett to an ankle injury. Bothwould have relished bowling onthe ‘hit-me-hard’ surface and willbe tough to replace.

In Plunkett’s absence, the tall

Steven Finn gets another shot at re-demption. Finn, the youngest bow-ler to reach 50 Test wickets, will besharing the new ball with seniorpro James Anderson, who will beraring to go at the Indians on hishome ground after having been letoff by ICC judicial commissioneron the ‘Push-gate’ row. Finn has 44wickets under his belt in Division 1of the County Championship.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar couldalso miss out with a swollen an-kle. The team management’s bigdilemma centres around off-spin-ner R Ashwin, who could be ahandful on a track that has goodbounce. In order to play Ashwin,Dhoni will have to drop RohitSharma and go back to playingwith five bowlers.

And with opener ShikharDhawan having failed in six con-secutive innings on this tour, In-dia might be better off playingthe more experienced GautamGambhir at the top of the order.

Ashwin or Rohit? Indians hunt for right mixSumit.Mukherjee@timesgroup.com

HALLOWED TURF: The Indian team poses with souvenir jerseys duringtheir visit to Manchester United's home ground of Old Trafford

BCCI

Pix: Getty Images

A view of the Old Traffordcricket ground (left) and itsentrance (above) in Manchester

Established: 1857End names: Pavilion EndBrian Statham EndFirst Test: July 10, 1884: Englandvs AustraliaLast Test: August 1, 2013:England vs AustraliaTeams: Manchester Cricket Club((1857-1865); Lancashire

TRENT BRIDGE

AFP

PTI

Patna Pirates players surround a Dabang Delhiraider during their Pro Kabaddi League match

PRO KABADDI LEAGUE