Golf at Mercara Downs

Last month I traveled to Coorg. For the uninformed, this is a region in Karnataka that is famous for its coffee plantations and gentle hill stations. We stayed at a place called Madikeri.
Around a km from our resort was a Golf course called Mercara greens. It claims to be one of the oldest golf courses in South India. Looking at the Club house it seemed one of the smallest and youngest as it was not even 10 years vintage.

As Katy Paaji, the LT group Hony tour organiser, had already done the home work both of us were carrying some golf balls and our gloves we set out the next morning to see what Mercara Downs had to offer. On reaching the club house we saw that the entire staff consisted of 3 people of which one one lady was able to understand us and help us out. We fixed up a game for the next morning and left feeling like Mission half accomplished.
the next morning Katy paaji and I left for the golf course in the morning feeling like JM Singh and Tiger Woods. Paaji wanted to walk saying it is only 2 km and we do much more on the treadmill. I was sceptical but followed on and soon realised that walking on the treadmill/dreadmill is very different from walking in the hills where there are uphill and downhill. By the time we reached the club house huffing and puffing 30 mins later we felt that we have finished 9 holes already.
The fairways and the green/browns looked very inviting but there were no Caddies!!! 'Ugadi Saar, Wall Caddies gane to village Saar'. As Ugadi was still 15 days away it seemed a lame excuse and we entered into a long phase of figuring out if she could get some caddies by the time we came back from breakfast. Well she agreed and after an hour or so we were standing on the first Tee with hired golfsets that looked as if they were at the club to prove the antiquity of the club.
With us was another avid golfer from Ahmedabad who had come all the way to Coorg with his own golf set. We looked like amateurs in his presence. The first hole is a 330 yards par 4 where one has to go uphill. This was my second experience was playing in a hilly course so it was mortifying and humbling to see how the force of gravity works to bring the balls down a slope if not perched on flat greens. The greens were kerchief sized and so it required precision to hit and stay there. The second hole has jungle to the left and Katy paaji promptly decided to undo his previous par/bogey by sending a ball in the woods. In the next hole he blasted another one in the wood which his Caddie got back. Somehow we went through this up down motion of walking from one hole to another till Katy said' Enough is Enough' I need water. This was the point where he was looking down on the 7th hole where we were perched on the top of a hill looking down into a biggish lake and beyond all that was a green. On both sides of the lake and beyond were woods, dark and foreboding somehow evoking Robert Prost in saying You guys have Miles to go before you sleep.
I have hydrophobia and I promptly sent two balls one after the other in the wood on either side. katy on the other hand was threatening to drink the water in the lake sounding like one of those Monsters in a Ramanand Sagar mythological who threaten poor villagers ' mujhe Khana do warna tumko kha jaonga'. Since drinking the water was not an option he took out his anger and frustration on the bolf ball and sent it soaring 200 yards beyond the green. And next thing I knew was that Katy had vanished.
A frantic look around showed Katy sprawled in the front seat of the Innova speeding away before I could get him to play another hold.
Thus ended our 9 holes at Mercara Downs which was my third round of Golf on vacations and was definitely more enjoyable than the one at vienna.
More on that in some time.