The fascination with Sri Lanka is nothing new, but as the world travels a lot more, it discerns a lot more, making it take notice of the Emerald Isle in the Indian Ocean as one of the better destinations on the planet to get to and spend time exploring. Sri Lanka is about the coastline – on the coastline, off it or inside it. The beaches adorning the coastline could keep you captive for weeks if not longer, the whale watching in the ocean could thrill your being in a way it may have forgotten, whereas the pristineness of hill country with ubiquitous tea plantations could well prove to be all that you came for. And what about golf in all this? Incredibly, while there is not much to go by, there is enough to go by. You will find a golf course in four of the main locations that feature on a holiday in Sri Lanka, which means if you really want to tee it up and make it a Sri Lanka golf holiday, you will not be disappointed.
The leader of the pack of Sri Lanka golf courses is the Royal Colombo Golf Club, situated within a short drive of the main tourist hotels in Colombo. It’s everything you would have expected. The generous clubhouse flaunting its colonial heritage in full glory is the highlight and lasting memory you would take back. There is nothing daunting about the golf course, even with the usual hazards and the unusual ones – there is, in fact, a railway track that runs through it. The Colombo humidity is the other thing to factor, but the post-round reward is sweet, once you retreat to the clubhouse and luxuriate over a cup of tea from the hill country.
About 4 hours from Colombo is Kandy, which is also home to possibly the best golf course in Sri Lanka. The Victoria Golf Course, part of the Victoria Golf & Country Resort, set alongside a reservoir, plays to changing elevation thereby offering the considerable challenge. Along with Royal Colombo golf course, it should be an automatic inclusion in Sri Lanka golf packages.
Further up in tea country or hill country, where it cools down a fair bit, there is the delightful Nuwara Eliya golf course. A setting so typical of golf clubs in tea estates of the sub-continent where the British retreated to – you can’t help but be charmed by remnants of a bygone era. A typical parkland course, with tree-lined fairways, at first look, doesn’t seem that daunting, but it is another story when you have teed off.
And the new one on the block is by the stunning beach of Hambantota. Of course, here there’s modern beachside resort luxury to contend with at the fabulous Shangri La Hotel if that’s a new challenge you were after. But who cares? – check yourself in, get pampered and go for a hit at the Hambantota golf course. Once you are done, find yourself on the beach and then head to the spa.
All well planned Sri Lanka golf tours should contain the above golf courses. Since these Sri Lanka golf courses are located at a distance from each other, you could custom your holidays to covering two at a time or if you have the time, then consider doing all four. One round in each is enough, but that’s what your holiday companion may say, not me.
