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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PATNA GOLF CLUB The beginnings of the Patna Golf Club can be traced back to 21st. March 1916 when the Government of the Province of Bihar & Orissa had sanctioned the lease of 165 acres of land west of the Government House to the South Bihar Gymkhana Club. The Formation of the club had been activated among others by Mr. C. S. Bayley who was later to become the Governor of Bihar. The First President and Secretary of the club were Mr. W. Maude and Mr. H. K. Briscoe respectively. The annual rental of the lease was fixed at 8 annas per acre per annum. The South Bihar Gymkhana Club was envisaged to be a many faceted sports and recreation institution to cover polo. Cricket, tennis, golf etc. and also to serve occasionally as a parade ground for Police and for the guards attached to the Govt. House. On gaining the lease of the large grassy area, the Britishers penchant for outdoor activities found a convenient outlet. Polo and golf were the principal games that were played in this ground by the English officers who at the time ran the government and such of the anglicized Indians who rubbed shoulders with them. Gradually golf alone remained more or less as a permanent fixture and the South Bihar Gymkhana Club was in time renamed as Patna Golf Club. A handful of persons from the upper echelons of Patna’s social circles kept the game of golf alive through the tforties, fifties, and sixties after the Britishers had left India on gaining its independence. These included M/S K. K. Banerjee, Khalil Ahmed & P.S. Sahay (all three later to become Judges of the Patna High Court), M/S M. K. Sinha & S.P. Verma (both rising up to be I. G. of Police), Dr. S. K. Sen, the Branch Manager of the top mercantile houses, India Tobacco Co. and Burmah Shell Co. and one or two Army officers. Till the fifties, there was hardly any well defined course. Certain plane patches of turf used to be marked off as greens and the game was played on the unmaintained open areas around these greens that were available. Through the sixties more people joined in, such as M/S I.N. Singh, R. K. Sinha, S. Q. Rizvi, Mahendra Kapoor, Prem Seth, J.S. Bali, B. P. N. Shahi, Damanjit Singh, S. S. P. Singh, Kumar S. Singh Tekkari, G. M. Sahai, Mr. & Mrs. T. Nath, Mr. & Mrs. G. S. Grewal and a few others. By April 1968 a small organization had been established with twenty-five members. The membership fee was Rs. 10/- per month. The staff comprised of five mails, the Head Mali, Lachhman, drawing a pay of Rs. 55/- per month. Three malis, namely Razak, Ramkishun and Lakhan were paid Rs. 45/- per month while the fourth, Pradiplal, got just Rs. 15/- per month. This meant that the club functioned on an income of Rs. 250/- p.m. out of which Rs. 205/- was defrayed as staff wages. The malis maintained nine greens, each watered by an open well alongside, They also served as peons for various chores of the fledgeling club, Lachhman coluld even guide new comers to the game towards the basics of a proper swing. There was no club house and hardly any trees on the course except to the palms and a few mango trees. The fairways were overrun by grazing cattle and the problem in playing the game was to drive the cattle to make way for the flight of the balls. While most of the wells have since been filled up, the one at the north west corner of the present club house has been left as a relic to indicate the point where the founding members of the club parked their cars and commenced their round. Mr. G. S. Grewal must be singled out from the pioneering days of the club, who, getting tired of running the affairs from the precincts of the well entrenched New Patna Club, handed over a princely sum of Rs. 3,000/- of his own to the club’s new entrant, Baldev Singh, to build a hut to serve as the club’s administrative center, Simultaneously, Mr. B.P.S. Mann of Burmah Shell Co. got the 9th. Green properly laid out. The stirrings of an organized golf club had thus begun. The advent of Mr. P.K.J. Menon as the Chief Secretary of the State Government from 1.4.1972 to 9.11.1974 became the watershed in the development of golf in Patna. His tenure in fact represents the golden days of the Patna Golf Club. He transformed the club by setting its boundaries as an independent adjunct to the Botanical and Zoological gardens Mr. S. P. Shahi, the Chief Conservator of Foresets and a keen golfer himself, was his willing ally. Mr. S. Q. Rizvi was another golf enthusiast. These three gentlemen can be considered to be the core architects of the golf club as it stands today. A boundary wall in due course fenced off and identified the club perimeters. A while later, Mr. Prem Sharan, the then Director of the Biological Park (controlling both the Botanical and Zoological Gardens), systematically laid out the watering system all around the course and had tha road leading to the club house constructed. In the construction of the club house and in providing general amenities, the roles of M/s Shailendra P. Sinha and Mr. R. K. Sharma were paramount. M/s Umesh Srivastava and K. V. Talcherkar of Holtec (India) Ltd. Used their knowledge of the game to design the course to cover 18 holes. With the development and organization of the club. Membership started pouring in. Mr. Menon’s enthusiasm for the game drew people form various walks of life, specially the bureaucracy, and not only more and more people took to the game but club evenings started getting popular. Members found to their great benefit abundance of clean and fresh air in the extensive grounds. Mr. Shadhi in the meantime took personal initiative in the planting of trees which on growing up gave the course its special character. Mr. Prem Sharan also in due time threw in his mite towards greening of the course and towards improving the relationship between the Biological Park management and the Patna Golf Club which was essential for development of both institutions. Mr. Menon had the first representative tournament held on 12th. Jan. 1974 in which 50 golfers both local and outstation, from Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Dhanbad, and Calcutta, participated The first Kalyanpur Cup for best nett score among golfers having handicap of 18 and below was won by Baldev Singh with a score of 65 over 18 holes. The best nett score of 67 won young Kalidas Chatterjee the prize among players having handicap of 19 and above. The first Captains Day for the then Captain, Baldev Singh, was observed on 3rd, March 1974 during  which competitions were held in the Men’s section for long driving, pitching, trap shooting, and putting, and in the Ladies section for pitching and putting.