178 - Royal Colombo Golf Club

Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka

Rating: 7.2

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’.