180 - Nuwara Eliya

Location: Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

Rating: 6.8

From Hambantota to Nuwara Eliya and a totally different experience. Nestled in this high altitude city is a very different, very unique experience. Little England as the name translates is was a base for British servants back in the times of Ceylon and this can be seen in the clubhouse, locker rooms and neighbouring Grand Hotel, which coincidentally has an amazing curry offering if you are in the area.

The course itself is very interesting, starts off pretty gently with a downhill par 4 then comes back the opposite way and then you start to weave your way through the northern parts of the city with some very peculiar holes where the houses of locals are definitely in play. For a couple of holes you play near a busy street and gather a lot of attention from the locals before heading a little further out and into an interesting concoction of interwoven holes. Very interesting uses of greens and elevated tees to enable maximum efficiency from the available land.

Holes 12-14 were definitely my favourite on the course. 12 neighbours the Prime Minister’s house and has a wicked late dog leg to an elevated green, 13 is set in the middle of the forest and it a tough, long, par 3 but in a beautiful setting and then 14 comes back down the hill with an approach back up towards the green, really nice use of the land.

Again, we played in the off season so the course was very quiet. Caddies are compulsory and you have to pay a caddy fee and also a tip to the caddy which seems a bit of a cash grab to me. For a green fee of $75 I’d also expect the course to be in better condition. The fairways were okay, the tee boxes relatively well looked after but the greens were poor and some really bad so it’s hard to justify that price. Couple with that the putting green is derelect and the driving range is a short pitching area onto the 16th fairway which isn’t great.

A good, fun experience, not worth the price tag but if you’ve got the cash then enjoy the experience.