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This is high praise indeed for the second oldest golf club in the world, from someone who is also a

member of the oldest golf club in the world – The Royal & Ancient Golf Club, St Andrews, Scotland.

“The Scots gave the world this wonderful sport,”

says Mr Khaitan.

“We should be thankful to them.”

Mr Khaitan became Golf Captain of RCGC in 1970-71, during one of the most turbulent periods the

city has ever gone through. Once, fourteen dead bodies were found in the tanks and other locations

on the premises of the club. The power supply would be cut off for eight hours at a time due to ‘load

shedding’. The Calcutta Corporation was laying a drain pipe along the Tollygunge tram track to the

Royal, so members had to take a detour through the neighbourhood, which was not one of the safest.

Mr Khaitan found that the course was not being played as the members kept away out of fear; only two

to five people would be on the greens daily – on 220 acres of land. But through all the difficult times

he carried out his responsibilities as Captain to the best of his abilities.

Mr Khaitan will never forget an incident which took place in 1973, in which, as he says,

“I was very close

to being bumped off! Although I was afraid, I overcame it to deal with the issue.”

He was playing a three-ball game one day, when some lady golfers informed him that they couldn’t

play on the course because miscreants were creating havoc, throwing knives at the ball! As Captain,

Mr Khaitan had four ‘darwans’ escorting him around the course to see that he wasn’t harassed and

that nobody came near him, so he and his partners kept playing. As they approached the 13th, which

was the drinks hole, they saw a group of people, armed with revolvers and knives, on the green.

“The

other players drifted away towards the 17th but I couldn’t allow the miscreants to think that I was scared, so I

walked up to the group and they surrounded me. They told me in Bengali that they wanted jobs. Till today, I

can’t say what came over me or from where I got the courage, but I completely forgot terror and became firm in

my mind, thinking, ‘What can they do to me except shoot me?’ I replied in Bengali, ‘Look, if you do what you’re

doing, showing guns etc, throwing knives where the ball is, you expect me to give you a job? You must be mad! If

you drive away the members with these kind of terror tactics, the club won’t survive so what job can I give you?’

They were all youngsters. One said, ‘Unless you give us jobs we won’t let you leave here.’ I said, ‘What will you

do? Kill me? Fine, you think that will help you to get a job? You’ll go to jail.What will you gain by killing me?

Nothing.The club will close down, the 500-odd people working here will become jobless.You stay here showing

your guns and knives. I have nothing more to say. All I can do is give you some money but on condition that you

don’t try and stop members from playing.The Pujas are coming, so I’ll give you money for the festivities. Don’t

come back here from tomorrow.’ I told my caddy to take them to the club office and tell the person there that I

had asked him to pay them a certain amount and debit it to my account. And, by God, it worked! They all

disappeared quietly.”

However, since the new course meandered too close to the insalubrious neighbourhood, Mr Khaitan

decided to sell it to the Government and keep the present course as it is now.

“I drew a line with a red

pencil on the map, selling 55 acres and keeping 150 acres. Now the golf course is very compact,”

he says.

The Royal Calcutta Golf Club