A player tees off at Kaziranga Golf Resort. Telegraph picture

Jorhat, April 1: Come November, golfers of international repute will swing their clubs here, with the Kaziranga Golf Resort planning to host an international event.

An official of the resort, Pallav Baruah, told The Telegraph today that they would invite golfers of international repute from Southeast Asian countries for the tournament.

This will be the first time that golfers of international repute will play in the Northeast.

The tournament will be held under the guidelines set by the Professional Golf Association of India.

The 18-hole golf course with 71 par, sprawling over 150 acres amid lush tea bushes at Sangsua estate in Jorhat district, was inaugurated by chief minister Tarun Gogoi last year. The course is 11km from Moubandh along National Highway 37, which is about 10km from Jorhat.

The course was set up by renowned planter Hemendra Prasad Barooah to boost tea tourism in the region and surrounds the 125-year-old Burra Sahib’s bungalow at the tea estate. The golf course lays claim to being only one in the world situated in a tea garden.

“We have been holding regular tournaments since last year and getting a very positive response. Golfers from different parts of the country have been regularly participating in the tournaments,” Baruah said.

Another official of the resort said the golf course was the best in the region and had been designed by ace golfer Ranjit Nanda, India’s first professional golf course designer who also helped design the golf courses at Tollygunge Club and Royal Calcutta Golf Club in Calcutta.

“No other golf course in the state is as challenging as this one with bunkers and water bodies, undulations and hillocks. The greens have been laid with imported grass and the fairways with locally available dubori bon (dhup ghas) and a network of underground drains,” he added.

The other three major golf courses in Assam are the ones at Jorhat Gymkhana Club (the third oldest golf course in the world), at Digboi and at Narengi.

“We are planning to promote Burra Sahib’s bungalow into a clubhouse with swimming pools, changing rooms, a state-of-the-art gym, spas and other facilities of international repute,” the official said.

Pritam Dutta, a regular at Kaziranga Golf Resort who won a title in a recent tournament, said there was no doubt that the resort was of international standards and was the best course in the region. “I have been frequently playing at the course,” he said.