By Richard Humphreys |
Kharghar Valley Golf Course in Maharashtra, India, has reopened as an 18-hole layout following a comprehensive project by Vijit Nandrajog of Golf Design India.
Formerly a nine-hole layout, Kharghar Valley is in Navi Mumbai, one of India’s fastest growing cities. The golf course expansion is being led by the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) – a government agency that plans and develops residential, industrial and social infrastructure projects – and was made possible by new land made available by CIDCO.
“The site is extremely picturesque and provides a beautiful setting for golf,” said Nandrajog, who was selected to lead the project in 2021. “During the design process of the project, restrictions in the use of some portion of the additional land led to a complete rerouting of the existing nine too. In effect, the layout is almost a completely new golf course.”
Nandrajog has moved away from the usual parkland style of courses built near Indian cities and has opted to maximise the site’s dramatic ridges, valleys and rocky outcrops. “The result is a course that feels like a natural extension of the valley, featuring undulating greens and rolling fairways that mirror the movement of the surrounding hills,” he said. “At Kharghar, we have let the natural terrain lead the way in sculpting the layout – it has undulating playing surfaces, which is a welcome change from the usual urban courses in the region. It was our design intent to ensure that golfers get varied lies on every shot and can enjoy a shotmaking challenge.”
Vijit Nandrajog of Golf Design India has created a new layout for Kharghar Valley (Photo: Golf Design India)
Encountering a considerable amount of rock, Nandrajog tweaked his design in the field. “This challenge resulted in the creation of one of the most fun and interesting holes on the course – a 290-yard driveable par four that provides various options for play, mainly due to the hillside that could not be excavated due to the rock,” he said.
Water was also a key consideration as Mumbai gets an average annual rainfall of 2,000-3,000 millimetres. “The heavy rainfall that the region gets during the monsoon season, plus the fact that the site sits as a bowl with a large catchment for water runoff from the surrounding hills, was a key factor in our design” said Nandrajog. “To counter this, I carefully studied the natural hydrology of the site and exposed several natural water channels of varied scale where immense quantities of water flows across the site. Our design ensured that not only were all such natural channels retained, but they also governed how the golf course would be routed through the site whilst using these streams as hazards. By keeping the natural hydrology and patterns in mind, we retained and created drainage channels that don’t just move water, they add a layer of strategy that golfers must navigate thoughtfully.”
Water comes in to play on nine holes with Nandrajog highlighting the par-five fourteenth and par-four fifteenth as good examples of how the streams create risk-reward options.
“Drainage has also played a key role in the design of the course,” said Nandrajog. “Right from the start, one of the main objectives was to ensure that the course remains playable despite the heavy monsoons. To achieve this, the contouring of the land was carefully designed so that the natural ground contours are incorporated as much as possible and new landforms enhance the flow of water. Underground drainage pipes and large ponds were also added to collect and store the immense rainwater to irrigate the course.”
Nandrajog has created ponds and streams to hold and divert water across the course (Photo: Golf Design India)
Kharghar Valley recently hosted a tournament on the Professional Golf Tour of India. Yuvraj Sandhu, the 2025 winner of the PGTI Order of Merit, said: “This is one of the best golf courses, if not the best that we play on our calendar.” Himmat Rai, a former professional golfer on the Asian Tour, said: “This course represents the coming of age of Indian golf architecture and design.”
A two-tiered driving range and a comprehensive short-game facility have also been built. Nandrajog said: “Our goal was to make Kharghar a hub for the entire golfing community.”