Pahalgam Golf Course

Pahalgam Golf Course sits on a plateau at roughly 2,400 m in the Lidder valley, one of the highest green courses anywhere. It is one of the courses the J&K tourism establishment promotes as the state's golf circuit. A November 2024 Greater Kashmir report clarifies who runs it — the course is managed by the Pahalgam Development Authority, whose chief executive doubles as the course's secretary, matching the 2006-era local guide that attributed rules and rates to the PDA (JKTDC still promotes and books it, and the Tourism Department runs events at it). The same report says the 18-hole course at the confluence of the Lidder and Sheshnag streams was inaugurated in 2011, and describes it in frank disrepair as of late 2024: overgrown fairways and greens, algae-choked water hazards, broken maintenance machinery, unusable carts and no dedicated turf manager, with no membership system in place. The layout has changed over time and sources reflect different eras: that 2006 guide describes a 9-hole, par-34, 2,386-yard course, while the Hole19 scorecard shows 18 holes, par 71, 6,392 yards off the gold tees with a driving range, putting green and clubhouse. JKTDC's page reconciles them explicitly — the course was "initially established as a 9-hole golf course" and "has now been upgraded to an 18-hole golf course" — so the 18-hole figures are current and the 9-hole ones historical. In 2026 the Tourism Department held the region's first junior golf tournament in Pahalgam, reported on 2 and 3 August 2026, which is the evidence that the course is operating despite the disruption to Pahalgam tourism after the April 2025 attack; strictly, those reports place the tournament in the town rather than naming the course. No current fees, phone number, website or published playing season could be found in citable sources — and since this is a high-altitude hill course that almost certainly does not play year-round, the absent season should be read as a gap, not as year-round play. Equipment rental and caddies are reported only in the 2006-era guide.