Wellington Gymkhana Club

Established in 1873 as a garrison club, the Wellington Gymkhana Club sits at about 6,000 ft in the Nilgiris beside the Defence Services Staff College, between Coonoor and Wellington. It has an 18-hole hill course; the club publishes no scorecard, and outside golf directories disagree on the card — GolfPass gives par 70 over 6,082 yards with a 69.1 rating and 130 slope, Hole19 gives par 69 over 5,286 yards, and a concierge site reprints GolfPass's yardage while agreeing with Hole19 on par. The par-70, 6,082-yard figures are the rated ones; the disagreement remains unresolved.

Access is documented, and better documented than most clubs of this kind. Rule 29 of the club's own rulebook lets members of affiliated clubs and visitors introduced by a member play golf without joining, on payment of green fees set by the Management Committee; affiliated members need a letter of introduction, are capped at three visits a month and ten a year, and pay ₹200 a day. There is also a temporary membership open to non-defence visitors — short term, one to three months, once a year, for outstation candidates — which is the route a travelling golfer would actually use. So this is a members-first club with a real paid guest route, not a public course; GolfPass's stock FAQ line that it is "open to the public" is boilerplate that appears word for word on its Ootacamund page too.

Fees are published. The club's golf page prints a tariff: guests of members ₹800 on weekdays and ₹1,000 at weekends plus 18% GST; a temporary member's golf subscription of ₹1,500 a month; resident and non-resident member subscriptions from ₹750 to ₹1,250 a month; affiliated members "as per reciprocal"; and a caddy table running ₹300 to ₹450 by day and holes played. The rulebook separately gives a per-round green fee of ₹300 for temporary members from the public — though the club's rules page in fact carries two complete editions of the rulebook pasted one after the other, and the second edition's Rule 51 says ₹150 a round with lower deposits, with no edition or revision date anywhere to tell old from new. The ₹300 figure is the likelier current one because its deposit scale matches the club's current entrance fees, but that is inference: confirm by phone. None of the tariff carries a stated effective date. Recency is solid: a club notice effective 3 March 2026, plus a February 2025 golfer's review that also noted some holes under renovation.