The Willingdon Sports Club

The Willingdon Sports Club, founded in 1918 by Lord Willingdon as a club where Indians and Europeans could mix, squeezes an 18-hole, par-65 course designed by Peter Thomson onto a compact site near Mahalaxmi in the heart of South Mumbai; its golf course was laid out and opened in 1933. Sources disagree sharply on its length: the club's own site says the course "covers an area of over 6,500 yards", while Business Today prints a full blue-tee scorecard totalling 4,635 yards and GolfPass independently gives the same 4,635 — the smaller figure fits a par-65 city layout far better, and the disagreement is unresolved. It is one of India's most exclusive members' clubs: Wikipedia notes that permanent membership has been closed since 1985 except, selectively, to members' children (extended to daughters in 2007), with temporary corporate memberships the other route in. A third route exists but is documented only by the other side: the Tanglin Club lists Willingdon among its reciprocal clubs, charging visiting members ₹1,000 a day for facilities "excluding golf and the gym" — wording that could mean golf is exempt from the fee or that golf is simply not on offer to reciprocal visitors. Willingdon publishes nothing on the point, and no public pricing exists. It remains active — Business Today profiled it as a tournament host in January 2025, and its golf page was live and maintained when checked in August 2026.