india Letter from Ron Fream

I depart soon for Assam and Arunachal Pradesh -- states in northeastern India. I was in the same area in November, at Thanksgiving.

This part of the world is fully primitive, lacking in modern conveniences, densely crowded with uneducated, unwashed folks. Shameful housing, and hotels only a low-caste Indian could enjoy. Sometimes there's no hot water, or water at all. Arunachal Pradesh is considered South Tibet by China.

The recent events in Tunisia and Egypt show the need for governments to provide employment as a means of raising living standards. India has huge employment-producing needs, and even its so-called democratic government is not immune to discontent. I shudder when I think that in 2050 India is projected to have a population of 1.7 billion (up from 1.2 billion now) in a land area about half the size of the United States. Five hundred million Indians do not consistently earn a dollar a day in income.

I will be touring tea plantations and national oil-company areas where golf courses exist. The challenge: how to create tourist-quality golfing experiences from simple, 100-year-old, nine-hole courses. The clubhouses have signs listing club champions from as far back as 1900. They are meager facilities, but in 1920 they were uptown hang-outs for English tea planters.

There is no history of tourist golf in this part of India, and little serious tourist golf elsewhere in the country. The recently opened courses and those set to open in the next few years -- maybe 10 or so -- will help grow the local market.

From India, I go to Nepal. The Bhutan Youth Golf Association shifted country focus last year, to Nepal. The Nepal Golf Association is very supportive. The Bhutanese golf association did not have the vision or the empathy for youth golf to provide adequate local support.

Today there are some 200 young people active in golf lessons at three sites in Nepal. The teaching pro is a woman from the United States who's living in Kathmandu. She works with the executive secretary of the Nepal Golf Association. The lesson program is impacting young people who have at times not had three meals a day.

The program is focusing on picking four of the best players who also have scholastic aptitude. The Nepal Golf Association is working to fund four-year scholarships so these good student-players can go to university, where golf is on offer. The hope is to produce graduates who can become role models for other Nepali youth, and maybe one day make it to the Indian pro circuit or even the Asian Tour -- quite a leap for such a marginally developed country.

I have been helping, as it may be, in Nepal since around 1978. Golf tourism is more advanced there than in northeastern India, but there are none of the tea estates that encouraged golf 100 years ago. Royal Nepal Golf Club, the oldest club in the kingdom, is 70 or so years old.

I am hopeful that my efforts in northeastern India and Nepal grow and yield meaningful results. I tried for several years to encourage tourist golf in Kashmir, in northwestern India, but sectarian terrorism and deteriorating social conditions prevented any measure of progress. The unemployment rate in Kashmir must be 40 percent. Islamic promises look good to the under-fed and under-employed.

The final stop on this trip is Sri Lanka, to evaluate a new resort site. Sri Lanka was the site of a mass war, killing thousands, up until about the time of the tsunami. I have not been there for 25 years, so it will be interesting to see what has changed.

I do not know how much longer my health will hold out. I am beyond normal retirement age now, but the satisfaction I get from visiting exotic places still holds an attraction for me.

Best wishes!
Ron Fream

Ron Fream is the founder of GolfPlan, a Santa Rosa, California-based design firm. He's designed about 75 new courses, including one for the Sultan of Brunei, and he currently has projects in Mongolia, Uganda, and other countries. He lives in Malaysia.