Taking golf to the limit

"If we keep with that we win. People have a way of falling asleep. If you fall asleep in this thing the others will take your members so we have to make sure we keep St Andrew’s going at a certain standard."

The club’s mission is: "To provide a high quality golf course with superior facilities and excellent service while maintaining the private membership status and vibrant club atmosphere." And with a very strong nine-member management committee and Maria Nunes as general manager, Jaggassar will succeed.

Said to be one of the oldest golf clubs in the Americas and almost certainly the oldest in the Caribbean, and until recently the lone club in Trinidad and Tobago, St Andrew’s started in 1891 on the Queen’s Park Savannah. The first hole was played towards the cemetery, the second was a dogleg around the cemetery and there was an "out of bounds penalty" for hitting a ball over the cemetery. Members used the Queen’s Park Hotel as a clubhouse until about 1896 when they moved to the Trinidad Turf Club Members Stand. In 1919, the club relocated to what was thought to be a less public and safer environment at St James on a short renewable lease from government. A nine-hole course extended into Federation Park and members built a small two-storey club house where the St Mary’s College Pavilion now stands.

At a time when so many clubs failed to acquire their own freehold property and sooner or later became extinct, St Andrew’s heeded the warning of the acting governor, who on several occasions warned that "the links may be required shortly for public purpose." The committee decided to seek an alternative site and their own freehold land, and on October 6, 1930, at a special general meeting of the club it was agreed to purchase 90 acres of the Champs Elysees Estate at Maraval, and that $1,000 be advanced to the owner, Colonel De Boissiere, from club funds.

The fourth and final move to Moka, took place about 30 years ago. Ironically, just as in 1930 some of the peripheral Champs Elysees property was sold to help finance the new course, St Andrew’s is about to sell some of its Moka property to provide a funding base to undertake a major capital programme of development, because already there is increased competition with subsidised courses at Chaguaramas, Mt Irvine and Plantations in Tobago, while Millennium, a brand new 18-hole course, is soon to come on stream in Trincity.

In August 2001, Jaggassar retired from RBTT Bank Limited as Executive Director Corporate and Commercial, but continues as the bank’s representative on the board of National Enterprise Limited and on Caribbean Micro Finance TT Limited. He has been a member of the club for over 20 years, served as vice president for the past year and has also chaired the Strategic Planning Committee. With this background, he stresses:

"My involvement is to run this club as a business because financial viability is critical to its continued existence. The club and greens occupy approximately 115 acres land and there is over 630 acres on surrounding hillsides to protect the club’s environment."

In the planned upgrade programme, almost ten greens need to be redesigned and rebuilt, which will be done under the supervision and guidance of the US Golf Association, starting in part next year. Jaggassar plans for it to be done with minimum interference to members: "We are trying our very best to avoid closure of any part of the golf course for any time whatever."

The irrigation system, which is absolutely necessary to the upkeep of a golf course, is almost non-existent, and $3 to $3.5 million is needed to replace first of all, the water system. St Andrew’s hopes to install a state of the art electronic irrigation system. To fund the development programme over the next three years, the club is in the process of selling 12 acres of its hillside land, and from that capital inflow a certain portion will also be invested to provide an annual income to fund the equipment replacement programme.

Jaggassar speaks highly of the very vibrant, ever-growing junior programme.

"We need to encourage youth as that is how you sustain membership. Many of them have been granted golf scholarships. We already run eight-week clinics which include non-members at about $50 per week."

To this end a golf academy is to be implemented within the next few months headed by a resident pro. In addition, professionals from the United States of America are going to be invited to help with clinics here twice per year for all ages, youth and middle order. "We would like very much to see our pros play in the PGA Tours, like Stephen Ames."

Jaggassar has yet another dream: "To try to develop within the region inter-club relationships that would benefit our members reciprocally in terms of playing fields when they go either individually or in groups to the islands."