About 20 of Assam's Tea Gardens Have Golf Courses
About 20 of Assam's at least 800 large tea gardens carry a golf course, brought by 19th-century planters with no other avenue for relaxation. In August 2026 Assam raised tea and golf tourism with a Japanese trade delegation.
Assam works at least 800 large tea gardens1. About 20 of them also carry a golf course.
The planters had nothing else to do
Golf came to Assam with the British and Scottish tea planters of the 19th century, and the reason the industry's own people record is blunt: there were no other avenues for relaxation1.
Most of these courses are nine holes1.
Jorhat, 1876
The Jorhat Gymkhana Club was established in 1876 by D. Slimmons, then the club's secretary, at Seconidhara on the outskirts of Jorhat, conceived as a recreation ground for tea planters2.
Golf was one item on the list. The ground also carried a horse racing track, polo grounds, tennis courts, and the social facilities that went with all of it2. A planter with a free afternoon had a choice of four sports without leaving the perimeter.
The golf course was laid out inside the horse racing circuit2.
It stayed a nine-hole course for over a century, expanding to 18 holes only in 19952.
The competition record runs nearly as long as the club. The Beg Dunlop Cup was first played there in 1902, the Craig Cup is part of the same trophy history, and the Governor's Cup remains an annual fixture on the same turf2. The club is described as Asia's oldest golf course, and by the same account the second oldest anywhere outside the British Isles2.
The Jorhat Gymkhana cricket ground seats 8,000 and has hosted the CK Nayudu Trophy and a women's national championship2.
Where the courses actually sit
The concentration is in Upper Assam. Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts hold eight nine-hole courses between them1. Duliajan, under Oil India, has a nine-hole course of its own, and Digboi, under the Assam Oil Division, has 181.
The Assam Tribune, writing through a serving tea-industry manager who is also a former president of the Upper Assam Golf Association, puts it at 20-odd courses inside the tea gardens1. India Today NE, reporting in August 2026, says more than 183.
Against at least 800 gardens, about 20 courses is about one estate in 40.
The Japan talks, August 2026
In mid-August 2026 Assam's Chief Secretary met a delegation from JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organization, led by Deputy Director Toshiaki Sato, to discuss Japanese investment in Assam; tea and golf tourism was one of the sectors covered3. The meeting also discussed the possibility of a state-to-state cooperation agreement between Assam and Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture3.
The appetite is not new inside the industry either. The Assam Tribune piece argues for a public-private partnership to restore and develop these courses for tea tourism1.