Farewell to a man of vision

The City’s golfing fraternity on Sunday bade farewell to one of its great promoters, Ashok Kumar Meda, who had passed away on June 15 while on a holiday in France. He was 68.

The mortal remains of Meda, the chairman and managing director of Eagleton Golf Resort, arrived in Bangalore in the wee hours of Sunday. The body was kept for public viewing until afternoon as his friends from the golfing community and business associates poured in to pay their last respects before the funeral.

At a time when golf was considered a niche sport and limited to just club members, Meda was a pioneer who orchestrated a major change at the turn of the millennium by building the country’s first private golf course that threw open the sport to the public.

An enterprising man, Meda battled plenty of adversities to make Eagleton one of the sought-after courses in the country that possesses a top-class club-house and a quality golf academy. Leading pro Anirban Lahiri and top-amateur-turned-pro S Chikkarangappa are a couple of Eagleton’s products.

Meda, an engineering graduate from REC (Suratkal) and MBA from Ford School of Management, US, realised a major dream when Eagleton hosted the country’s first-ever Ladies European Tour event in 2007 which put Bangalore on the global golfing map.“It is a very news for all who have played golf at Eagleton,” said Lahiri, who was playing in Selangor, Malaysia, via a statement after hearing about Meda’s demise. “In Mr Kumar, we have lost a true visionary and supporter of golf.”

Chikkarangappa, who worked as a forecaddie at Eagleton before being nurtured into a promising golfer by Meda, too condoled the death. “Mr Kumar’s unique legacy must be the inspiration he has given to so many to support and play golf. We have all been so fortunate to have learnt golf under his guidance at Eagleton.”

Meda is survived by his wife and two sons, Kiran Kumar and Chetan.