The South African Golfing Experience

Steenberg

South Africa has a rich golf­ing her­it­age, hav­ing pro­duced such golf­ing greats as Gary Player, Bobby Locke and Ernie Els. These great golfers, how­ever, would not have had the oppor­tun­ity to become cham­pi­ons had it not been for the out­stand­ing golf courses that South Africa has to offer. The Western Cape, in par­tic­u­lar, boasts many world class golf courses and estates and with its mod­er­ate Mediterranean cli­mate and spec­tac­u­lar scenery, it has become one of the world's premier golf­ing destinations.

Royal Cape is the old­est recog­nised golf course in the city and it was here that golf was first played in South Africa. It was foun­ded by British Settlers in 1885, first at Wynberg Military Camp and then on the site that is now the Rondebosch com­mon, but later moved to its cur­rent site in Wynberg, a 15 – 20 minute drive from the city centre and Cape Town International Airport. Royal Cape is a club steeped in tra­di­tion and is the most exclus­ive in the pen­in­sula. It is a flat park­lands course with pristine fair­ways and views of the moun­tain, but is a stiff chal­lenge of a golfer’s rep­er­toire of shots, espe­cially when the South-Easter is blowing.

The fair­ways are nar­row and lined by trees and there are numer­ous bunkers and plenty of water to pen­al­ise way­ward shot-making. This course rewards accur­acy and ima­gin­a­tion rather than power, and the yard­ages often are mis­lead­ing in the gust­ing breeze. The course has recently benefited from a com­plete renov­a­tion of all eight­een greens in line with reg­u­la­tions set forth by the U.S. golf asso­ci­ation, which have made them argu­ably the best in the province. The course is main­tained in excel­lent con­di­tion through­out the year and is a pleas­ure to play on.

Atlantic Beach Golf Estate is one of the few links-type courses in the city. It offers a unique golf­ing exper­i­ence, which com­bines the nat­ural beauty of the area with a stern exam­in­a­tion of golf­ing prowess. Each hole is bordered by the rich flora indi­gen­ous to the Cape region, which brings with it spec­tac­u­lar bird and animal life that are a fun­da­mental part of the course’s dis­tinct­ive beauty. This envir­on­ment is pro­tec­ted by demarc­ated bound­ar­ies which are placed close to many of the fair­ways and greens, thus cre­at­ing treach­er­ous sur­round­ings for risky shot mak­ing and real pos­sib­il­it­ies of dis­aster, espe­cially with a stiff ocean breeze. Like the sur­round­ings, the facil­it­ies around the estate are second-to-none, with a state of the art club­house form­ing part of the course’s blend of nat­ural and man-made splendour.

Fancourt

One of the more recent golf devel­op­ments in the Cape is Steenberg, a golf­ing estate built onto the stun­ning back­drop of the Tokai forest. Designed and built by Peter Matkovich, a lead­ing South African golf course archi­tect, Steenberg is the fore­most estate of its kind in the city, and many of the Cape’s wealthy elite reside and play in this golf­ing para­dise. The con­di­tion of the course is unpar­alleled and the greens are as good as can be found any­where in the Western Cape. The course winds its way through the hous­ing estate, the archi­tec­ture har­mo­ni­ously blend­ing in with the water fea­tures, vine­yards and oak trees lin­ing the fair­ways. It is a mod­ern course in an exquis­ite farm­land set­ting and is on par with inter­na­tional golf estates of its kind.

If you're look­ing to get away from the city, then the Arabella golf­ing estate is the first choice for a golf­ing enthu­si­ast. Situated just out­side of the Overberg Coastal town of Hermanus, the Arabella estate offers a lux­ury golf­ing exper­i­ence to sat­isfy even the most seasoned golf course con­is­seuer. Also designed by the legendary Peter Matkovich, all the holes at the Arabella were con­struc­ted with both the player and the beau­ti­ful nat­ural envir­on­ment in mind. The 5 star Western Cape Hotel and Spa will also con­vince non-golfing part­ners that per­haps golf­ing hol­i­days are not so bad after all.

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For addi­tional golf­ing info see:
South Africa Golf Courses
South Africa Golf Tours
South Africa Golf Lodges & Golfing Estates