CApe Town and Mauritius

[Tony_Muldoon]

Lucky us, one month today we will be in Cape Town for 5 days.  First trip south of the equator.
Is there any golf nearby that is worth leaving the wife to get upto mischief?  

Anyone played Royal Cape Golf Club?

The after a few days on Safari we head for Muaritius where there are some resort courses. Agian anyone played them?


Golf was not a priority when planning the trip but it would be a real shame to miss a nearby gem.

[Nigel Islam]

Since you will be fairly close, maybe you could check Madagascar out. I've heard rumors..............

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,55.0.html

[Mark Chaplin]

Tony when are you in Cape Town?

Apparently Royal Cape isn't worth playing unless you want to tick off a reciprocal. Clovelly is meant to be very nice.

[Bart Bradley]

Contact Joe Andriole...he played Arabella and can tell you about it.

Be sure to take the boat to Roben Island and tour the prison.

Bart

[Tony_Muldoon]

Tony when are you in Cape Town?

Apparently Royal Cape isn't worth playing unless you want to tick off a reciprocal. Clovelly is meant to be very nice.

Arrive 25th and leave 30th.   I don't suppose you'd be interested in touring a vineyard or two?

[Mark Chaplin]

Funny you should say that Mr Muldoon we are in Cape Town from 17th to 29th, we are staying on Winery Road (!) until the 26th then probably moving down to the southern beaches around Kalk Bay.

[Padraig Dooley]

Hi Tony

I've played Royal Cape a bit, it's not bad, worth a day out. Of the other Cape Town courses I've played, Clovelly, which has been mentioned, is very pleasant, Atlantic Beach is good, Steenberg is average, Rondebosch is fair and not worth detouring to play.

Outside of Cape Town in Somerset West is Erinvale which is good, Strand is fair.

On the other side is Pearl Valley, Jack Nicklaus, it's good and close by is Devonvale which is fair.

Then there is also Arabella which is good, about an hour from Cape Town and worth taking the trip.

[Greg Gilson]

Hi Tony, I send groups to SA each year. We spend 5 days in/around Capetown & have played Arabella, Royal Capetown & Pearl Valley. The course at Royal is VERY modest but it is something of a snapshot back to more colonial times. Pearl Valley is one of the better Nicklaus courses I have played and is in the middle of the winery areas so can be combined with that. Arabella is also good but far from great. I have actually removed it from recent itineraries so that probably says I don't think it warrants the drive. The bottom line for me is that the Cape area has so much non golfing stuff to do that you have to decide how much of your time you want to spend on less than compelling golf. If it were me, I would spend 1 day doing Pearl Valley & combine it with the wineries.

Feel free to PM me if you want any more opinions !

[Tony_Muldoon]

Funny you should say that Mr Muldoon we are in Cape Town from 17th to 29th, we are staying on Winery Road (!) until the 26th then probably moving down to the southern beaches around Kalk Bay.

 
Downtown on Green Market Square.
I'll be in touch.


Thanks for all the tips (and offline).


No one been to Mauritius?

[Mark McKeever]

It's high on my bucket list!

Mark

[Ruediger Meyer]

I've been to Mauritius but played only two courses there. Didn't like the highly regarded Le Touessrok at all. There's a rumor Bernhard Langer, who officially designed the course, hasn't set foot on the course til today and I believe it. It's a design with lengthy forced carries at almost every hole and small landing zones everywhere. I haven't met anyone there during our rounds who hadn't lost at least ten balls. The ferry to the island is quite nice and there are some pretty ocean views (although many of them were almost overgrown when I was there), but we wouldn't have played there more than once if it wasn't included in our hotel package.

I enjoyed Ernie Els' Anahita Golf much better, but it's quite expensive (like almost every golf course on Mauritius). It's a good second shot course although some of the greens were a bit boring.

There's also the Paradis Hotel Golf Club which has a very nice setting with ocean views and a mountain backdrop, and two courses at the Belle Mare Plage Hotel but they are difficult to get on if you're not a hotel guest. We were told that there weren't any tee times left for us.