South African golf suggestions

[Pete Lavallee]

My wife and I are planning a trip to South Africa, to visit her sister, over the Holidays this year.  Lucky for us she lives in Capetown; we値l be spending the majority of our time there. For the last part of the trip we値l visit a friend who lives in Uvongo, south of Durban. We致e planned a stay at Pinnacle Point, thanks to the great photo tours from Philip G. and Mark B. Our next stop will be 5 days in Kynsna, in the heart of the Garden Route. We値l travel on to Port Elizabeth and then finish off in the Durban Region.

We planned our trip before we learned of the wonderful journey Ben and Ran have planned for this coming Feb. They seem to have a great itinerary; playing the best golf courses SA has to offer. So taking the lead from them, we will stay and play at Pinnacle Point, have time for Peluza and Fancourt Links while in Kynsna and finish the Garden Route with a stop at Humewood. We値l obviously try to play Durban CC while in the area.

What suggestions do our well traveled group have for golfing opportunities in and around the greater Capetown area? Are there any courses of interest that should be added to this trip? Although we both enjoy playing World Class courses; can anyone recommend a pleasant hidden gem in any of the areas we値l be in?  Something that has some interest but allows you to post a decent score; is there a Pacific Grove in SA? As usual all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[Philip Gawith]

Pete, Soutbroom is a fun coastal course not far from Uvongo - lots of bush vegetation and monkeys! The Wild Coast Sun is a RTJ jr course a bit further south(but only about 45 min drive) also worth playing. It has a memorable short hole on it.

The best know courses in Cape Town itself are Royal Cape, Rondebosch, Mowbray, Milnerton, Clovelly, Atlantic Beach and Steenberg. Royal Cape and Mowbray have both hosted big tournaments but I am not sure either are very special. Atlantic Beach is a (British) Open qualifier - a bit of a links-style brute and more modern. Milnerton is also links type course. These last two are both on Table Bay and have fantastic views across Table Bay towards Table Mountain (which, one way or another, dominates most of these courses).

I am not sure any of these qualify as hidden gems - all are good without being spectacular. If i had to choose two i might go for Atlantic Beach and Steenberg (actually the two youngest, but perhaps the best located in terms of showing you different bits of Cape Town). Clovelly might be closest to being hidden gem - a little inland, around towards Simonstown.

A little further out of town there is a newish Nicklaus course near Paarl called Pearl Valley and Erinvale near Stellenbosch which hosted the SA Open a few times. But I suspect the best option is to go to Arabella which is about an hour's drive out of Cape Town towards Hermanus. Has some very nice holes around a lagoon (but also houses, as does Steenberg). Hermanus itself is a lovely seaside town with well established golf course recently expanded to 27 holes.

On your Garden route travels you might want to take a look at the new Nicklaus course The Links at Francis Bay (or something similar - in Cape St Francis). Not really a links in the traditional sense but then SA already has the Links at Fancourt which is a Whistling Straits type creation.

I should warn that golf in the Cape can be windy! But I am sure you will have a good time. Of the above I think Southbroom maybe comes closest to a hidden gem - certainly you will notice that the East Coast courses are very different in feel from the Cape.

[Padraig Dooley]

Pete

In Cape Town the closest to Pacific Grove probably is Clovelly, great scenery, interesting holes, won't beat you up and has a great membership. Royal Cape is quite good as well. I like Atlantic Beach as well, but if the wind blows you could hit a few balls into the fynbos.

Generally Erinvale, Pearl Valley and Arabella are rated as the best courses in the area. All three are outside Cape Town. Erinvale and Pearl Valley are about 30-40 minutes outside whereas Arabella is around 90 minutes away. All three are very good and a bit more difficult then Clovelly and Royal Cape.

Back in Cape Town is Milnerton, which is very close to a true links, and is worth checking out. Also Mowbray and Rondebsoch are two older clubs and are pleasant to play. Steenberg is a newer club with real estate surrounding it, is highly rated but didn't have too much character to me.

Back out of the city towards Stellenbosch and Somerset West are De Zalze, Stellenbsoch, Strand and Paarl. These are all worth playing with the winelands close by as well.

I think that covers all the interesting courses in Cape Town.

For the other areas, I would add in George GC, when in Fancourt and Knysna, another older members club which fills your description of having interest and the possibilty of a score. Not too far from Port Elizabeth is St. Francis Links which is just open and I've heard a lot of good stories about it.
 
Finally I would add in the Wild Coast CC, it is 90 minutes from Durban but is one of my favourites in SA, short and wide in places not too taxing unless the wind blows and then it can be a monster. The wind nearly always blows. Holes 12 and 13 are highlights among many there.

I hope this is what you're looking for. If you have any more questions, ask away.

 

[Padraig Dooley]

Pete

I forgot about Phillip's recommendation about Southbroom. It fills the Pacific Grove analogy perfectly. Again great scenery, plenty of interest and won't beat you up.

All his other recommendations are spot on as well.



 

[Pete Lavallee]

Thanks very much for the recommendations Philip and Padraig. My sisiter in law's boyfriend has a cottage in Hermanus and we will certainly look into Arrabella; we'll probably visit there irrespective of golf. Southbroom sounds great; we didn't have a clue as to where to play in that region. Clovelly is one I hadn't heard about yet and sounds like a perfect day out. The great thing about GCA is no matter how far from home you travel there is someone to give a knowledgeable recommendation; what a great fraternity!

[Bill_McBride]

You lucky dog.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Pete - I'm going as well in March.

Pete/Ben/Ran - the Rand is plummetting against the dollar which bodes well for traveling to SA.  The Rand has fallen 30% against the dollar in just a number of weeks!  The downside is that political unrest is on the rise (you S. Africans please calibrate me if I'm wrong but that's what I'm reading and have heard).


JC

[Padraig Dooley]

Jonathan

The Rand dived against the Euro earlier in the year while I was there last, food which is cheap became even cheaper for me. At one stage I was eating out for every meal including breakfast. The dichotomy is always strange, able to live to a very high standard while so many people struggle to make ends meet.

I'd be surprised if you came across any trouble. The only unrest I came across in my many trips down there was a taxi protest in Durban, there was absolutely no question of any violence and it actually was quite interesting to see.

I think you'll have a great trip.

[Melvyn Morrow]

Golf in South Africa may be interesting but what about Golf perhaps a little further north at Buluwayo.

Expect with high inflation the course maybe more attractive even with our falling pound/dollar exchange rate. Apparently the bunkers can be a real hazard and may have more than just sand, well according to the following newspaper clip from the 30th Sept 1896.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Pete

Have you read George Peper's account of his trip, in Links mag?

Steenberg has fantastic views, plays through vineyards, and is one of the best, if not the best, landscaped courses I ever have played. (Haven't played Shadow Creek.)

That said, it's a development course and thoroughly unremarkable between the ropes, as Padraig notes.  A couple of pics:




Arabella is the high-end one everyone talks about but as Philip notes it's a bit of a drive.  I have heard good things about Pearl, too

Padraig / Philip, what's the one you can see from Table Mountain?  It would be to the left a bit of the World Cup stadium going up near the harbo(u)r.

The political situation has stabilized; the second leg of the FX freefall is down to Rand's status as a commodity currency.  Which means that if the horrific free fall of global asset deflation continues, given ZA's USD reserve levels, things there could get IMF ugly.

In which case, play Steenberg -- the US maintains a bombproof, heavily fortified consulate back of 2 green!


Mark

[Philip Gawith]

Mark, the club in the centre of Cape Town near Signal Hill is Metropolitan - not really a proper course and maybe affected by building the stadium.

Jonathan, I wouldn't say political unrest has gone up. Change is in the air, certainly, but that is a good thing. They have got rid of a poor president (Mbeki), put in an interim president (Motlanthe) who is sensible and anticipate Zuma who has some legacy issues but most people prefer to Mbeki. Meanwhile, the ruling ANC split recently with some very high level defections. Arguably this is without precedent in the organisations 96 year history and it is very important because it heralds the possible end to race-based politics in the country. So i would say recent political developments have actually been very encouraging (there is no precedent in Africa for throwing out a politician of Mbeki's status).

The global financial crisis washes around SA like everywhere else and certainly the Rand has suffered, but I don't think SA is as exposed as some other places, not least because it still has exchange control. But it is going back to levels that make it very cheap for tourists!

Pete - I posted some pics on Hermanus back in March if you want to take a look. They built an extra nine and modernised it two years ago and the course lost a bit of its old charm, but still worth a look if you have time. I would play it over one of the newer places like Erinvale or Pearl Valley as you can play that type of big modern course anywhere.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Mark - I have Peper's article and will be following his itinerary almost to the letter.  Great sidebar in that article from the head pro at Long Cove who cites that, much to his surprise, going to SA was the best golf trip of his life.

JC

[Pete Lavallee]

Mark,

Saddely Links is the one Golf Mag I don't get. Is it a recent article that can be viewed online?

[Bob_Huntley]

Mark,

Saddely Links is the one Golf Mag I don't get. Is it a recent article that can be viewed online?

Pete

I have a whole bunch of them,  I'll see if the SA one is there

Bob

[Mark Bourgeois]

Pete

Click on this sentence for the article.

Mark

[Pete Lavallee]

Mark,

Many thanks for the link to the article; Peper is a fine writer. It seems like he was on a mission to play all the first class courses in SA. Although we will endeavor to play quite a few, we are looking forward to some of the older and lesser known layouts as well. Again, many thanks to all.

[scott_wood]

Pete, pls send me an IM...
Scott
ps.."pinotage"....try them all.....

[Jason McNamara]

ps.."pinotage"....try them all.....

And start with Rust en Vrede, est. 1694
http://www.rustenvrede.com/estate_of_mind.htm
(just outside Stellenbosch)