which perform the same kind of relief; and a wide selection of tee boxes to ensure everyone can clear the trouble ahead.
CONDITIONING MARGINS WIDEN
The best conditioned courses have ben- efited from the re-allocation of points. Whereas conditioning was previously measured on a scale of 1 to 10 out of 80, now it’s 1 to 20 out of 100. One of the big changes in the SA golf- ing landscape over the past 30 years has been the improvement in the con- ditioning standard of greens. They are consistently good throughout the year, not just during the club champion- ships. Bigger budgets are allocated to maintenance practices, and talented greenkeepers can transform the hum- blest of courses into a mini-Fancourt in terms of the quality of their greens.
HUMEWOOD Bunkers and swales guard the green of the short par-4 16th.
CHAMPAGNE SPORTS RESORT The closing par 4 in the Drakensberg of a top 20 course.
admitted that such was the low traffic during that time it would have been better to have closed the course, rather than put up with disruptions. When Gowrie Farm in the KZN Mid- lands lost their greens in the winter of 2023 to a pythium disease, they had to wait until spring to replant them, and
BIGGEST CLIMBERS Up 12 Krugersdorp Up 11 Goldfields West Up 10 Prince’s Grant Up 10 The Lakes Up 9 Waterkloof Up 8 Dainfern Up 7 Champagne Sports Up 7 Modderfontein Up 6 Killarney Up 6 Reading & RPA
FALLING HARD Down 17 Oubaai Down 16 Euphoria Down 8 Bushwillow Down 8 Olivewood Down 7 Steenberg Down 6 Humewood Down 6 Kyalami Down 6 Firethorn Down 6 Wild Coast Down 6 KD Mowbray
Spoiled golfers have thus come to ex- pect better than average conditioning, and do not tolerate lower standards. Es- sential hollow-tining practices are seen as annoying disturbances. Gauteng courses often do this work at much the same time in the middle of summer. Yet shrewder clubs will delay theirs by a few weeks so that they will be visited by members of clubs where the greens have been spiked. When Royal Johannesburg rebuilt their greens complexes on the West Course in 2022, the course was kept open with temporary greens in place for six months. CEO Chris Bentley
PRINCE’S GRANT The par-3 17th at this KZN North Coast estate.
56 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
MAY 2024
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