DESTINATIONS
Gauteng’s Best-kept Golf Secret
G ary Geddes, general manag- er at Soweto Country Club, is proud of his course’s po- sition among a ranking of the Top 10 in Greens in South Africa. “It’s an amazing accomplishment for a course like ours to be in that group, because we have a limited maintenance budget and an aging fleet of mowers,” he said. “But these bent grass greens at Soweto have been consistently good since the new course was re-opened in 2017 and are constantly being praised for their consistency and speed.” Soweto CC has been one of Gauteng golf’s best-kept secrets for several years, seldom spoken about by the general golfing community, yet it is be- coming an increasingly popular course to play, with annual rounds creeping up to the 20 000 mark, mainly due to the quality of the 18-hole layout and affordability of the visitor green fee. Most of those rounds are being played by visitors because the club has only 170 full members. “Our members are mostly weekday golfers, which means the weekend tee times are open to visi- tors,” says Geddes. “We have hundreds of golfers playing on Saturdays and Sundays at R330 each. They can share a golf cart for R350.” Playmoregolf has a sizeable pres- ence and make up more than half of the visitor rounds. They are attracted by a pleasant and challenging tree- lined layout whose main feature is the creatively contoured greens complexes. They were designed by Phil Jacobs for Gary Player Design, and the veteran Rounds grow as more visitors discover the delights and affordability of Soweto CC.
course – established in 1974 as Pimville Golf Course – which had deteriorated over the years through lack of funds and proper maintenance,” said Jacobs. “We rebuilt it for R15-million, an ex- tremely low price for 18 holes, and that included a new irrigation system. The highest tender received for the project had been R40-million.” The brief for Soweto was to build the course as economically as possible, and Southern Turf Management, a premier turf company specialising in landscap- ing and golf courses, was awarded the construction contract. Today, the com-
course architect describes Soweto as one of his more remarkable renova- tion projects in a 40-year career that includes the design and construction of high-profile courses such as Leopard Creek and The Links at Fancourt. COMMUNITY PROJECT “The renovation of the Soweto course was a community project funded by the Sunshine Tour, Investec, PWC and Bidvest, which Gary Player Design did pro bono to give this Johannesburg township a secure and quality golf experience on the site of the original
76 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JULY/AUGUST 2025
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