the steep undulations of the property. One design aspect in common be- tween The Links, Leopard Creek and Blair Atholl is that they each have three par 5s on the back nine. (Humewood had that long before anyone else.) And thus, substantially longer second nines, 543 metres longer in Blair Atholl’s case. It is 4 035 metres from the black tees, which a full field of club golfers experi- ence once a year, as a badge of honour, in a medal format. Another common denominator is that all three courses eschew kikuyu grass on their fairways. Leopard Creek and Blair Atholl prefer cynodon turf, a superb grass from which to hit iron shots. Best of all for golfers, drives get more run on the fairways, and iron shots bounce into greens, whereas ki- kuyu invariably stops a well-struck drive once it hits earth. TWO NEWCOMERS IN THE TOP 10 are Durban Country Club at No 8 and Pinnacle Point at No 10. Country Club was absent from the 2024 rankings immediately following its extensive upgrade by Golf Data, but the course had been out of the Top 10 since 2018. Golf Data’s impressive work has trans-
just as it is intended at Augusta’s 18th. The green itself is also situated further away from the clubhouse, meaning that players at the SA Open, after putting out, had to walk up a rise towards the building, as we see champions do dur- ing the Masters. GARY PLAYER DESIGN CAN BE PROUD to have its name attached to the three best courses in South Africa. That last happened in 2016, when the Gary Player CC was No 3 behind The Links and Leopard Creek. Player has always been partial to designing par-5 finishing holes – the GPCC was opened with the current par-5 ninth as its 18th – and the trend in modern course de- sign in this country has been that way too, with notable exceptions in the case of Nicklaus at Pearl Valley, St Fran- cis Links, Houghton, Pecanwood and Serengeti. His only par-5 18th came at Simola where he was compromised by
Peter Matkovich had a good year with 11 of his courses rising in the rankings. Pinnacle Point 11 to 10 Prince’s Grant 33 to 30 Hermanus 40 to 36 Ebotse Links 41 to 39 Maccauvlei 44 to 41* Steenberg 52 to 49 Woodhill 54 to 50 San Lameer 59 to 56 Umhlali 63 to 61 Waterkloof 78 to 69* Bloemfontein 91 to 86* *Redesign.
NEW ENTRIES Durban CC Huddle Park Kambaku Selborne Park EXITING TOP 100 Bosch Hoek Magalies Park Randpark Bushwillow Schoeman Park
EAST LONDON NO 9 Early morning sun reveals the secluded par-4 fourth green.
64 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
MAY 2025
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