FOUR NEW ENTRIES
Debuts for Kambaku & Huddle Park, while Selborne returns
over the river. Recent modifications have seen Van Dyk build a long new tee alongside the Komati River on what is the most challenging hole at Kambaku, the 538-metre fifth. It’s bigger and higher than the previous tee, and the angle plays away from out-of-bounds on the right. You again play this hole as No 15 on the back nine from another tee, but 50 metres closer to the pin. The difficulty facing golfers is a unique “island” of rough and trees about 100 metres short of the green which forms a barricade to be avoided. One feature of Kambaku is the bush- veld forest through which the holes twist and turn, another is the magnifi- cent conditioning, a lush coverage of cynodon grass from tee to green. Win- ter is the best time to visit, with milder temperatures, yet with golf carts avail-
Among the four new entries this year – headed by Durban Country Club be-
gles, the fairway of one par 4 bisecting the fairway of another. Much of the improvement lifting Kambaku into the Top 100 can be attributed to local ex-farmer Harry van Dyk, whose role can best be de- scribed as “keeper of the course” to use a Scottish expression. As Old Tom Morris transformed and modernised the Old Course at St Andrews, and Prestwick before that in the mid-19th century, Van Dyk saw endless design possibilities at Kambaku. Part of his legacy will be an entirely new hole he constructed on the Crocodile riv- erbank which has enhanced both the overall design and flow of the routing. It’s a short risk-reward par 4 (283 at its longest) with a water hazard played as No 8 & 17 which connects the final dots to the layout. Its lengthy raised teeing area gives golfers a grand vista
coming eligible again after its upgrade – is a newcomer and 9-hole course, Kambaku in Mpumalanga. Situated on the Mozambique border at the conflu- ence of the Crocodile and Komati Riv- ers, Kambaku earlier this year became Golf Digest’s new No 1 in the Nine-Hole Rankings, usurping Bosch Hoek. Kambaku, built by local farmers us- ing a design by the late Douw van der Merwe, has evolved over 20 years from a basic bushveld 9-holer on a smallish property into what could be labelled a “hybrid” layout. Using just 10 greens, the holes have been so creatively rout- ed that the second time round feels unlike the first nine. It helps having four unique par 3s, while two greens are approached from alternative an-
74 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
MAY 2025
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