NEW COURSES
Z imbali Lakes Resort, the Ernie Els Signature Course now open for play on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, is an ambitiously unique project which introduces a new architectural fashion for South African golfers, that of wide fairways throughout the golf course. Internationally, this concept has been popular for at least the last decade in modern designs, but we haven’t built a course of this stature since The Club at Steyn City in 2014. The undulating terrain and variable weather conditions here has much to do with the adoption of wider fairways. It was a difficult site on which to build 18 holes, never mind the challenge of environmental factors and numerous wetlands. This is another course, like Pezula, Simola and Pinnacle Point on the Garden Route, which will not be walked. There are some hills to climb. The green fee includes a share of a cart. The first three holes around the lower lakes are flat, but after that the cart comes into its own. Huge amounts of earthworks took place the past three years to create Zimbali Lakes, and the course has been
Southbroom, and shorter than Umhlali Country Club close by in Ballito. Good ball-strikers will appreciate the strategic qualities of Zimbali Lakes. Narrow fairways reduce a golfer’s strat- egy because the emphasis off the tee is solely on avoiding the rough. With wide fairways, more than 50 metres on sever- al holes here, hitting tee shots into the correct area of those fairways will vastly improve the angle into the flag. The av- erage golfer will be happy being able to play approach shots from closely mown grass, rather than the rough. However, while the greens do look inviting, they have enough contours and shapes to repel shots that aren’t perfect. The 15th is a fine example of strategy and width. Just 306 metres from the yellow tees, 294 white, you drive over a bushy ravine to a wide angled expanse of fairway, guarded by bunkers, but with the green on the far right of your vision. If you’re a powerful driver you could attempt a direct line towards the green. Other golfers though will have to think about their options and where best to aim their drive so they can safely clear the ravine and avoid the bunkers. There’s the danger of taking too short a route and running out of fairway on the far side of the cart path. What’s also uniquely special about playing Zimbali Lakes is bent grass greens. They would have been the first at a coastal KZN course, but Dur- ban Country Club jumped in first by “poaching” the same grass for their own greens following their 2023/24 upgrade by Golf Data. Bent grass adds another factor to playing these courses. The coming months, May through August, present the best playing conditions for golfers PLAY THE COURSE TO SUIT YOUR GAME FOUR TEES
magnificently constructed and shaped by Golf Data, under the management of Jacques Moukarzel. A wide continuous cart path extends around all 18 holes, which means the course is unlikely to be affected by wet weather. It has drained well throughout a wet summer. Zimbali Lakes is in some ways the antithesis of many of the big-name courses that were built in South Africa during the golf course construction boom in the first decade of the Mil- lennium. Firstly, it’s short in terms of length, and secondly the wide fairways will give golfers confidence to open their shoulders on tee shots. There’s a limited number of fairway bunkers, and the premise here is for golfers to have “a fun experience.” The Slope rating from the back tees (yellow) is low at 121. The club tees at St Francis Links, by comparison, have a Slope of 141. Pinnacle Point’s yellow tees are 144. Zimbali Lakes will be just as wind affected as those two layouts. But it is to be hoped that golfers will lose fewer balls. The club tees (white) at 5 571 me- tres are similar in length to KZN South Coast courses such as Selborne and
Yellow 6019m, CR70.6/121 White 5571m, CR68.0/118 Blue 5034m, CR65.7/109 Red 4607m, CR63.1/100 WOMEN
White , CR74.3/129 Blue , CR70.4/122 Red , CR67.9/113
Ernie Els at the course opening.
94 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
MAY 2025
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