WALKING ENCOURAGED AT ATLANTIC BEACH
The par-3 16th hole.
Atlantic Beach does a commend- able job with their prominent course signage on the Western Cape coastal estate north of Cape Town. Particularly helpful for visiting golfers is this large sign on the way to the first tee. There are seven concise pieces of advice on how to care for the course – including a 90-degree cart rule – and the last one is something you won’t read anywhere else in South Africa. Point 7 just says, “Consider Walking.” When last did any golf club suggest that? Walking is showing care for the course, reducing the impact of cart traf- fic, particularly at a seaside links such as Atlantic Beach built on an important ecological corridor where sustainability is a pressing issue. However, Atlantic Beach’s increased popularity has seen rounds increase to more than 40 000 a year from half that five years ago. It’s an easy and pleasant walk too,
I
are labelled the Cobra tees. The white tees are the Springbok markers, blue the Porcupine, and red the Sunbird. The Mongoose doesn’t get a shout. Atlantic Beach this past year received a GEO Foundation certificate for sustainable golf. If you’re an estate resident, this is a birder’s paradise with sightings of 129 different species, a common one being the sunbird which inspired the club’s logo.
ture into the indigenous strandveld, a foremost reason being to conserve this biodiversity, another the presence of snakes on the property. And not just lazy puffadders. Golfers on the course experience regular sightings of the venomous quick-moving Cape Cobra which strikes readily if threatened. Its only opponent is the mongoose, which doesn’t hesitate to take on a cobra. On the scorecard the back yellow tees
with not much distance between green and tee. To encourage walking, the club have built extra paths for walkers at stra- tegic points which serve as short cuts from tee to fairway. They are paved surfaces to make it easy for those with push carts. Atlantic Beach has fynbos bordering the fairways, and golfers are advised not to ven-
A pair of Springbok on the first fairway.
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 111
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator