9 MARBLE HALL Marble Hall, Limpopo NEW ENTRY • SCORE 43.5/60 Clubhouse 8 / Aesthetics 6.5 / Conditioning 7.5 / Design Variety 7 / Innovation 6.5 / Challenge 8 A modern redesign of an older course by Jannie Swanevelder, who worked under the late Douw van der Merwe and has remained at the club as greenkeeper. It has attractive bushveld surroundings in a rich farming area and a pleasant clubhouse. Good use of mounding and bunkering adds character to flat terrain. Finishes with an excellent par 4. The property is to become a golf estate once all the infrastructure and water supply is completed. 10 GREYTOWN Greytown, KZN Midlands NEW ENTRY • SCORE 43/60 Clubhouse 8, Aesthetics 7.5 / Design Variety 7.5 / Conditioning 6.5 / Innovation 6 / Challenge 7.5 One of KwaZulu Natal’s oldest clubs (1895) has a delightful tree-lined classic layout, most of it built on a steep hillside with stunning scenery in places. The 1950s clubhouse is at the summit, so the holes rise and fall throughout the round. On the first tee there is a large marker stone, with the hole numbers attached, and there’s one on every hole. Another attractive feature of a course that looks lovingly cared for. Strong finishing dogleg right par 4. 11 THABAZIMBI Thabazimbi, Limpopo NEW ENTRY • SCORE 42.7/60 Clubhouse 5.7 / Aesthetics 8 / Conditioning 7.5 / Design Variety 7.5 / Innovation 6 / Challenge 8 One of the most attractive bushveld environments for golf, a course full of trees, a stream, and surrounding hills where iron ore mining has taken place over the past
century (Thabazimbi means “mountain or iron”). The course is outside the town in pristine countryside, and leopard sightings are common in the area. Large impala herds tend to be a nuisance overnight when they roam the holes and trample the greens. The course opens with a terrific dogleg right par 4, and the quality of the design is excellent from start to finish. 12 MALELANE Malelane, Mpumalanga Lowveld DOWN 2 • SCORE 42.3/60 Clubhouse 6.5 / Aesthetics 7.8 / Conditioning 6.5 / Design Variety 8 / Innovation 6 / Challenge 7.5 Malelane is a bushveld beauty, its fairways lined with magnificent mature trees of varied species. The road to the Malelane Gate and Leopard Creek bisects the course. On the left are three holes and the clubhouse; the other six holes, each outstanding, with a couple of doglegs, are hidden away on the right. A stream runs through the middle of the course. There’s a camp site at the clubhouse. 13 CATHEDRAL PEAK KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg DOWN 6 • SCORE 42/60 Clubhouse 4.5 / Aesthetics 10 / Conditioning 5 / Design Variety 8 / Innovation 6 / Challenge 8.5 In the heart of the Drakensberg, this isolated mountain course belonging to Cathedral Peak Hotel is one of the most scenic inland venues. With magnificent views and bracing mountain air it is a well-designed and challenging layout (1996) by the late Reg Taylor and his brother Roly which criss- crosses hillside ridges in a valley below the hotel. Different elevation levels make for fun tee shots. For a 9-holer the design variety and risk-reward quotient is diverse. Sadly, one of the least played courses in SA. Average conditioning is an issue, while the clubhouse is usually empty.
7 BOSCHENMEER Paarl, Cape Winelands
DOWN 1 • SCORE 45/60 Clubhouse 8 / Aesthetics 6.5 / Conditioning 7.5 / Design Variety 8 / Innovation 6.5 / Challenge 8.5 Boschenmeer is the third nine at the 27-hole Paarl GC facility, which is part of a residential estate. It qualifies as a separate 9-holer in that its design, by Danie Obermeyer and David Frost in 2000, is distinctly different from the Paarl Old Course. There are numerous water hazards, and a hill in the middle from where you can see Table Mountain. The closing three holes are outstanding, No 7 a beautiful long par 4 through an avenue of pines, No 8 a risk-reward short 4, and No 9 a par 5 curving left around one of the lakes. It is also set up to play as a Par 3 layout. 8 KRUGER PARK LODGE Hazyview, Mpumalanga Lowveld NO CHANGE • SCORE 44/60 Clubhouse 5.5 / Aesthetics 7 / Conditioning 7.5 / Design Variety 8.5 / Innovation 7.5 / Challenge 8 This Gary Player Design layout from the early 1990s has several memorable and challenging holes on undulating terrain. Big greens, water hazards, creatively shaped bunkers are all evidence of a proper professional design by Phil Jacobs. It’s the main leisure activity of a self-catering holiday resort on the Sabie River. One oddity, however, comes in the shape of a tiny island green on the par-4 ninth. This wasn’t in the original design. There is another proper green further along the hole, used for the 18th.
NUMBER 10 Greytown, KZN Midlands.
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 65
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025
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