24 GRAAFF-REINET Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape DOWN 2 • SCORE 41/60 Clubhouse 6.2 / Aesthetics 7.5 / Conditioning 6.5 / Design Variety 7.5 / Innovation 5.5 / Challenge 7.5 One of SA’s oldest clubs, established in 1897 in this attractive Karoo town. A founding member was Douglas Proudfoot, who was SA Amateur champion eight times in the 1890s, and the first club captain. The club has hosted the three-day Proudfoot Trophy every March-April since 1997. The current course is the third in the town, built in the early 1990s, and is a scenic Karoo bushveld layout situated on a bend of the Sundays River, overlooked by Spandauskop. A dry area of the country but the course is well grassed and has plentiful trees. 25 CHROME Near Burgersfort, Limpopo NEW ENTRY • SCORE 40.8/60 Clubhouse 7.8 / Aesthetics 7 / Conditioning 6.5 / Design Variety 6 / Innovation 6 / Challenge 7.5 An out-of-the-way course in a warm and barren landscape. More a winter
destination for golf, it is 153 kilometres north of Middelburg, Mpumalanga. This green oasis is owned by Tubatse Mine in the mineral-rich Steelpoort area, a key location for chrome mining and platinum group metals. Chrome is a championship quality bushveld layout, well-conditioned, playing every metre of its 6347 metres with its lush fairways. Baobab trees are a feature, as is the wildlife. Blasting takes place daily on the hillside adjoining the course when no golf is permitted. 26 CATHEDRAL PEAK KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg DOWN 13 • SCORE 40.5/60 Clubhouse 4.5 / Aesthetics 10 / Conditioning 3.5 / Design Variety 8 / Innovation 6 / Challenge 8.5 In the heart of the Drakensberg, this isolated mountain course belonging to Cathedral Peak Hotel is the most scenic inland venue. With magnificent views and bracing mountain air it is a well- designed layout (1996) by the late Reg Taylor and 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, which suffers from poor maintenance. 27 SPRINGBOK Springbok, Namaqualand, Northern Cape DOWN 8 • SCORE 40.3/60 Clubhouse 6 / Aesthetics 8.5 / Design Variety 7.3 / Conditioning 6 / Innovation 5.5 / Challenge 7 Breathtaking Karoo scenery greets golfers on the par-3 sixth tee. The landscape opens into a kaleidoscope of rugged empty countryside and low mountains. The clubhouse should have been built on this site, but it’s further back, and doesn’t have the same uninterrupted view. The design is interesting and excellent, and the green of the fairways contrasts with the arid out-of-play areas. The routing is unusual. Two starting tees on either side of the clubhouse, and what appears to be the first is No 5 (they are not well signed). From No 1 you play a loop of four holes back to the clubhouse, then venture off on another 5-hole loop. On a hot day it does enable golfers to have an early drinks break.
NO 23: Estcourt
118 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
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