ONE THAT GOT AWAY
Germiston closes After 128 years Famous club cannot continue operating.
6570 metres from the tips, with several strong 4s, notably the 416m ninth with water guarding the front of the green. Unusually it has a par-3 18th, a signa- ture hole of 196 metres played over a large dam. The thought did occur that Germiston could be resurrected as a 9-hole course, because holes 1, 9-10, then 13-18, are on the clubhouse side of the property. However, there are other Ekurhu- leni clubs with 18-hole courses facing an uncertain future, notably Royal Oak (Brakpan), Kempton Park and Springs CC, according to Venter. Membership is low and elderly, and operational costs are increasing. – STUART MCLEAN
G ermiston Golf Club, one of the oldest courses and clubs in Gauteng, has been forced to close after years of strug- gling to stay open. Founded in 1897, it was formerly one of the region’s pre- mier clubs, home to famous amateur players such as Denis Hutchinson (he turned 93 in March), Johan Murray, Barry Franklin, and Neville Clarke, and legendary club pro Phil Simmons, known as “The Germiston Giant.” The club’s members (average age 65) were told without warning in the first week of March that the auditors had demanded immediate closure, claim- ing “reckless operating conditions” according to general manager Wayne Venter. The club leased the property from City of Ekurhuleni, which had asked for a monthly rent of R50 000 in return for a 10-year lease awarded in December. “We couldn’t pay that on top of our other costs,” said Venter, who noted that Germiston Sports Club has also shut down. Germiston GC was once the pride of the city, playing its part in the city’s centenary celebrations in 1986, hosting a big Sunshine Tour event. The Sun- shine Tour returned for two other tour- naments in 1987-88. It was the home of the SA PGA Championship from 1966 to 1970, before it moved to the Wander- ers. “Hutchy” won his only PGA trophy there in 1970. However, Germiston has declined ec- onomically in the new Millennium, and so did the popularity of the parkland course, sited in industrial surround- ings. Even though a highway splits the course in two, it was never considered unsafe to play there, but attracted few golfers from outside Ekurhuleni. Con- ditioning slumped, the greens taking a hammering last November-December when cable theft deprived the club of electricity for a month. “We weren’t
able to water the greens during a heat- wave,” said Venter. I visited Germiston on a Sunday morning in February, and was im- pressed by its old-fashioned design, the attractive aesthetics of its tree-lined holes. It was busy with about 80 golfers, and at R250 a round cheap to play. It’s
The ninth green at Germiston GC, and the clubhouse, below.
110 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
MARCH/APRIL 2025
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