Steyn City

One of several Jack Nicklaus projects located around Johannesburg, the 18-hole layout at Steyn City is the focal point of a huge parkland and real estate project that’s been developed by insurance mogul Douw Steyn.

Gary Waage of Golf Data built the course and he moved more than 430,000 cubic meters of soil when fashioning the layout. Additionally, he trucked in vast quantities of sandy loam soil to cap every fairway to a depth of 25 centimetres.

Situated on the site of an old quarry, the course is laid out on either side of the Jukskei River, which flows through the estate, with the par four 1st and par three 9th playing directly across its flowing waters.

Thousands of sapling trees were installed and both greens and tees have been seeded with bentgrass. Fairways and roughs were planted with a cool season fescue/ryegrass mix, which will help to guarantee good all-year round playing conditions.

The new irrigation system uses “grey water” from the Northern Works plant which flows into a pre-treatment plant before being stored in onsite lakes where it is then aerated to further improve the quality before being pumped onto the course.

Even though it’s located at altitude, the course is still a monster at 7,054 metres from the back tees. The layout boasts a testing 7th hole – the downhill tee shot flirts with a wandering stream – then the toughest par four is played at the 18th, with a split fairway as the target area for the drive before a pond then awaits errant approach shots.