Africa

South Africa

Limpopo

The Limpopo Province is the most northerly district in South Africa and its beautiful Waterberg Bushveld region is home to a number of stunning, modern golf courses, two of which – Elements and Zebula – are situated within twenty-five miles of each other.

Prolific Zimbabwean architect Peter Matkovich designed both 18-hole layouts, with Zebula making its appearance first in 2004, one year ahead of Elements.

Although they’re in close proximity to each other, the courses are laid out over totally different landscapes with holes at Zebula strung out over rather flat, open terrain whilst Elements Private Golf Reserve lies in a rugged, rocky valley where lush fairways roll through heavily wooded terrain.

A stream winds through part of the course to a lake which forms the centerpiece of the design. It’s here that the all-carry par three 9th closes the outward half and the downhill par five 18th approaches from the other direction to end a round by the waterside.

Elements

A stream winds through part of the course to a lake which forms the centerpiece of the design here at Elements Private Golf Reserve.

Designed by Annika Sorenstam in conjunction with Stan Eby of European Golf Design, the course at Euphoria Golf Estate and Hydro nestles in the foothills of the Waterberg Mountains, where you generally only see the hole that you’re playing on this beautiful bushveld course. It’s regarded as one of the best courses for bird watching and twitchers can expect to see more than a hundred different species in any given day.

Opened for play in 2008, it’s part of an impressive residential complex that’s been developed by the Erasmus family on farmland that belonged to them. It’s also the first African project undertaken by EGD and Annika’s second signature course after Mission Hills, Shenzhen.

Despite the fact that it measures more than 7,700 yards from the white tees, Annika says the course “will favour the strategic player rather than the big hitter”. We presume she’s referring to golfers who play from the two most forward sets of tees – reds are 5659 yards and greens are 6556 yards – because even the second-tier blue tees require a golf ball to be propelled all of 7,194 yards round this course.

The short par four 11th is a contender for signature hole. The tee shot is played over a stream that winds its way along the left side of the fairway, past a couple of sentinel Marula trees, towards the only two-tiered green on the course. This hole is followed shortly after at the 13th by another terrific par four. On the tee, golfers get a chance to soak in the scenery from the highest point on the course before launching a drive onto a fairway that doglegs to the right.

Jeremy Slessor, MD of European Golf Design, kindly commented as follows:

Situated within the Waterberg mountain range, in Limpopo and just two hours north of Johannesburg, Euphoria Golf Estate & Hydro is the first golf course designed by a woman in the African continent. Annika Sorenstam, along with Stan Eby of European Golf Design, has designed a course to reward those that play as she played during her career – with strategy in mind, rather than sheer power. As she said “You have to think about every shot – the course will favour the player that can think, and play, strategically.”

With views of undisturbed bushveld, the commitment was to design and develop the course to preserve and enhance the indigenous flora and fauna. Wide undulating fairways are punctuated by zone of wild, native grasses, deep bunkers and a natural ravine which cuts through many of the holes, creating both aesthetic interest and challenge. The course, from the back tees, plays to a length of 7,055m, although at an elevation of almost a mile, the ball travels about 10% further than normal. From the forward tees, the course is a much more comfortable 5145m. Part of Annika's unique approach was to ensure that the whole family could enjoy the course, with special thought given to the placement of the forward tees, allowing women, juniors and seniors the opportunity to enjoy playing through the sheer natural beauty of the Estate.

Euphoria

Designed by Annika Sorenstam in conjunction with Stan Eby of European Golf Design, the course at Euphoria Golf Estate and Hydro nestles in the foothills of the Waterberg Mountains.

The number of top class golf course designs by Peter Matkovich that are featured in the Top 100 South African rankings is now into double digits and the bushveld course at Zebula is yet another – like De Zalze, Elements and Pinnacle Point

that he has created in the new millennium.

Conceived as a grand scale bush project by former owner and former American golf retailer Steve Dunn, Zebula is, in essence, a 3,500-acre game reserve that also offers a number of sporting activities ranging from tennis and squash to fishing and golf, with fairways on the 18-hole course laid out around a residential complex.

Located not far from the small spa town of Bela Bela, the course at Zebula Golf Estate lies on rather flat terrain where wide, open fairways are framed by bushveld trees. A feature hole on the back nine is the par five 15th with its split fairway but the signature hole on the layout is regarded as the 8th, a 150-yard par three with a raised green that’s protected by both sand and water.

In this short edited extract from the book 

South Africa’s Greatest Golf Destinations, 

“Zebula is wonderfully remote. You leave the spa town of Bela-Bela and venture on to dirt roads, where you capture the real aroma of the Waterberg. There is little sign of habitation along the way. Once you are inside the estate, a single-track road leads through quiet leafy bush for several kilometres before reaching the lodge and golf course. The course is flat and easy to walk. Wide fairways framed by bushveld trees add to the character of the design, challenging yet player-friendly.”

Zebula

Located not far from the small spa town of Bela Bela, the course at Zebula Golf Estate lies on rather flat terrain where wide, open fairways are framed by bushveld trees.

Situated just a 90-minute drive north of Pretoria, close to the southern edge of the Waterberg Masif, the golf course at the Koro Creek Bushveld Golf Estate is a DDV Design layout that first opened for play in 2006.

It sits just outside the small market town of Modimolle, which is famous for its export-quality grapes and other fruit, near the beautiful Nylsvley Nature Reserve, where holes are routed around an attractive bushveld estate.

Starting and finishing with a strong par five hole, the course extends to a whopping 7,432 yards from the back tees, playing to a par of 72. The outward half is a little shorter than the inward half, and it’s also a bit tougher due to the sloping greens on that nine.

The signature hole is the par three 7th, which can play as long as 243 yards from the tips. The tee shot must avoid tall trees en route to a green with water positioned left and right of the putting surface – it’s better to be either short or long than wide on this hole.

Koro Creek

Designed by DDV-Design and built by Wonder Gardens, the 18-hole layout on the Koro Creek Golf Estate in Modimolle stretches to over 6,800 metres from the tips and it’s characterized by fairways that narrow on approach to the green.

Developer Peet Cilliers wanted the scale of the golf facility in the Entabeni Safari Conservancy to match the surrounding African landscape so he made a wise move to bring in Kuwaiti-based IFA Hotels and Resorts as a partner when it came to financing an ambitious project that cost a reputed $30 million.

Everything at Legend is larger than life in an enormous 50,000-acre estate where herds of giraffe, zebra and antelope roam free alongside fairways that weave though open grassland and dense bushveld in two large circuits of nine.

Each of the holes has been assigned its own “signature designer,” starting with Trevor Immelman at the 1st and ending with Retief Goosen at the 18th. The bunker style has been standardised throughout with no hidden hazards to negotiate, just as the pros like it.

In between the opening and closing holes, the marketing men have allotted holes to top names who appeal to as wide a spectrum of golfers as possible, showcasing emerging talent like Camilo Villegas at the par four 8th and established major winners such as Vijay Singh at the par four 15th.

Legend would, of course, have to be the longest course in all of Africa so it measures up at almost 8,500 yards from the championship tee markers. Even allowing for some extra distance due to altitude and heat, that’s still an awful long way to have to propel a golf ball from the first tee box to the last hole.

Of course, all of this gargantuan golf pales into near insignificance when compared to the gimmick that is the Extreme 19th – a par three played from the top of nearby Hanglip Peak, 470 yards above the level of a massive green that’s contoured in the shape of the African continent.

Golfers reach the tee box by helicopter and their tee shots from the longest, highest par three on the planet take more than 20 seconds to reach terra firma. Mulligans are allowed, as it would be a shame to pay an extra 200 quid to play this monster and not have a second shot to play on the ground!

For those who don’t have a head for such heights, there’s a 10-hole par three Tribute course which features replicas of some of the more famous short holes from around the world.

The course at Legend Golf & Safari Resort closed in October 2019 for a full revamp and is scheduled to open again in 2021.

Legend Golf & Safari Resort

The course at Legend Golf & Safari Resort is the longest in all of Africa, measuring almost 8,500 yards from the championship tee markers, but it closed in October 2019 for a full revamp and is scheduled to open again in 2021.

The former mining town of Phalaborwa is situated on the western edge of the Kruger National Park, a couple of hours drive away from the Mozambique border. The town has reinvented itself as a modern tourist destination and one of its major attractions is the Hans Merensky Golf Estate.

Named after the German mining geologist who came to South Africa in 1904 to make his fortune discovering tin, platinum, diamonds (and more locally, phosphates and copper), the Hans Merensky course was established in 1967 as the place “where golf meets African wildlife.”

The course was designed by Bob Grimsdell and it’s considered one of his best layouts. It hosted a Sunshine Tour event in the 1980s which saw regular confrontations between golfers and animals. The Palaboro Classic tournament was played in the middle of summer, when the heat was often quite unbearable, with the winner awarded a rather unique trophy of an elephant’s head sculpted from tamboti wood with ivory tusks fashioned from warthog tusks.

South African Golf Courses: A Portrait of the Best

 author Stuart McLean writes: “Bob Grimsdell designed 18 classic holes on this land which used to belong to the National Parks Board. Alterations have been made in recent years but the course has stood the test of time remarkably well.

Preparing the site was a massive task as the holes had to be carved out of the rugged bushveld, and the planting of Retief grass on the fairways and Florida grass on the greens were all done by hand. Before work could begin, beaters had to drive the animals out of the area and fences were erected to keep them from returning.”

For golfers who choose to stay here, there are thatch-roofed chalets discreetly positioned beside the 11th and 12th fairways. The four par fives on the scorecard are all very good holes, particularly the 16th where a pulled or hooked drive will end up in the Park next door!

Don’t be surprised to see elephants, antelopes, giraffes, monkeys and baboons in and around the perimeter of fairways, whilst hippos and crocs can be found at some of the water hazards. Cameras are not mandatory equipment at Hans Merensky but they are highly recommended!

Hans Merensky

Don’t be surprised to see elephants, antelopes, giraffes, monkeys and baboons in and around the perimeter of Hans Merensky's fairways, whilst hippos and crocs can be found at some water hazards!

Limpopo – which changed its name from Northern Province in 2003 – lies in the north east corner of South Africa where it shares international boundaries with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. One of the poorest regions in the country, Limpopo is doing its best to develop an eco-tourism industry, attracting visitors to the likes of the 5,800 square mile Waterberg Biosphere, a UNESCO-designated reserve.

 is the smallest of the fourteen South African provincial unions with only fifteen affiliated clubs and a membership of around two and a half thousand male golfers. Its female counterpart, Limpopo Ladies Golf Union, caters for a smaller number of members attached to the same fifteen golf clubs.

 course in Phalaborwa was, for many years, the number one course in the province but three new millennium layouts have overtaken it in the rankings. The mighty 

 layout at Sterkrivier is the first of these modern offerings, measuring an incredible 8,500 yards from the back tees. The other two tracks, 

, are highly acclaimed Peter Matkovich designs located within twenty miles of each other, near Bela Bela.