Top 100 Golf Courses of South Africa 2014

Top 100 Golf Courses of South Africa 2012 8th January 2012 Top 100 Golf Courses extends its South African rankings Top 100 Golf Courses (www.top100golfcourses.com), the most informed and dedicated ranking website, presents its 2012 golf course rankings for South Africa. For 2012, Top 100 Golf Courses has extended its South African rankings by 50 new entries to a Top 100. We can't claim to be the first publication to rank South Africa's Top 100 golf courses but we are the first to showcase them all online with detailed independent articles for each course. South Africa boasts around 450 golf courses serving approximately 150,000 registered golfers across the Rainbow Nation, so the new Top 100 represents approximately the top 20% of golf courses in the country. South Africa's top golf courses have been assembled based on detailed research, which utilises a unique process (see the "About Us" page on the Top 100 website for more details). The result is the most authoritative ranking list of South Africa's greatest golf courses, but it's not perfect. There are a number of very exclusive South African facilities that are not only hard to access but also rather secretive. A little like England's Queenwood, the Gary Player-designed course at Millvale Golf Estate keeps itself to itself. We have no doubt that Millvale should feature in the South African course rankings, but we have insufficient experience of the luxury facility. In the few years since we last ranked South Africa's courses, many new, high profile facilities have opened. The signature course at the Legend Golf and Safari Resort is larger than life. The 8,500-yard course is set 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 hole has been assigned its own "signature designer", starting with Trevor Immelman at the 1st and ending with Retief Goosen at the 18th. This gargantuan 18-holer 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. According to Peter Matkovich – the architect behind one of our highest new entries, Pinnacle Point – this is: "The most dramatic golf course site I've ever encountered anywhere in the world!" The prolific Zimbabwean architect is also the man behind Zebula Golf Estate, Elements Private Golf Reserve and Ebotse Golf & Country Estate which are debutants in our new 2012 South African Top 100. The Jack Nicklaus-designed St Francis Links is our second highest new entry, which offers as links-like a game of golf as you will experience anywhere on the continent of Africa. The Golden Bear's Masai Mara course at the Serengeti Golf & Wildlife Estate burst into the limelight in November 2011 when it hosted the South African Open (which Hennie Otto won) and it's another of our new entries. Our highest new entry is Gary Player's Blair Atholl, which measures a staggering 8,300 yards from the tips. Blair Atholl was Gary Player's home for almost a quarter of a century before developer Robbie Wray helped transform the property into a low-density residential estate with a championship golf course as its focal point. This unique South African ranking list involved gathering, analysing and processing data from a multitude of sources. So, until a definitive description as to what constitutes a great golf course has been defined, the belief is that nobody does it better than Top 100 Golf Courses. Feedback is genuinely welcome, in fact it's actively encouraged. So please tell us what you think about the latest list of Top South African Golf Courses. We won't ever claim to be "definitive" but we are the most "informed" golf course rankings in the business. If you've played any of our featured South African courses, we'd be delighted to know what you think, so why not contribute and post a course review or two? Keith Baxter Editor www.top100golfcourses.com Click here to see the detailed South African Top 100 list.

Top 100 Golf Courses of South Africa 2024  The first chart that we produced for South Africa was a Top 50 back in 2008. We then doubled the number of courses to a hundred in the following iteration of the listings and this now is the sixth edition of our Top 100 rankings for the Rainbow Nation. In this revision, forty-seven courses move up, forty-three drop down, six remain in the same place and four drop out, replaced by four newcomers. Don’t forget, our coverage also extends down to provincial level so we have a total of 140 courses featured across nine geographical regions within the country. Let’s crack on right away and look at some of the highlights from the top down. Fancourt  The Links course at Fancourt was our South Africa #1 from 2016 to 2021 before it was usurped by the Country Club course at Durban Country Club but it regains the top spot once again, moving up one place from the runner-up position. Host venue for the Presidents Cup in 2003, this wonderful Gary Player layout is regarded as one of the Black Knight’s finest designs. Just a couple of months ago a reviewer wrote: “the course is visually outstanding, the only hole you see is the one you are playing…some of the championship tees are not for the faint hearted and not even offered for play to mere mortals, although maintained meticulously… a good experience and solid golf course.” The Montagu course at Fancourt rises an impressive eight places to #4, its highest ever position in the national standings. This track was part of the original 27-hole layout at Fancourt which David McLay Kidd then upgraded in 2005. Further modifications were made six years ago, when all the greens were resurfaced with bent grass as part of the improvement programme. The reviewer above also made the following comments: “the course is a strong parkland layout, certainly not a resort style of carefree golf, it demands the highest amount of concentration in order navigate, and continue momentum in the round… some really astounding par 3 holes throughout the layout, surrounded by water.” Pearl Valley Soaring nine places to #5, the 18-hole layout at Pearl Valley in the Cape Winelands region is a Jack Nicklaus production which was unveiled to the golfing world twenty years ago. Host venue for three editions of the South Africa Open between 2007 and 2009, the course was the second of six Nicklaus Signature designs that have opened in South Africa. Blair Atholl The Blair Atholl Golf & Equestrian Estate outside Johannesburg was Gary Player’s home for many years before the property was transformed into a residential development. The course that Gary designed returns to our elite Top 10 for the first time since 2014 (rising five to #10) with a reviewer last year describing it as “a long, stern test of golf” – and as it measures 7,500 metres from the back tees, we rather concur with that assessment! Champagne Sports The course at the Champagne Sports Resort in Central Drakensberg climbs twenty-one places to #28 in the new national chart. Hugh Baiocchi, the 1978 South African Open champion, designed the layout which debuted in the late 1990s, with the late architect Alasdair McLeod and club stalwart Trevor Livesey (who still serves the club) overseeing construction of the holes. Bryanston The elegant, well-tended 18-hole parkland layout at Bryanston Country Club in Sandton advances twenty-four places to #30. It’s a C.H. Alison design from the late 1940s – after the architect and his wife relocated from England to South Africa – with greens revamped by Rob O’Friel at the start of the new millennium to heighten the level of challenge.  Steenberg Progressing twenty-two spots to #40, the course at Steenberg Golf Club outside Cape Town is a mid-1990s Peter Matkovich composition that recently hosted its first major tournaments when it staged the 2022 and 2023 editions of the South Africa Women’s Open. The golfing amenities on the property are complemented by a luxury boutique hotel, restaurants and a wine estate. Dainfern The largest upward move in our new SA standings is made by the Gary Player-designed course on the Dainfern Golf Estate in Sandton (up an incredible thirty-seven spots to #53) which is actually a revamped version of the original Fourways layout. The Jukskei River comes into play on several holes, with the par five 8th crossing this water hazard twice from tee to green. Paarl Moving up twenty-one rungs on the ladder to #71, the River and Paarl nines at Paarl Golf Club form the premier 18-hole course at a 27-hole facility which lies less than an hour’s drive east of Cape Town. Set within the Boschenmeer residential estate, the course is a 1990s David Frost redesign (along with architect Danie Obermeyer) and many of local hero Frost’s trophies are on display in the clubhouse. Parys Up twenty-three to #74, the course at Parys Golf & Country Estate in Free State province is a design from South African golfing great Cobie Le Grange and the late Douw van der Merwe. Routed in an old-fashioned out-and-back style, the layout lies on an island in the Vaal River, where players reach the tree-lined fairways via an old suspension bridge built in 1918. Mount Edgecombe The highest of four new entries arrives at #85 and it’s The Lakes course at Mount Edgecombe Country Club outside Durban. The Woods 18-hole layout – predating The Lakes by some 60 years – is the higher ranked course at this 36-hole facility but the younger course has more interesting topography with elevation changes and the large Pani Dam in the middle of the layout. The Lakes staged both the SA Men’s Amateur Strokeplay and SA Women’s Amateur events at the club last year. The other three chart newcomers are Kambaku [#90], Katberg [#94] and Waterkloof [#96]. The four layouts dropping out of the SA listings [with previous national ranking in brackets] are as follows: Durban (Country Club) – currently closed for renovation [#1], Durban (Beachwood) [#47], Worcester [#95] and Huddle Park [#100]. Click the following link to see the newly updated national rankings for South Africa. If you have any comment to make on the above article then please use the “WRITE A RESPONSE” link at the bottom of this page. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

Top 100 Golf Courses of South Africa 2016 We announce the third biennial revision of our South African Top 100 ranking chart Two years ago, when we last updated our South African Top 100 chart, we stated, “this latest list will raise a few eyebrows”. Well, the results of the 2016 re-ranking exercise for the Rainbow Nation will do that and a lot more besides because there’s plenty of movement in our new chart – indeed, only two courses hold onto the same position as last time. We don’t know the statistical probability of that happening, actually. Suffice to say, bringing an ever-increasing number of different data streams into the process appears to be at least partly responsible for the volatility of our current chart and it might take another revision or two for the relative positions to settle down a little. So, onto our 2016 listings and it’s all change at the top, where three 18-hole layouts all leapfrog over our long standing No.1 course, Gary Player’s Leopard Creek, which is situated on the edge of the Kruger National Park. The course’s relatively prosaic front nine holes are a bit of a let-down for the more well-travelled golfers who’ve played the course and this may well have been a deciding factor in the course taking a tumble from the top perch. Rising one place to the new number 1 position, the Links course at Fancourt Hotel & Country Club is another Gary Player design that opened for play a couple of years before it hosted the Presidents Cup in 2003. Eight straight 6-ball reviews on the Top 100 website tell its own story and the latest reviewer to play here describes the Links course as “right up there with the very best courses I have played around the world”. Shooting up five places to the runner-up position, Durban Country Club returns to the number 2 spot that it held when we first established our South African chart in 2008. Our US Consultant Fergal O’Leary played there eight months ago when he completed his challenge of playing all of GOLF Magazine’s World’s Top 100 Golf Courses and he summed up his views of Durban by saying: “for keen golfers around the world, a round at the Durban Country Club is an experience not to be missed”. At number 3 in our new chart, rising two places, the Gary Player course at the Sun City Resort is another Black Knight design that returns to its inaugural chart position of eight years ago. The home of the Nedbank Golf Challenge since 1981, this fabulous course is instantly recognisable to golfers around the world who follow on television every year the exploits of a limited field of invited professionals competing for a huge prize pot. Two other courses make significant upward moves at the top end of the new standings. The first one is Humewood, near Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, soaring eleven places to number 7 and this 1929 design from SV Hotchkin – the only true links in all of Africa – is one that has flown under the radar of many golfers for a long time now. The second layout is the very private Millvale course in Koster – which was a new entry in our 2014 chart at number 14 – and it climbs a further four places to number 10. Perhaps we’ll receive our first review for this remarkable course before our next biennial update? A little further down the rankings, the remote Northern Cape course of Sishen (Robert Grimsdell’s last design from the late 1970s) lies close to the Kalahari desert in the mining town of Kathu and it leaps an impressive nine places to number 17. Moving up five to number 20, the old course at East London is actually the club’s third layout, having been established thirty years after the club was formed by SV Hotchkin and George Peck in 1923. In fact, it’s rather appropriate that East London, Humewood and Durban Country Club should all feature so prominently in our listings as they’ve all played a very important part in the development of golf in South Africa. Remarkably, they’ve hosted a total of sixty national championships between them (twenty-nine SA Opens and thirty-one SA Amateurs) so they’ve collectively formed the foundation of the nation’s golfing traditions since the 1920s. In the bottom half of the Top 100, a handful of courses make double digit leaps up the table: Pretoria (up fifteen to 54) was upgraded by Gary Player in 2004, Victoria (up nineeen to 65) had its greens rebuilt by Golf Data a decade ago, Mount Edgecombe (No.1) (up eighteen to 69) is an early 1990s redesign from Hugh Baiocchi, Dainfern (up twenty-seven to 71) was co-designed by Gary Player and Phil Jacobs in 1991 and San Lameer (up twenty to 77) is an early 1990s offering from the country’s most prolific modern architect, Peter Matkovich. There are six new entries in our latest chart, the highest two of which appear in the top third of our national table. At number 29, we have the golf course at Steyn City, and this Jack Nicklaus-designed layout, which only opened last year, is the centrepiece of a massive residential development to the north of Johannesburg. At number 33, the new course at Highland Gate Golf & Trout Estate also makes a noteworthy debut in the South African Top 100. Nestled in the Steenkampsberg mountain range near Dullstroom, it’s the latest layout to come from the bourgeoning design portfolio of Ernie Els. Rank/ We always welcome your thoughts when we carry out our national re-rankings so feel free to let us know what you think if you have a strong opinion about our updated South African chart. Which courses have we missed out on or perhaps we’ve included one that really doesn’t deserve to be featured? Maybe there’s one sitting too high in the listings or one lying too low? Whatever you’re thinking, please click the “Respond to this article” link at the top or at the bottom of this page if you’d like to get in touch with us. Click the link to see full details of our 2016 Top 100 Golf Courses in South Africa Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses