Durban Country Club

Durban - KwaZulu-Natal

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General manager: Desiree Stone
Greenkeeper: Vacant (Golf Data)
Club captains: Alasdair Muir & Anita van der Linde
Chairman: Errol Stewart
CRITERIA SUMMARY: Total points 75.5 out of 100
Conditioning11.7 / 20
Playability15.6 / 20
Aesthetics12.5 / 15
Design Variety12.2 / 15
Shot Values11.4 / 15
Memorability12.1 / 15

Course Summary

Four tees / Par 72

Yellow 6148 metres, CR73.3/141
White 5816 metres, CR71.8/122
Blue 5410 metres, CR70.5/120
Red 4966 metres, CR67.9/117
Women’s white, CR78.0/149
Women’s blue, CR72.7/143
Women’s red, CR73.1/133

Visitor green fee

R1 800 member guest

Course designer

Laurie Waters, George Waterman 1922
Golf Data 2024

Contact

031 313 1716/1719
www.durbancountryclub.co.za

Previous ranking

24 (2003), 19 (2022) & 12 (2021)

Durban CC reopened on March 1 2024 after a substantial upgrade and as a result was not included in the 2024 Top 100. It has a year to consolidate before being ranked in the 2025 Top 100. It has been upgraded by Golf Data with 18 new greens. Now a private members club with limited access for visitors.

Durban Country Club has long been recognised internationally as South Africa’s premier classic golf course. Opened for play in 1922, it currently occupies a place in Golf Digest’s ranking of the 100 Greatest Golf Courses in the World outside the United States.

Country Club was a masterpiece of original design work on what is sublime undulating terrain alongside the Indian Ocean coastline, with a wonderful balance to the holes from first to last.

In 2023 the course was given a modern upgrade by Golf Data following devastating floods in 2022 which closed DCC for several months. It was re-opened in March 2024 with 18 new greens complexes to acclaim from members and visitors. A benefit of the flooding was the realisation by the club hierarchy that this was the perfect opportunity to rebuild and reshape the course for the 21st century. The club had a benefactor in businessman Nick Jonsson who made it happen.

The club placed their trust for the redesign in Golf Data, a company with an enviable reputation for sound and innovative golf course design and construction. The chief problem to overcome in the renovation was drainage. Country Club, being close to the Umgeni River mouth, had suffered annual flooding. Golf Data’s solution was to build a wide “burn” that snakes through many of the holes at the far end of the course from the clubhouse. Ground water keeps it full. The burn is an attractive feature, and was designed to influence playing strategy from the sixth hole through to the 14th.

DCC was famous for its opening five holes, and a few others that uniquely stood out, like the par-5 eighth, Prince of Wales par-3 12th, 17th and 18th. Now, the other holes have been strengthened and given more character through essential design improvements.

Some greens occupy new sites, such as 6 and 14, while others have shifted slightly. No 17 is sensational, the green extended left into a high dune with a lower punchbowl portion. DCC’s iconic 18th remains much the same, although a new championship tee will stretch it to 292 metres. The green has been realigned, and a large greenside bunker catches tee shots running in from the left.

A weakness of DCC had been the quality of the grass on the greens, paspalum for many years, then Bermuda (MiniVerde) since the 2010 SA Open. The 18 new greens have bent grass, a strain called Super 7, being tried for the first time at a coastal KZN course.

The two back nine par 5s at No 10 (525m) and 14 (519m) are significantly more challenging due to the presence of the burn. The green at 14 has been moved 45 metres further back into what used to be a bushy area left of a new par-3 15th (tees and green), and the burn runs up the right side of the fairway before crossing in front of a raised green. Similarly, No 10’s new green is protected by the burn’s sinuous presence. No 15 is now shorter than 12, but these par 3s run in opposite directions so will always play differently in the prevailing winds.

The renovation has highlighted vastly improved aesthetics around the entire property. DCC’s scenic splendour has been revealed more than ever by removing the denser tropical foliage (not all) and allowing an uninterrupted vista of views from hole to hole. Big trees hidden in the bush are now on display. Holes like 7, 9 and 11 look more natural with cleaner lines. Gone is the “parkland” look of old, replaced by more natural wild grasses and bunkering which convey how DCC is assumed to have looked in early years.

Country Club began in the 1920s as a links-style treeless championship layout among the sand dunes. In the fashion of that time, the holes play out to the furthest point and then back to the clubhouse for the first time at No 18. The halfway house is in the middle of the course. Two years after opening it hosted the 1924 SA Open. There have been another 16 since then.

A magnificent clubhouse is part of the Country Club “look.” The stately building stands hard up against the first tee and 18th green, adding to the atmosphere of the venue. Today the course is an island encircled by busy roads, yet it continues to retain its reputation as a magical place to play.

Read: GOLF DATA BEGIN MAJOR RENOVATION OF DURBAN COUNTRY CLUB
Read: NEW LOOK TO FAMOUS 18TH AT DURBAN CC
Read: UPGRADES AT DURBAN CC MUST WAIT UNTIL 2023

Additional Course Facts

Feature Holes

The opening par 4 immediately has golfers exhilarated, an undulating fairway curving left around a dune to an elevated green. The par-3 second tee is the highest point with wonderful views. The famous par-5 third plays from a high tee into a long valley. The fifth is one of the most challenging par 4s, its high tee on the boundary fence and having another rumpled landing area. The par-5 eighth is as good as the third, unusual in the way two sloping dunes conceal the green from view. There are similarities between the eighth and par-4 17th, where the fairway resembles deep troughs between ocean waves on the way to another elevated green.

Practice Facility

Limited size range & short-game area adjoining 18th hole. Another short-game area close to first tee.

MAJOR TOURNAMENTS

Record 17 SA Opens, 1924 to 2010. Winners: Bertie Elkin 1924, Jock Brews 1928, Bobby Locke 1939-50, Gary Player 1956-69-76, Retief Waltman 1963, Bob Charles 1973, Bobby Cole 1980, Wayne Westner 1988-91, Tony Johnstone 1993, Ernie Els 1998-2010, Tim Clark 2002-05. European Tour Volvo Champions 2013-14, both won by Louis Oosthuizen. SA Women’s Open 2006 to 2008. 17 SA Amateurs, 10 men, 7 women.

Course Record

62 by John Bland in first round of 1993 SA Open

Did You Know

1/ DCC is the only SA course to have always featured in the Golf Magazine ranking (first published in 1985) of the world’s leading 100 courses outside the United States. It was ranked No 80 by Golf Digest in their 2024-25 ranking of the World’s Greatest 100 Courses (outside the US), an improvement from No 97 two years earlier.

2/ The club hosted the 100th SA Open in 2010, which gave Ernie Els his fifth Open title, and second at DCC.

3/ John Bland shot 62 in the first round of the 1993 SA Open, with 11 birdies, seven on the back nine which he played in 29. Bland finished T-5, 10 shots behind winner Tony Johnstone.

4/ Gary Player won three of the five Opens he entered at DCC, and also two Natal Opens. Bobby Cole and Wayne Westner each won three events at DCC.

5/ Durban CC acquired a second golf course, Beachwood, in 1994, but have since sold it to a developer and it is being operated independently.

6/ The Waterman Cup, in tribute to George Waterman who helped build the course, is a 36-hole medal event for one of the club’s historic trophies, first presented in 1924.

Club Champions

2024 Leon Naidoo & Nicolene Cambanis
2023 Lyall McNeill & Jean Whitfield
2022 Jonathan Broomhead & Jean Whitfield
2021 Jonathan Broomhead & Jean Whitfield
2020 Lyall McNeill & Jean Whitfield
2019 Basil Naidoo & Lydia Muhl

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Course Reviews
Pleasure as visitors to test our golf on the recently re-opened Country Club. Tee to green the changes were amazing. Lot of money and effort going into the renovation project and I’m confident DCC will soon be back at the top of the rankings. Some areas of the course still having work done -- the halfway house for instance.
Hans Vierra
24 July 2024
Incredible to play DCC again after it had been closed for so long. DCC has long been my No 1 course and I was apprehensive about the changes being made to the course as I thought it would lose its character. My main concern was the introduction of waterways on the northern end of the property. Thankfully, however, the waterways were not as obtrusive or as large as I had expected from the photos I had seen. And they added a wonderful strategic element to the play. On the par-5 10th you no longer can hit your second as far as you please. You must now consider the distance to the water. The enhancements to the greens are phenomenal and have increased the difficulty of DCC. With their various tiers you no longer can expect to two-putt every green. Failing to hit your approach to the right area of the green can be costly. I particularly liked the new location of the sixth and 17th greens, changing the second shot into both. I can't wait to see the course in another year or two when everything is fully grown in and established, and the course has taken its true shape. Greens were in great shape, but general conditioning was a letdown, particularly the surrounds. I need to play DCC a few times to reacquaint myself with the new strategies required.
Jean-Luc Regaud
20 July 2024
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Enjoyed the experience of playing the "new look" Country Club. The redesigned greens are still growing in, and slowish, but when they quicken up, they will present a fine challenge for the low-handicap golfer, although tricky for the average handicap to avoid three-putting.
Brink Rautenbach
07 July 2024
The renovated DCC is a treat to play, not a far cry from the old layout. The majority of approaches remain the same, the biggest adjustment for golfers being to master the shapes and slopes of 18 attractive new greens. The par-5 14th, lengthened by 37 metres with a new green site, is one hole which looks materially different, due to the burn guarding the right side of the fairway, crossing in front of the green. Tee shots will be directed towards a narrow neck in the fairway between bunker and burn, and the closer to that neck you get increases the risk of trouble. Cautious play should ensure an easy par, so it's essentially a birdie hole only for those of adventurous spirit or the skill to launch long, high shots. No 15 has been reduced to a short 3 (123 max), when previously it was the longest 3 (177). Being so short does limit the possibility of good golfers coming unstuck, either in a deep front bunker or deep swale behind the green. At No 18 the changed angle of the green has improved this short 4, as has the removal of the "hedge" left of the fairway. Golfers will be tempted to drive down the left side, but too far left means a ball ending up on a steep slope with an awkward stance and no sight of the pin.
Thomas Souness
24 May 2024
DCC reopened on March 1 with three full days of member play. Joyous excitement for them after a 10-month hiatus playing an incredible renovation by Golf Data, and no shortage of superlatives about the experience. I didn't play but was able to look at all 18. In places the course is unrecognisable from the old Country Club, particularly holes at the far end from clubhouse, 6-7-10-11-13-14-15. These have been transformed from good to extraordinary. There are 18 new greens, some on new sites, such as 6 and 14, while others have shifted slightly. No 17 is sensational, the green pushed left into a high dune. Prince of Wales (12) has a Biarritz "dent" in the middle of its tabletop green. Bent grass surfaces for the first time at a coastal KZN golf course, so putting on them is a dream. Most impressive feature about the renovation is the disappearance of the "parkland" look (along with unsightly areas), replaced by more natural wild grasses and bunkering which convey how DCC might have looked in its early years. The scenic splendour of DCC has been revealed more than ever before by removing tropical foliage (not all) and allowing an uninterrupted vista of views from hole to hole.
Stuart McLean
11 March 2024
Having been away for a year I was excited to play DCC again. It was a hot, humid, windy day, typical of Durban in summer. I was impressed at how more open and wider the course had become since I last played it. Particularly liked the removal of the ghastly bushes between No 1 and 18 which caught me out from the 18th tee. While I understand that the 2022 floods wreaked havoc, the course was not in great condition. I can forgive the fairways and rough not being to a high standard, but there's been more than enough time to fix tees and greens. I hope the upcoming course renovation can bring DCC back to where it should be. The halfway house has deteriorated to a shameful state. The sliding doors don't work, and the wooden deck is broken in multiple places. How was it allowed to get to this point? The club is looking worn and in need of a refresh.
Jean-Luc Regaud
06 January 2023
My first visit to DCC since the April floods disastrously impacted the golf course and left most of it under water, metres deep in places. Seven weeks later, and following more torrential rain in May, there are still 14 holes out of play. Members are playing a short course comprising Nos 1-2-17-18. These holes look perfect, as if nothing had happened, yet walking further on to the third tee the submerged fairways come into view. All you can see is a succession of "shallow lakes" in the low lying areas. Strange to walk such a deserted course on a weekend. Not another person to be seen other than a security guard. The greens on these holes are unaffected, although they are ironically in need of water because the irrigation pumps need replacing. They have to be hand watered. Some more holes will reopen soon as the water is pumped off the fairways, yet there is extensive damage to others which will preclude DCC operating an 18-hole course for some time to come.
Stuart McLean
30 May 2022
The course is in great shape. Never seen so much attention to detail. The members must be proud. The greens were consistent and smooth, great to putt on. Fairways well covered, firm and running, bunkers excellent and consistent. A highly recommended experience.
Henry Trevena
17 March 2022
Still the best course I have played. Challenging but fair nonetheless. The restoration work over the last few years has done a world of good by improving it from both a visual and playability perspective. There are two distinct areas of the course: the holes in the dunes, and those on the flat land behind the dunes which have been utilised beautifully to create elevation changes and awkward lies. The wind can be a huge factor. DCC is short by modern standards but many approach shots are to elevated or hidden pin positions, and many tee shots give the impression there is less space than there actually is. As amazing as the course is, the service is quite the opposite. The club seems to lack the initiative to utilise the amazing course they have and create a world-class venue, an unmatched golf experience in SA.
Jean-Luc Regaud
26 December 2021
Durban CC celebrates its centenary in 2022, and it is unfortunate that a perfect storm of bad circumstances has resulted in the iconic course's greens being catastrophically wiped out this past winter. The problematic mini-verde grass, planted in 2010 just before the SA Open that year, battled in the unusually cold winter weather and then reacted badly to a maintenance treatment with a herbicide. The greens were poor on my last visit in May, and right now they are dreadful. The course staff is plugging them with a Royal Blue cynodon that has been considered the best replacement solution to the mini-verde, which will not be missed. The rest of the course is in superb condition, which makes the situation with the greens all that more tragic.
Stuart McLean
15 November 2021
Course is green and looking healthy. Golf Data are improving the maintenance and look. Definitely more care and attention to little things on the course. DCC will be back were it should be, in the top 10, with Golf Data at the helm.
Greg Townsend
12 February 2021
Durban Country Club is going through a transitionary period, and among the many changes is that of the maintenance contractors. Golf Data have replaced Matko Turf, in charge for the last 10 years, and introduced new practices. As a Top 10 course DCC needs to raise its game in terms of conditioning because it is competing in an elite space where its rivals have an edge in conditioning. However, whatever the state of the course, Country Club remains an excellent experience, such a novel design. It has the potential, though, to be even better than it currently is.
Stuart McLean
21 December 2020
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