White 5957 metres, CR71.3/129
Blue 5541 metres, CR69.4/128
Red 5042 metres, CR66.6/117
Women’s blue, CR75.6/128
Women’s red, CR72.1/120
R477 affiliated
R687 non-affiliated
R370 Monday-Tuesday
R400 golf cart
Ken Elkin 1971
021 976 8120
www.durbanvillegolfclub.co.za
97 (2020)
Durbanville Golf Club is one of the biggest and busiest member clubs in the Western Cape, with rounds averaging around 50 000 a year. It is a social hub for the local community, and the club has come a long way since its humble beginnings nearly 50 years ago.
Durbanville itself, 30 kilometres from the Cape Town CBD, has grown from a rural community into an ever-expanding urban area in the Northern Suburbs.
The course has improved markedly in quality in the new millennium, and entered the Top 100 rankings for the first time in 2018 largely due to its consistently good conditioning. The club has seen the benefit of instituting 10-year plans to upgrade the course, plant 750 trees and build a large dam and driving range, ahead of clubhouse renovations.
The course took nearly four years to build on an undulating site covered in dense bush, full of alien species, and infested with cobras. Mowbray GC club pro Ken Elkin provided a routing plan. Foundation members spent weekends planting grass, trees and shaping the greens and tees. It is one of few Top 100 courses built by the physical labour of members and their families. At the opening day in July 1971 members brought their own lawnmowers to prepare the greens and fairways. The first clubhouse was only completed in 1972; the current one opened in 2002.
63 by Wayne Westner in 1990;
Saulo Ilari (Finland) in 2015 Curro Junior International
The undulating nature of the terrain means there are several striking downhill holes on the property, but conversely it also means the closing holes on each nine are played uphill to the clubhouse. There is a challenging set of par 3s, particularly 12 and 17, and the uphill 16th is one of the region’s toughest par 4s. The par-5 11th is stroke one, largely through having a long narrow fairway framed by tall trees leading to an elevated green.
Narrow range close to clubhouse with mat tees, plus short-game area. It is home to the Pure Motion Golf Academy which has the most advanced junior section in the Western Cape.
2022 Sean Cronje & Kelly Erasmus
2021 Adrian Ford & Jordan Rothman
2020 Sean Cronje & Kelly Erasmus
2019 Christian Steenkamp & Kelly Erasmus
1/ Durbanville junior member and club champion Jordan Rothman became one of the youngest winners of the SA Women’s Amateur at age 15 in 2018 at Umhlali CC.
2/ Nine club members have represented SA golf teams in the new millennium – Nicol van Wyk, Jean-Paul Strydom, Adrian Ford, Ian Snyman, Ayden Senger, Tyran Snyders, Kaylah Williams, Jordan Rothman and Kelly Erasmus.
3/ Durbanville is the home club of Springbok rugby star Duane Vermeulen.
4/ The club was founded in 1967, four years before the course was open for play. The estimated cost to build 18 holes in 1967 was R36 000.
5/ Former SA Open champion Wayne Westner had a course record 63 to win the 1990 Durbanville Open. The previous year John Bland had shot 65-64 to win, breaking the old record in each round.
6/ Dylan Frittelli won the 2008 SA Junior Strokeplay at Durbanville on 273.
7/ The club is home to Durbanville Running Club whose members use the property for runs in the evenings.
Durbanville have upgraded the ground floor of the clubhouse with a spacious new bar, halfway house, pro shop and men's locker room. Changes on the course include new tees and water hazards, while hundreds of trees have been planted. Bunkers on 9, 17 and 18 were moved away from the greens. The greens are small and the bunkers suffer from over use and too much water from the irrigation system.
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