Greytown Country Club

Greytown Country Club is the third oldest club in KwaZulu-Natal, founded in 1895. Older KZN clubs are Maritzburg Golf Club (1886) and Royal Durban (1892).

The club and its 10-hole course, par 70, is situated in a quiet upper part of town on a tree-lined avenue to Wembley College campus, an independent school founded in 1998 by one of the town’s biggest benefactors, the late Brian Corbishley.

The club has no record of when the course was first opened for play, or who may have designed it. It is a particularly attractive layout, with beautifully designed holes and significant features, including a rocky flower bed on the sixth fairway which looks perfectly natural. It has an English countryside feel to it, particularly the par-3 third, with its oak trees as a backdrop and an old residence behind the green, part of Wembley College. The second time around (No 12) you play on a different line to another green.

The town is built on a hillside, and the club is near the summit, so the holes rise and fall throughout the round. The scenery is stunning and trees line the fairways. Mostly pines, which provide an income for the club when they reach a certain age and are felled. Playing the fourth, the longest hole (521 metres from the back tee), which plunges down a hill, there is a clearing right of the fairway where there had been a pine plantation. The second time around this hole is played from a forward tee as a par 4. No 11 is the only other par 5 on the course.

The fourth is a lengthy green with quirky slopes on the left half, and the greens do have abundant character to them. There are various grasses in the mottled greens, yet they putt well.

It’s a lengthy climb back up the hill from the fourth green all the way to the clubhouse, the steepest part being the 317-metre fifth, which has two giant oak trees guarding the entrance to the green. There’s a narrow gap past them if you drive far enough right, otherwise you have to play the approach over or under the trees.

The holes back to the clubhouse are uniformly excellent, par 4s at six and seven, and a par 3 at No 8. The best of them is No 9, a 410m dogleg right closer with out-of-bounds on the corner of the dogleg, a downhill shot with the approach.

On the first tee there is a large marker stone, with the hole numbers attached, and there’s one on every hole. These are another attractive feature of a course that looks lovingly cared for. The 1950s clubhouse has a spacious verandah, and oozes character inside, notably around the 19th hole. Downstairs there are two squash courts.

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