Blue/Green 5469 metres, CR69.7/130
Red 4702 metres, CR65.7/119
Women’s blue, CR74.5/142
Women’s red, CR69.8/132
Weekday R220 affiliated, R270 NA
Weekend R280 and R320
Golf cart R280
Douw van der Merwe 1999
012 244 3000
leisure@caribbeanbeach.co.za
No 23 (2024)
Sandy Lane is a modern 9-hole layout on the Kosmos northern side of the Hartbeespoort Dam, directly opposite from the Jack Nicklaus course at Pecanwood. It’s part of the Caribbean Beach residential estate.
Designed by the late Douw van der Merwe, Sandy Lane is a well-conditioned and scenic par 70 course of 5 469 metres, with its opening and closing holes on the banks of the dam, overlooked by the Magaliesberg hills. The clubhouse is attractive and compact, and there are other leisure facilities close by.
It has an interesting mix of four long holes – the course begins and ends with a par-5 – plus three par 3s and two short par 4s, with alternate tees on each nine. The opening hole has its tee on the edge of the water of the dam, alongside the Caribbean Beach marina. It’s a strong starting hole, and a large storage dam separates it from the adjoining par-5 ninth. Monitor lizards of differing sizes can be spotted on both these holes.
Stroke one is the 428-metre second which heads back towards the clubhouse. After that the course moves inland into the residential estate with the first of the par 3s, the longest being the 158-metre eighth with its green bordering the Hartbeespoort Dam.
The sixth is a 407m par 4 heading downhill towards the lake, and is followed by a superb risk-reward dogleg left par 4 of 288 metres where a stream splits the fairway. The green is protected by water, a deep bunker and trees.
The original course at Sandy Lane was 250 metres shorter, par 68, opening with a par 3 instead of par 5, and Shaun Stapleton scored a 59 on it in 2003 before it was altered.
Construction of the dam began in 1916, on the farm Hartbeespoort once owned by Boer General Hendrik Schoeman, although delays meant it was only completed in 1923. A yacht club was immediately founded. It first overflowed in 1925. The dam wall (150 metres long and 60 metres high) is built across a narrow gorge or poort cutting through the Magaliesberg range, and the dam is fed by the waters of the Crocodile and Magalies Rivers. Its completion made the agricultural land north of the Magaliesberg more valuable. The poort was a popular hunting spot of the hartebeest antelope.
The immediate area is popular as a water sports holiday resort, but the dam has suffered from a hypertrophic state since the 1970s, largely due to mismanagement of waste water treatment within the catchment area. Vast expanses of Water hyacinth has choked movement on the dam. Tons of phosphate and nitrate deposits have resulted in a toxic aquatic ecosystem that has defied the best scientific interventions.
2022/23 Andrew Hagemann
2021 Laurie van Niekerk
2020 Grant Matthews
1/ There are several other golf courses in the area, including Pecanwood, ranked No 35 in the Top 100, Magalies Park, Seasons-Eco, Mooinooi (another 9-holer) and Rustenburg. Sun City is an hour’s drive.
2/ Shaun Stapleton had a nine-under-par 59 on the original par 68 Sandy Lane course, since lengthened to a par of 70.
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