Maccauvlei was conceived as a links golf experience almost a century ago because it was a sandy wasteland that reminded Englishman George Peck, who laid out the first holes, of the links in his homeland. It might have still looked that way today but for all the trees that were subsequently planted. The course drains beautifully after heavy rains. Natural bunkering was always the design theme, and Peter Matkovich built some stunningly large feature bunkers in his redesign for the 75th anniversary of the club. They don’t always come into play but golfers can admire those left of the sixth, ninth, tenth and 18th fairways. The famous and most treacherous bunker on 17 is from the original design, although it was part of a par 3 for a few years until Colonel Hotchkin turned this into one of the great par 4s in SA golf.
