Polokwane is one of the better bushveld courses; plenty of strong, interesting holes mixed with a few ordinary ones. That could also be said of the greens, which Peter Matkovich designed 30 years ago. Flat property, yet lots of doglegs, which puts a premium on tee shots. Missing fairways puts you on the back foot. The stream running through the course adds another dimension. No 18 is a weird closing 4, a dogleg right but where longer hitters can aim directly at the green and get fairly close if they don’t hit any trees. Shorter hitters have to take the longer route, leaving a testing approach to an undulating green guarded by a water hazard. On top of that, the green lies alongside the outside deck of the 19th. Without the hazard there to deter golfers, stray balls would be clattering around the beer bottles. In terms of general playability and variety, not much difference between playing the back yellow tees or the club white tees. There’s only one forward set of tees (red).
