Wingate is a course where local knowledge matters. You can quickly find yourself out of position here, and recovery shots are tricky if you’re in the wrong place. The layout boasts a collection of superbly designed greens, running smoothly, that keep your full concentration throughout the round. It’s a heavily treed layout that as a result becomes quite shady in the winter months when the sun gets low. Quality holes abound, particularly the par 4s, among them the fourth, ninth (even at 348 club tee this is a special hole, the green elevated above a large water hazard, and a giant tree with bulging limbs blocking any tee shot up the left side of fairway), 11th, 12th and 17th. Three par 3s only require short irons (5-8-16) yet the targets are exact as the greens are well-guarded, notably 16 which could be described as Gauteng’s “Postage Stamp” hole. Miss the green and you’re in trouble, possibly wet. Unusual design that in the last six holes (13-18) you face three 5s and two 3s. I don’t know another course where you end 5-3-5-3-4-5. Several tee boxes were closed for maintenance and the lack of sunlight means they inevitably suffer from the traffic that makes this one of Gauteng’s busiest courses. Bunker sand was inconsistent, and the traps are so perfectly positioned that you’re going to find one sooner rather than later.
