DURBAN CC BOUNCES BACK AT NO 8

OTHER NEW ENTRIES ARE KAMBAKU, HUDDLE PARK & SELBORNE

Published by : Stuart McLean - 18 May 2025

Durban Country Club is among four new entries to the Top 100 for 2025. It was excluded from the 2024 rankings, as at the time it had only recently been re-opened for play following its extensive upgrade in 2023 by Golf Data. A major change to the course is the planting of bent grass on the greens, to replace the Mini-Verde Bermuda.

The other new entries include two newcomers, Kambaku and Huddle Park, while Selborne Park on the KZN South Coast returns for the first time in seven years.

The four courses departing the rankings are Randpark Bushwillow, Schoeman Park, Magalies Park and the 9-hole Bosch Hoek layout.

blank
The opening par 4 at Durban Country Club.

In 2023, Durban CC was at an all-time low of No 24 in the rankings. Prior to the 2022 Durban floods the course had become tired and dated, neglected, scruffy and a pushover for better golfers. The flooding damaged the course and wrecked infrastructure, and ultimately the natural calamity proved to be its saviour because it couldn’t be left as it was.

DCC has emerged from its upgrade not just a far better layout, with shapely new greens and bent grass surfaces, but also one more Aesthetically pleasing. Stripping away vast swathes of tropical bush to expose dunes and handsome trees, and open long concealed vistas between holes, has been the true reformation of this iconic course. It returns at No 8 and can be expected to rise further up the rankings as the upgrade matures and more Golf Digest raters visit the course to give their evaluations.

Kambaku in Mpumalanga has been pushing in recent years for Top 100 inclusion, and it enters at No 95. Earlier in 2025 it became the new No 1 in Golf Digest’s ranking of the Best Nine-Hole Courses, taking that position from Bosch Hoek, which had been No 1 in 2024.

blank
A new hole at Kambaku is a risk-reward short par-4 played as No 8 & 17.

Situated on the Mozambique border at the confluence of the Crocodile and Komati Rivers, Kambaku was built by local farmers using a design by the late Douw van der Merwe. It has evolved over 20 years from a basic bushveld 9-holer on a smallish property into what could be labelled a “hybrid” layout. Using just 10 greens, the holes have been so creatively routed that the second time round feels unlike the first nine.

A feature of Kambaku is the bushveld forest through which the holes twist and turn, another is the magnificent conditioning, a lush coverage of cynodon grass from tee to green. Winter is the best time to visit, with milder temperatures, yet with golf carts available it’s equally popular in summer.

Huddle Park, coming in at No 96, is an old Bob Grimsdell parkland design at a pay-and-play facility which was restored a decade ago after being abandoned for several years. The entire area around Huddle Park has been gentrified, with the addition of a luxury residential estate and shopping centre. The second nine has some outstanding holes and shares a boundary fence with the East Course of Royal Johannesburg.

blank
The par-3 11th at Selborne with water behind the green.

Selborne Park, which enters at No 98, is a Denis Barker design on the KZN South Coast which became part of SA’s first golf estate in the 1980s. It’s close to the N2 highway, an hour’s drive south of Durban in the village of Pennington, which is also home to another Top 100 course, Umdoni Park. Selborne is charming, a relatively small estate with a hotel attached using the Barker family’s home, an old manor house. A short course (5 925 metres) yet testing – it has regularly hosted Sunshine Tour tournaments – and its best feature is a narrow river valley through which some memorable holes roll and tumble across the landscape from the par-5 third to the short par-4 eighth.

Selborne was a highly rated course for many years, in the Top 50 of the Golf Digest rankings until 2010 when it began to careen down the rankings.

HISTORY OF NEW ENTRIES SINCE 2021

Coming In

2025 Durban CC (Return after upgrade),
Huddle Park, Kambaku, Selborne Park
2024 Jackal Creek, Magalies Park, Parys, Port Elizabeth, Schoeman Park
2023 Emfuleni, Katberg, Orkney
2022 Devonvale, Waterkloof
2021 Knysna, Leopard Creek (Return after upgrade), Olivewood,
The Lakes at Mount Edgecombe, Worcester

Going out

2025 Bosch Hoek, Magalies Park, Randpark Bushwillow, Schoeman Park
2024 Benoni CC, Devonvale, Orkney, Worcester
2023 Beachwood, Parys, Silver Lakes
2022 Koro Creek, State Mines
2021 Durbanville, Katberg, Legend, Selborne Park, Vaal de Grace

Article Search
Search for news articles
Top 100 Course News, Blog
and Feature
Recent news articles
Durban Country Club is among four new… Read more
The May digital issue of Golf Digest… Read more
Today, it’s a fairly common occurrence in South Africa to encounter wild… Read more
When KZN farmer Piet Nel had finished… Read more
There are five new entries in the… Read more
The Top 100 rankings have returned to… Read more
Golf Digest South Africa has returned and… Read more
Mount Edgecombe CC in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal has… Read more
Ten years ago Gowrie Farm in the… Read more
If you follow SuperSport’s 213 channel, then… Read more
Stellenbosch Golf Club has been rated on… Read more
The seaside course at Milnerton Golf Club… Read more
1 Bosch Hoek Golf & Lodge Near… Read more
Joe Knox is not a golf pro… Read more
Louis Oosthuizen’s display at Leopard Creek is… Read more
Homeowners at the Oubaai golf estate in… Read more
The weekend of the SA Open at… Read more
Fancourt have built a new halfway house… Read more
This year is the 25th anniversary of… Read more
An attractive 9-hole course on the remote… Read more
Peter Matkovich has kept himself active as… Read more
Marco Simone was the first purpose-built golf… Read more
More than half of South Africa’s courses… Read more
On a quiet Central Drakensberg road between… Read more
Listed below are all 414 courses affiliated… Read more
Gary Player Country Club will forever be… Read more
The new millennium has seen a remarkable… Read more
Pretoria Country Club has been rated on… Read more
The US Open at Los Angeles Country… Read more
South African Open host Blair Atholl, ranked… Read more
Of all the great tournament venues that… Read more
Augusta National has Amen Corner to describe… Read more
The closure of Beachwood CC in Durban… Read more
Former Sunshine Tour commissioner Arnold Mentz has… Read more
Durban Country Club will be closing their… Read more
Casey Jarvis has become the second youngest… Read more
In South Africa, the Halfway House stop… Read more
Amanzimtoti Country Club was devastated by flooding… Read more
The Garden Route is a popular destination… Read more
Pearl Valley has been judged as having… Read more
Zwartkop Country Club, the 18-hole course owned… Read more
Does any other sport offer as many… Read more
Silver Lakes has asked to be removed… Read more
Mount Edgecombe Country Club is hosting two… Read more
KZN estate Cotswold Downs, at No 52… Read more
There was a change of the guard… Read more
Houghton and Hermanus are two clubs at… Read more
Woodhill continues its phenomenal rise up the… Read more
Having a river flowing through your course… Read more
Atlantic Beach is one of those courses… Read more
Katberg, Orkney and Emfuleni are this year’s… Read more
An exciting project in Mpumalanga is the… Read more
We’re seeing five key changes to the… Read more
The Eastern Cape has been included as… Read more
The Alfred Dunhill Championship is one of… Read more
Royal Johannesburg’s newly renovated West Course was… Read more
Durban Country Club’s iconic short par-4 18th… Read more
Composite courses could become fashionable locally in… Read more
Blair Atholl is an exciting new addition… Read more
Veteran East London Golf Club member Denis Jones… Read more
How would you react if you learned… Read more
Blair Atholl has the longest stretch of… Read more
Amanzimtoti Country Club suffered the most devastation… Read more
Durban Country Club will next year be… Read more
Bryanston Country Club head teaching professional Leigh-Jane… Read more
Work has started on the refurbishment of… Read more
Golf Digest magazine in the United States… Read more
The Sunshine Tour visited 17 of SA’s… Read more
TOP 20 GREENS 1 Fancourt Links, 2… Read more
No 1-ranked Fancourt Links claimed more honours… Read more
Links courses were the big winners in… Read more
Gauteng is endowed with wonderful golf courses,… Read more
Today’s announcement of 20 courses ranked between… Read more
Anyone who has played at Plettenberg Bay… Read more
Woodhill is one of 17 courses in… Read more
blank blank
FIND A TOP 100 COURSE
blank
blank
blank
blank