Today, it’s a fairly common occurrence in South Africa to encounter wild animals on a golf course, but at Ba-Phalaborwa in the far north of the country it feels very… Read more
When KZN farmer Piet Nel had finished designing and building his own 9-hole course he now had to give it a name. He had heard of St Andrews, so along… Read more
There are five new entries in the Top 100 rankings, and two courses make their debut, having never featured before. Gauteng is inundated with good courses, and as a result… Read more
The Top 100 rankings have returned to Golf Digest SA magazine. Follow this link to freely access the digital issue and view the Top 100 Courses section. https://mrcp.io/GDSA-May Leopard Creek… Read more
Golf Digest South Africa has returned and is being published as a digital magazine. The 2024 Top 100 rankings will be unveiled in the May issue of the magazine on… Read more
Mount Edgecombe CC in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal has become the first Top 100 club to introduce the Trackman Range application at 10 of the bays on their Driving Range. The undercover… Read more
Ten years ago Gowrie Farm in the KZN Midlands was rated by Golf Digest USA as being among the very best “Short Courses” in the world outside the United States.… Read more
If you follow SuperSport’s 213 channel, then 2024 offers an unprecedented run of nine major tournaments to watch in the space of 11 weeks from June 13 to August 25.… Read more
Stellenbosch Golf Club has been rated on the Top 100 Courses website as having the Best 19th Hole of South African golf clubs. It is a popular after-golf venue for… Read more
The seaside course at Milnerton Golf Club in Cape Town is under threat from daily coastal erosion never seen before to this extent. The green of the par-4 second hole… Read more
Joe Knox is not a golf pro you will have heard of, but he made headlines at Waterkloof Golf Club in Pretoria when he became the first person in South… Read more
Louis Oosthuizen’s display at Leopard Creek is a clear indication he remains South Africa’s No 1 golfer, and it’s sad he will not be contesting three of the four major… Read more
Homeowners at the Oubaai golf estate in the Garden Route have reacted joyously to the recent sale of the Oubaai golf course and hotel complex to an Abu Dhabi businessman.… Read more
The weekend of the SA Open at Blair Atholl played out similarly to a major championship, such was the difficulty of a demanding course playing firmer and firmer as temperatures… Read more
Fancourt have built a new halfway house for the Montagu course, and on the walls inside hang memorabilia belonging to the late John Bland, who passed away earlier this year… Read more
This year is the 25th anniversary of what many believe to have been the greatest Nedbank Golf Challenge of them all. In 1998 the Sun City tournament was regarded as… Read more
An attractive 9-hole course on the remote North-West Coast, Kleinzee Golf Club, has been devastated by a flood which has left the course in what club chairman Johan Dreyer calls… Read more
Peter Matkovich has kept himself active as a course architect with several attractive projects in Mauritius the past decade. His fourth and latest creation, La Réserve Golf Links, in the south… Read more
Marco Simone was the first purpose-built golf course for the Ryder Cup, and the architect chosen to lead the project was South African David Sampson, who works for European Golf… Read more
More than half of South Africa’s courses are 9-holers – we are unique in world terms in having as many as 53% of our total – yet remarkably few golfers… Read more
On a quiet Central Drakensberg road between Bergville and Harrismith a sign catches my attention. Nondela Drakensberg Mountain Estate. The name takes me back two decades to a prosperous era… Read more
Listed below are all 414 courses affiliated to GolfRSA. They have been categorised into regions and provincial golf unions, 18-hole courses separated from those with 9 holes. DID YOU KNOW?… Read more
Gary Player Country Club will forever be associated with South Africa’s most accomplished sportsman, yet the design of the Sun City resort layout in the late 1970s was not one… Read more
The new millennium has seen a remarkable increase in the number of new courses opened for play in South Africa, a grand total of 53. As many as 43 which… Read more
Pretoria Country Club has been rated on the Top 100 Courses website as having the No 1 male locker room among South African golf clubs. It’s the only one receiving… Read more
The US Open at Los Angeles Country Club showcased a restored George C Thomas design from the 1920s. His architectural philosophy was to present a relatively gentle opening hole, usually… Read more
South African Open host Blair Atholl, ranked No 6 in the Top 100, has received the 2023 John Collier Top Club Award. And a Special Mention Award from John Collier… Read more
Of all the great tournament venues that await us on the 2023 international calendar, the most excitement and curiosity revolves around where the US Open is heading for the first… Read more
Augusta National has Amen Corner to describe the specific challenge of holes 11-13 during the Masters, San Lameer has Crowned Eagle Valley (holes 14-17 at the South Coast resort), and… Read more
The closure of Beachwood CC in Durban North is a sad loss for South African golf. Even though this had been expected for several years, following the 2017 sale of… Read more
Former Sunshine Tour commissioner Arnold Mentz has emerged from retirement to once again involve himself in the golf industry. On January 1 this year the long-serving PGA club professional was… Read more
Durban Country Club will be closing their golf course in the first week of May for a substantial 7-month renovation by Golf Data, and it will only re-open again in… Read more
Casey Jarvis has become the second youngest person, at age 19, to shoot 59 or lower in a 72-hole tournament on one of the major professional tours. And the first… Read more
In South Africa, the Halfway House stop has for countless years been a traditional part of every round we play. It’s normally a room in the clubhouse adjoining the kitchen,… Read more
Amanzimtoti Country Club was devastated by flooding in April last year. Now, for the first time in almost a year, the opening of a new R3.6-million bridge has reunited club… Read more
The Garden Route is a popular destination for Cape Town golfers, and one of the more unusual attractions for tour groups heading that way is a stopover at Heidelberg Golf… Read more
Pearl Valley has been judged as having the best range and practice facilities of South African courses. The No 3-ranked Top 100 course in the Cape Winelands, a Jack Nicklaus… Read more
Zwartkop Country Club, the 18-hole course owned by the family of Dale Hayes, is being converted into a “Golf, Lifestyle, Practice and Entertainment Centre.” It will be reduced to a… Read more
Does any other sport offer as many special and consequential tournaments during a calendar year as golf? Starting with The Players Championships on March 9 there are 14 of them… Read more
Silver Lakes has asked to be removed from the Top 100 Course rankings. The Peter Matkovich design, part of a large residential estate east of Pretoria, had been ranked No… Read more
Mount Edgecombe Country Club is hosting two consecutive weeks of amateur men’s and women’s championship golf on their two courses, The Lakes (first week) and The Woods (second week) in… Read more
KZN estate Cotswold Downs, at No 52 in the Top 100, is No 1 in greens in South Africa. TOP 30 GREENS IN SOUTH AFRICA 1 Cotswold Downs (8.67), 2… Read more
There was a change of the guard in the Top 100 Course rankings today when Leopard Creek was named No 1. Leopard Creek knocked The Links of Fancourt off the… Read more
Houghton and Hermanus are two clubs at opposite ends of the country which made bold decisions early in the new millennium to “bulldoze” their existing courses and construct new ones… Read more
Woodhill continues its phenomenal rise up the Top 100 rankings, started two years ago, and becomes the ninth Peter Matkovich design inside the Top 50, easily the most of any… Read more
Having a river flowing through your course appears to be an attractive feature, a source of water and natural hazards, but it can also be a curse in these days… Read more
Atlantic Beach is one of those courses golfers take a while to appreciate, and for good reason. Play it in a strong wind in the middle of a Cape summer… Read more
Katberg, Orkney and Emfuleni are this year’s new entries to the Top 100 rankings. On the first day of the annual rankings countdown, which concludes on Friday with the announcement… Read more
An exciting project in Mpumalanga is the upgrade by Mark Wiltshire Golf of the unique 9-hole course and clubhouse at Skukuza Golf Club within the Kruger National Park. The new… Read more
We’re seeing five key changes to the Rules of Golf for 2023, aimed we must assume towards making the game more enjoyable and fairer. Golfers can now replace a damaged… Read more
The Eastern Cape has been included as one of the world’s best undiscovered destinations by Today’s Golfer magazine in the UK. The region does indeed have much to offer golfers.… Read more
The Alfred Dunhill Championship is one of my favourite weeks on TV. I missed it when it was cancelled on short notice in 2021. The blissfully uninterrupted four days of… Read more
Royal Johannesburg’s newly renovated West Course was re-opened for play to members on November 30, thus completing a six-year cycle of upgrades to the 36-hole facility which began with the… Read more
Durban Country Club’s iconic short par-4 18th hole is almost unrecognisable after the thick tropical bush which defended the entire left side of the fairway was recently ripped out to… Read more
Composite courses could become fashionable locally in the new era of the World Handicap System. One of the drawbacks of the WHC with its Course Rating and Slope to determine… Read more
Blair Atholl is an exciting new addition as host of the South African Open from December 1 to 4. The exclusive Gauteng estate course, designed by Gary Player among the… Read more
Veteran East London Golf Club member Denis Jones achieved a historic feat in 2022 at his home club when he had a hole-in-one at the 17th. Denis Jones (right) celebrates his… Read more
How would you react if you learned out of the blue that your golf club and attractive 18-hole parkland course was being sold to property developers without the prior knowledge… Read more
Blair Atholl has the longest stretch of three consecutive par 4 holes of any course in South Africa. They are collectively calling Nos 14 to 16 The Blair Mile on… Read more
Amanzimtoti Country Club suffered the most devastation of any KwaZulu-Natal golf course in the April floods. Situated on the Indian Ocean coastline south of Durban, the Mbokodweni River which flows… Read more
Durban Country Club will next year be upgrading all their greens complexes and rebuilding bunkers following the devastating flooding of their course in April and May. Members recently returned to… Read more
Bryanston Country Club head teaching professional Leigh-Jane Middleton has been appointed as the PGA of South Africa’s first female vice-chairperson. It is a strong move by the association in its… Read more
Work has started on the refurbishment of the West Course greens and bunkers at Royal Johannesburg & Kensington. And the makeover of one of South Africa’s oldest and most picturesque… Read more
Golf Digest magazine in the United States has recognised the quality of South Africa’s two leading courses, Fancourt Links and Leopard Creek, by including both of them among the 50… Read more
The Sunshine Tour visited 17 of SA’s Top 100 courses this past summer in 14 tournaments, and the course statistics as usual prove revealing. Pecanwood was one of the easiest… Read more
TOP 20 GREENS 1 Fancourt Links, 2 Sishen, 3 Elements, 4 Killarney, 5 Wedgewood, 6 St Francis Links, 7 Blair Atholl & Montagu, 9 The Club at Steyn City, 10… Read more
No 1-ranked Fancourt Links claimed more honours in the Top 100 rankings when it was judged to be the Best Conditioned Course in South Africa and to also have the… Read more
Links courses were the big winners in the SA Course Rankings when the final Top 20 was announced today. While The Links at Fancourt was again judged the No 1… Read more
Gauteng is endowed with wonderful golf courses, and they dominate the higher reaches of the course rankings, with 12 of them in the bracket of 20 announced today, between 21… Read more
Today’s announcement of 20 courses ranked between 60 and 41 is an eagerly awaited one for the courses usually bracketed in this section. Herein is the dividing line which separates… Read more
Anyone who has played at Plettenberg Bay CC, ranked No 44 this year and a course which has hosted the SA Senior Open the last four years, will have no… Read more
Woodhill is one of 17 courses in the Top 100 associated with veteran course designer Peter Matkovich, and the Pretoria estate layout can be considered the most improved in the… Read more
Four courses – Reading, Eagle Canyon, Centurion and The Woods at Mount Edgecombe – have been significant movers upwards for a second consecutive year on the Top 100 rankings following… Read more
Two new entrants to the Top 100 feature on the first day of the annual Rankings Countdown. Waterkloof Golf Club in Pretoria comes storming in at No 92, while Devonvale… Read more
Such has been the huge amount of rain in Limpopo and Gauteng in recent weeks that Elements Private Reserve has seen a remarkable transformation of its water hole surrounding the… Read more
The new year ushered in great excitement for members and estate residents at The Els Club Copperleaf. After four months of playing on temporary greens they were at last able… Read more
The 2022 Top 100 Course Rankings will be announced on social media and the website platform from Monday, January 31 to Friday, February 4. Repeating last year’s popular format, 20… Read more
It was 30 years ago this January-February that Ernie Els uniquely won the South African Triple Crown of major tournaments in the same season, a distinction he alone shares with… Read more
Christiaan Burke, this year’s scoring sensation in amateur golf in South Africa, has won three major provincial tournaments since his remarkable round of 56 at Potchefstroom Country Club in July.… Read more
In recent years golfers have experienced more changes to how we play the game at club level than we ever thought possible. Having gone through decades with little happening in… Read more
Ian Leach, a doyen of golf club management, has finally retired at the age of 77. For the last four years he was General Manager at Elements Private Golf Reserve… Read more
They do not count as criteria when evaluating the Top 100 course rankings, but for the past 12 months we have been asking golfers to rate Golf Club Facilities on… Read more
Following the oddest year in major championship golf in 2020, with the Masters being played in November, we hopefully return to a normal schedule of the game’s biggest events in… Read more
From Plettenberg Bay in the east to Pinnacle Point in the west, it is proving a quiet and costly summer for golf courses and their staff in the Garden Route… Read more
Veteran Western Province golfer Greg Woodbridge gave himself the perfect Xmas present at the end of last year with one of the most remarkable rounds from a club golfer in… Read more
In a high-profile appointment, Meyer du Toit, a former PGA Club Pro of the Year, has been announced as the new general manager at Knysna Golf Club in the Garden… Read more
Fancourt in the Garden Route is acknowledged as one of the world’s leading golf resorts, so it is no surprise that their Montagu course, ranked No 8, was judged the… Read more
After an innovative, lengthy and suspenseful week in the history of announcing the Top 100 rankings, today produced the long-awaited crowning of another No 1 course. There was also the… Read more
Golfers in the greater Gauteng region are spoiled for choice when it comes to playing Top 100 courses. There are 36 of them in the rankings, and 12 of those… Read more
South Africa’s collection of bushveld courses are usually associated with remote settings and wildlife roaming the fairways. But one of our most attractive bushveld layouts is in the middle of… Read more
Big positional swings are a feature of the new Top 100 rankings, and that’s plainly evident among the clubs revealed on the second day of Rankings Week today. We announce… Read more
Three of the new entrants into the Top 100 rankings are revealed on the first day of Rankings Week. Today saw the announcement of the bottom 20 courses, ranked from… Read more
My 61-day Road Trip visiting 70 courses in all 9 provinces from October to December was an uplifting experience. Golf continues on the upswing, and the conditioning of most courses… Read more
Cash prizes for holes-in-one are being offered by a company at numerous golf clubs – the entry fee is R100 to try and win R100 000 on a specific par 3.… Read more
The design of the standard golf cart hasn’t changed much in the last 25 years, other than the addition of luxurious features to increase the comfort of the ride. Now,… Read more
Zimbali Lakes has been an anticipated golf course development for several years. The project is now progressing rapidly on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, and a spectacular 18-hole layout is due… Read more
Highland Gate was a popular venue for visiting Gauteng golfers in 2020, and a key role at the Ernie Els course, ranked No 15, is that held by Course Marshall… Read more
It’s not fashionable today but there was a time when it was popular for golf clubs to name the holes on their course or to assign particularly mean-sounding sobriquets for… Read more
The Humewood links in Port Elizabeth has been included in one of the more interesting World Top 100 lists to be published in 2020. It is ranked No 98 in… Read more
A countdown has begun to the announcement of the new SA Top 100 Course rankings in the last week of January 2021. It will be the first new rankings to be… Read more
Irene Country Club elected its first female Club Captain at the AGM, and Dianne Dyason becomes the third female Club Captain currently standing in Gauteng North. Ella Cole was elected… Read more
The Top 100 Courses website has a section where we keep all the Holes-in-Ones records for South Africa, and many unusual happenings. We welcome any stories about holes-in-one that might… Read more
I’m on a road trip around South Africa aiming to complete visiting all the Top 100 courses in the same year. Note the use of “visiting” rather than playing. My… Read more
The PGA of South Africa announced its annual awards for PGA professionals, and among the national winners were two familiar faces, Derek James from Southbroom and Jeff Clause of St… Read more
Pinnacle Point have done it again and triumphed at the World Golf Awards for the third time in the last five years. The spectacular Peter Matkovich design overlooking the Indian… Read more
Gary Player Country Club will become the 22nd different course in the last 100 years to host the South African Open. With no Nedbank Golf Challenge this year, the Open… Read more
St Francis Links has introduced a great initiative for golfers. Instead of walking or riding in a golf cart, hire an E-bike the next time you play the course. It’s… Read more
Big changes are taking place at South African golf courses following the Covid lockdown and none more so than at Pearl Valley in the Cape Winelands, one of our leading… Read more
Colin Nel at the weekend became the first golfer in South Africa to break 60 for a third time in a round of golf when he shot a 13-under-par 59… Read more
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD FOR ST FRANCIS LINKS During the height of the lockdown, St Francis Links received one of South African golf’s top environmental awards. The John Collier Award is presented… Read more
The golfing members at Irene Country Club had more reason to be overjoyed than anyone else in the country when their golf course in Gauteng North was re-opened on June… Read more
While golf has happily resumed, with most golf courses having re-opened in the past week, the golf industry has taken a massive financial battering over the past three months of… Read more
One of South Africa’s iconic golf courses, the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City, is not among those which have opened up again during lockdown. In all likelihood it… Read more
GolfRSA today received the green light for golf courses to re-open, and many will be doing so from tomorrow or Monday. It’s the exciting news that golfers have been anxiously… Read more
Golf courses around South Africa serve as natural habitats for wildlife, and the lengthy lockdown has proved an unexpected boon for those resident animals, birds and insects left largely undisturbed… Read more
The golf industry will need to adapt to a new and different environment when the game resumes in Southern Africa after this pandemic. Ryan Dodds, a Fellow Member of the… Read more
GolfRSA is making every effort to ensure that golf courses reopen as soon as possible during the lockdown process. The Minister of Sport is due to meet on Thursday, April… Read more
South African golf courses today are increasingly under siege from modern equipment, the golf ball, and top quality greens. These three factors have resulted in course records tumbling in recent… Read more
PGA professional John Dickson spends most of his daylight hours Monday to Saturday teaching at the Country Club Johannesburg golf academy. He’s in demand for lessons from beginners to professionals.… Read more
One of the stated 10 keys to greatness in a golf course is having an excellent 18th to finish the round. The cherry on top of the icing. The 18th… Read more
The national lockdown over the coronavirus has already within the first week claimed its first “permanent” golf course closure. While all golf clubs and courses in South Africa are closed… Read more
David Melman is the Golf Manager at Huddle Park in Johannesburg, and I worked out it must be both exhilarating and at the same time annoying to play golf with… Read more
Golf clubs have been issued with lengthy directives about how to operate during the coronavirus, and one of the more curious suggestions is that golfers avoid touching the flagstick. I’m… Read more
Week two of my Road Trip had worrying overtones. Travelling from one town to the next at a time when South Africans are being increasingly cautious about the coronavirus crisis… Read more
There are a handful of golf courses in South Africa which have long had a mystique about them, either because of their exclusivity or their remoteness. Sishen Golf Club’s distant… Read more
When the idea of a Top 100 Courses digital site took shape last year I knew that when all the work was done, the content researched and written, the next… Read more
Silver Lakes Golf & Wildlife Estate in Pretoria has been named one of the world’s 10 most eco-friendly golf courses by the website Golfscape.com. Silver Lakes is one of Africa’s… Read more
Golf participation in South Africa would appear to be increasing, with Handicap Network Africa reporting a three percent increase in the number of rounds captured on the HNA system in… Read more
Serengeti Estates in Ekurhuleni has created one of the best Par-3 courses in the world with its recent transformation of the original Jack Nicklaus design on the property. Nicklaus produced… Read more
Intimidating and challenging closing holes help create both exciting and unpredictable finishes in pro golf tournaments. Which is one way of announcing that the Players Championship is coming up (March… Read more
Umhlali Country Club in Ballito on the KZN North Coast has been voted the 2019 Club of the Year, proving that you don’t need to be one of the big… Read more
Erinvale Country Estate & Golf Club is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2020 in a particularly unique and artistic way by exhibiting 40 magnificent sculptures by renowned Cape Town artist… Read more
The Links at Fancourt and Leopard Creek are both included in Golf Digest’s 2020 ranking of the World’s Top 100 Courses outside the United States. The Links, which is No… Read more
It’s a magical scoring barrier everywhere in the world, the holy grail among golfers: to shoot 59 or lower in 18 holes. Cape Town professional Peter Karmis was the first… Read more
Royal Johannesburg & Kensington will make history from February 16 to 21 when it becomes the first golf club in South Africa to host the men’s and women’s SA Amateur… Read more