Features

Golfing around… Johannesburg

28 Sep 2012 by BusinessTraveller
Minty Clinch takes on rolling greens around the South African city.

1) THE WANDERERS GOLF CLUB

Where is it? 13km north of the city centre What’s it like? Located in Johannesburg’s urban golf belt in the affluent northern suburbs, this most friendly of clubs adjoins the celebrated Wanderers cricket stadium. The course is classic highveld parkland (wide, open spaces) and at 1,753 metres above sea level, a well-struck tee shot that rises far into the distance is a bonus, but only if it’s going straight.

The first ten holes opened in 1939; the remaining eight three years later. In the pre-irrigation era, the grass was sparse in an arid climate, but today’s fairways are kept lush by water from reservoir ponds around the course. Mature trees flanking cambered fairways can be the enemy of a good scorecard. An impressive bird count includes blue heron, white ibis, plover and the omnipresent hadada ibis, with its haunting cry.

Contact Corner Corlett Drive/Rudd Road; tel +27 118 809 682; wanderersgolfclub.com

Price 18 holes £32, buggy £18.50, caddie (optional) £14.50 plus tip.

Club hire Taylor Made/Cleveland £23

Club hours Pro shop 6.30am-6pm. Closed Mondays.

Minimum handicap 28 for men and 36 for women recommended, certificate not required.

Facilities 18 holes (7,160 yds, par 72), driving range, chipping area, putting green, golf academy.

After the golf Halfway house, extensive clubhouse with terrace, patio and two bars with multi-channel sports TV.

2) JOHANNESBURG COUNTRY CLUB

Where is it? 20km north of city centre.

What’s it like? One of the city’s showcase clubs, with two championship courses, Johannesburg Country Club is located in chic Sandton, 20 minutes by motorway from the city but also convenient for Pretoria. Hawtree, the celebrated British golf architects, designed two complementary courses on the 600-hectare property in 1992.

Woodmead – home of the Telkom PGA Championship since 2006, testing such household names as Louis Oosthuizen and George Coetzee – is spacious parkland, its handsome fairways lined with exotic trees. Although water is a factor on many holes, taking advantage of strategic options can reduce the damage for less confident players. Bunkers guard subtle greens but the test is fair, with rewards rather than random punishment for accurate play.

Rocklands, created out of farmland and substantially improved in 2009, emphasises the bushveld factor with indigenous plants and expansive water. Some 180 native species of birds may tempt nature lovers to take their eye off the ball.

Contact Lincoln Road; tel +27 117 106 400; ccj.co.za

Price Weekdays £25, members only at weekends, buggy £20, caddie (optional) £14 plus tip.

Club hire Taylor Made/Cleveland £27.

Club hours 6.30am-6pm

Minimum handicap 28 for men and 36 for women recommended, certificate not required.

Facilities Two 18-hole courses – Woodmead, 7,545 yds, par 74; Rockland, 7,665 yds, par 74. Driving range, practice areas, putting greens, golf academy.

After the golf Sandwedge halfway house, ranch-style clubhouse with views towards the Magaliesberg mountains, bar and restaurant serving international food. Snooker room, tennis and squash courts, bowls and cricket field, and croquet lawn.

3) KILLARNEY COUNTRY CLUB

Where is it? 7km north of downtown Johannesburg.

What’s it like? Like the Wanderers, Killarney is a delightful members’ club with an outstanding welcome. Inaugurated as the Transvaal Automobile Club in 1903, it moved here in 1970. With terrain limited to 63 hectares, Robert Trent Jones’s design is necessarily tight. The result is not for the faint-hearted, with intimidatingly narrow fairways and intrusive flanking trees – palms as well as blue gum and weeping willows. The front nine are relatively open but the back nine zigzag along a creek, a likely card wrecker for any golfer who strays off line. The veranda is a good viewing point for the watery 18th, its pond inhabited by white swans.

Contact 60 5th Street; tel +27 114 423 880, pro shop 11 327 0657; killarneycountryclub.co.za

Price 18 holes, visitors Tues-Fri am £12, Tues pm £9, Wed-Fri pm £18, Sun pm £18. Buggy £17, caddie £14 (plus tip).

Club hire Mizuno £15

Club hours 6.30am-6pm, closed Mondays, members only Saturdays/Sunday am.

Minimum handicap 28 for men and 36 for women, certificate not required.

Facilities 18 holes (7,000 yds, par 70), driving range, practice area and putting green.

After the golf Attractive halfway house, 19th-hole clubhouse with a whiskey bar, sports bar, veranda and à la carte restaurant. Squash and tennis courts, pool and gym.

4) HOUGHTON GOLF CLUB

Where is it? 6.5km north of city centre.

What’s it like? Another Johannesburg classic, created in 1926 and remodelled around the white elevated clubhouse in 1993. The young Ernie Els, one of the first professionals to play the new layout, launched his career with a course record that is still unbeaten. In 2009, Jack Nicklaus reinvented it as one of his prized signature courses, equipping it to host the annual South African PGA Championship. Undulating fairways lined with blue gum, jacaranda and bright tropical bushes combine with fast, tricky greens and numerous water hazards in a searching test of accuracy and nerve.

The green-keeping is immaculate, the ambience spoiled only by the new bossy buggies – drive in the wrong spot and the engine cuts out, resuming only when you back up. Houghton doubles as a bird sanctuary, with black swans, dikkops, plovers, guinea fowl, ibis, Egyptian geese and assorted water birds.

Contact 2nd Avenue; tel +27 117 287 337; houghton.co.za

Price 18 holes, weekdays (Tues, Weds, Fri) £37, Thurs am £45, Sunday pm £45, buggy £18.50, caddie (optional) £16 (plus tip).

Club hire Grand Slam £27, Taylor Made/Cleveland £34.50.

Club hours 6am-7.30pm summer, 6.15am-6pm winter. Closed Mondays, members only Thursday pm/Saturday/Sunday am.

Minimum handicap 28 for men and 36 for women recommended, certificate not required.

Facilities 18 holes (7,323 yds, par 70), driving range, practice area, putting green, private and group lessons.

After the golf The clubhouse offers panoramic views over the course from the upper floor and a small halfway house on the lower one. The Houghton Terrace has deep sofas, clubby chairs and sport on TV.

Minty Clinch’s golf was organised by the Hyatt Regency Johannesburg (tel +27 11 280 1234, hyatt.com). She travelled to Johannesburg with Etihad Airways (etihad.com), which flies daily from London to Johannesburg via Abu Dhabi.

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