Question:
We can certainly help with courses in the Johannesburg area – we are members at Johannesburg Country Club, Royal Johannesburg and Blue Valley (a new Gary Player course) and can advise on many others as we have played golf here in Jozi for a lifetime! If you are interested there is "Golf in the Wild" – the course at Hans Merensky is a championship course with a chance of the "big five" to be seen as well as right on the border of the Kruger National Park – if you are interested I can get you details of trips etc available – it is not to be missed if you have the time. If this idea excites you, and you have the budget, a trip to Leopard Creek is also on the cards. Tho expensive, it is a great experience. (That’s Johan Rupert’s private course!) Are you able to arrange two games on the Gary Player Course at Sun City? Because this is a great course.and once you have played it the first time you will lust to try it just once more! Myself I don’t like the Lost City course so much cause you have to cart there and I prefer to walk, however it is a good experience with lots of bird life and worth at least one game just for the record. Have you already paid for the accommodation at Sun City? We have time share there and may be able to help with that as well depending on your timing. All courses allow you to walk – the newer ones have cart paths but carts tend to be in limited supply in any event. Caddies are generally quite useful, expecially on the more reputable courses and you might find that to budget for this is a great help as it can become extremely hot and tiring to pull a cart (depends when you plan to visit – golf is possible all through the year but lousy in the Cape in winter and the absolute best in Johannesburg in the winter.) Please let me know what other aid you may need – we are only too pleased to help
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – We are planning an extended trip to South Africa and would appreciate some help from golfers from there or who have been there. We hope to play in many areas – Johannesburg/Pretoria area, Durban and KwaZulu-Natal coast, Eastern Cape and Garden Route, Cape Town area (Staying near Fishoek) Many clubs are very sticky about attire, but shorts that can be belted and short white socks are fine. Collared shirts are a must. Same for guys and gals. Gals can do long shorts tho. 99% of clubs have caddies and go for about 10-20USD. Most courses have power carts, but walking is great (depending on season) and the price of courses ranges from 20USD-80USD for Sun City. Leopard Creek is the most spendy, but you need to stay there to play. Not a bad thing. It’s next to the Kruger park. Durban is good for golf esp Durban Country Club. Plus many resort course further south and north Cape Town – Atalantic Beach, Royal Cape, Pearl Valley. Eastern Cape – Sparrebosch, Fancourt (4 courses to choose from but $$$) On the Highveld, you have some good courses in Pretoria and Johannesburg, Woodhill, Dainfern, Glendower, Parkview, Randpark, Bryanston (need to play with a member). Another neat course is Hans Merensky in Phalaborwa. Very cool. Bring your camera and sanp the wildlife and I mean wildlife!! Do get to play Sun City. It’s awesome and the countryside is amazing. We all know it’s set in a volcano (extinct) but the bush is great and has to be experienced to be understood. Bring sturdy clothes if you wack you ball into the thorn bushes like I did. Lost City is good, but not great. The Gary Don’t count on rentals. You can buy cheap stuff here. Give me a shout, maybe we can do RSG RSA? Trevor
Response:
We are planning an extended trip to South Africa and would appreciate some help from golfers from there or who have been there. We hope to play in many areas – Johannesburg/Pretoria area, Durban and KwaZulu-Natal coast, Eastern Cape and Garden Route, Cape Town area (Staying near Fishoek)
Many clubs are very sticky about attire, but shorts that can be belted and short white socks are fine. Collared shirts are a must. Same for guys and gals. Gals can do long shorts tho. 99% of clubs have caddies and go for about 10-20USD. Most courses have power carts, but walking is great (depending on season) and the price of courses ranges from 20USD-80USD for Sun City. Leopard Creek is the most spendy, but you need to stay there to play. Not a bad thing. It’s next to the Kruger park. Durban is good for golf esp Durban Country Club. Plus many resort course further south and north Cape Town – Atalantic Beach, Royal Cape, Pearl Valley. Eastern Cape – Sparrebosch, Fancourt (4 courses to choose from but $$$) On the Highveld, you have some good courses in Pretoria and Johannesburg, Woodhill, Dainfern, Glendower, Parkview, Randpark, Bryanston (need to play with a member). Another neat course is Hans Merensky in Phalaborwa. Very cool. Bring your camera and sanp the wildlife and I mean wildlife!! Do get to play Sun City. It’s awesome and the countryside is amazing. We all know it’s set in a volcano (extinct) but the bush is great and has to be experienced to be understood. Bring sturdy clothes if you wack you ball into the thorn bushes like I did. Lost City is good, but not great. The Gary Don’t count on rentals. You can buy cheap stuff here. Give me a shout, maybe we can do RSG RSA? Trevor
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – We are planning an extended trip to South Africa and would appreciate some help from golfers from there or who have been there. We hope to play in many areas – Johannesburg/Pretoria area, Durban and KwaZulu-Natal coast, Eastern Cape and Garden Route, Cape Town area (Staying near Fishoek) Questions: 1. What is the normal dress code? Are shorts & short socks OK or are long stockings or ankle socks required? Can ladies wear shorts? 2. Presumably caddies are more common than they are here. Do courses require you to use them or is it OK to use a pull cart? Can we rent them at most courses or should we buy them over there? 3. We prefer to walk – do many clubs/courses use power carts? 4. If we use caddies, what is the usual tip? 5. Any suggestions for some good municipal or economy courses. (We have arrangements to play some good courses – Gary Player courses at Sun City & Dainfern; Royal Durban, Durban Country Club.) Thanks in advance. Golfpro_not
http://www.golfdigest.co.za/ Try this link. I briefly looked at the ‘Course guide’ in the navigation bar and saw info about the GP courses and others. Sounds like agreat trip, have fun. — Bob Andrews
Response:
We are planning an extended trip to South Africa and would appreciate some help from golfers from there or who have been there. We hope to play in many areas – Johannesburg/Pretoria area, Durban and KwaZulu-Natal coast, Eastern Cape and Garden Route, Cape Town area (Staying near Fishoek) Questions: 1. What is the normal dress code? Are shorts & short socks OK or are long stockings or ankle socks required? Can ladies wear shorts? 2. Presumably caddies are more common than they are here. Do courses require you to use them or is it OK to use a pull cart? Can we rent them at most courses or should we buy them over there? 3. We prefer to walk – do many clubs/courses use power carts? 4. If we use caddies, what is the usual tip? 5. Any suggestions for some good municipal or economy courses. (We have arrangements to play some good courses – Gary Player courses at Sun City & Dainfern; Royal Durban, Durban Country Club.) Thanks in advance. Golfpro_not
Response:
Hi Just returned 6 weeks ago from SA. Played some golf while we were there. My suggestions for Durban, although I did not get a chance to play them, is Beachwood, which is affiliated with the Durban Country Club. The royal Durban is situated inside a horse racing track, and although it is in great shape, it is still inside a horse racing track! Look for it online. Further south of Durban is SanLameer which is beautiful, as well as the Wild Coast Sun which is also fantastic. Both a bit of a drive. Also try get onto Prince’s Grant, north of Durban. In the Eastern Cape, depending on where you are going, try the Humewood Golf Course in Port Elizabeth. Links course that is constantly rated in the top 10 or 20 courses in SA. A bugger when the wind is up. The only other course I know of in this area that id nice is the Fish River Sun, about an hour or so outside of Port Elizabeth. Garden route courses: Fancourt near George! Also Sparrebosch near Knysna. Cape Town: (never seen these) : Steenberg and Royal Cape, according to those in the know. Just to the interior, Stellenbosch Golf Club in the heart of the winelands and a bustling little University town. Also the Paarl Valley golf course. In Jhb/Pretoria, Glendower in Jhb. Pretoria, try Pecanwood Estates a new Nicklaus course , Silver Lakes and Woodhill (both resort type courses) and maybe Centurion Golf club. Of course then there are the Sun City Courses that are great. These are all great courses and the prices are really good when going with foreign currency. The most expensive course in SA is 260Canadian dollars and that is very hight. most of the aove are in the 50-100 dollar Canadian range. I played a few courses for 8 Canuck bucks, but they were a little rougher around the edges than these. Shorts and short socks are fine, too hot for anything else.Ladies may wear shorts. You can use a caddie, pull a cart or get proper golf cart. I just carried my own clubs. Walking is the norm, with a lot of people using caddies. I am uncertain what the usual tip is. Hope this helps. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -We are planning an extended trip to South Africa and would appreciate some help from golfers from there or who have been there. We hope to play in many areas – Johannesburg/Pretoria area, Durban and KwaZulu-Natal coast, Eastern Cape and Garden Route, Cape Town area (Staying near Fishoek) Questions: 1. What is the normal dress code? Are shorts & short socks OK or are long stockings or ankle socks required? Can ladies wear shorts? 2. Presumably caddies are more common than they are here. Do courses require you to use them or is it OK to use a pull cart? Can we rent them at most courses or should we buy them over there? 3. We prefer to walk – do many clubs/courses use power carts? 4. If we use caddies, what is the usual tip? 5. Any suggestions for some good municipal or economy courses. (We have arrangements to play some good courses – Gary Player courses at Sun City & Dainfern; Royal Durban, Durban Country Club.) Thanks in advance. Golfpro_not