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Golf FaGGolf
Where: South Africa
Golf on the Wild Side in South Africa
Lions & Rhinos & Golf, Oh My
I'm in the bush, searching for my ball next to the 15th green at Zimbali Golf Course, when like a carnivore from hell, a bee-type dive bomber nails my arm. I get over the pain with a dab of mud. Why let a bee sting spoil an otherwise perfect day on a spectacular golf course in South Africa. I'm not talking about a perfect round of golf, not when I'd already lost six balls to the voracious rough and deep ravines. But just being here in the forests of KwaZulu-Natal on the Dolphin Coast, is reason enough to feel everything is just great.
I know, I know. Who thinks of taking golf clubs on a trip to South Africa? A khaki shirt, a super-zoom digital, a guide to the Wine Route? Sure. But golf clubs? But hey, you've heard the old saying, you can't have your cake and blah, blah, blah too. Well forget that. Here you can.
South Africa with more than 400 courses and greens fees averaging in the $30 to $50 range is a golfer's dream. Ever since 1885 when the Cape Golf Club was founded and later in 1924 when Durban Country Club first hosted the South African Open, interest in golf in South Africa has grown spurred on by pros like George Fotheringham and Gary Player. More recently Ernie Els and Retief Goosen have helped plug South African golf into the international radar while the game receives further nudges from high profile tournaments like the Sun City Million Dollar Challenge when players vie for the largest first prize in the world.
More than 100 of the top courses such as Zimbali and Durban Country Club, home of the 2005 South African Airways Open, are located in KwaZulu-Natal, many found along the Golf Coast running south from Durban. In George the landscape at the three courses at Fancourt Country Club (The Links, Montagu course and Outeniqua) is painted by giant water lilies, plumbago, and other flowering plants. Here caddies can be a huge help.
Wine & Golf
Less than an hour outside Cape Town in the Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl regions along with your golf, you'll get to taste some terrific South African wines at vineyards like the Spier Cellars and Morgenhof Wine Estate. We stayed at Erinvale Estate Hotel & Spa, in the Helderberg Valley where some guest rooms were located in former stables. Just down the road, we teed off at Erinvale Golf Club, a Gary Player design and host to the 1996 World Cup of Golf. Unlike Zimbali where you seldom see any real estate, set on the sidelines are lovely Cape Wineland homes as well as tidy rows of grapes terraced up the steep hillsides.
Safari
And where else but in South Africa can you play golf and on the same day, get close enough to a lion to see his eye lashes? Indeed coming to South Africa and not taking in a wildlife safari, would be like going to Paris and skipping the Louvre. Driving across the bushveld to follow a leopard hunting for dinner and stopping for a sundowner to admire the sky raked by streaks of orange, red and pink while enjoying† wine and Biltong (preserved dried beef), can be as thrilling as getting a hole-in-one at Augusta.
Where to Stay
From your patio at Bushman Sands Lodge in Alicedale in the Eastern Cape, you can sip a Pinotage on your patio and watch players go by on the 10-hole -soon-to-be-18-hole, golf course. Housed in an early 1900s converted railway training college, the lodge features brick exteriors, green tin roofs and board and bead interiors; guest rooms are fresh and airy with silky duvets and contemporary wood furniture.
The Bushman Sands course is a very walkable course with some distinctive quirks. On the 10th hole, you have to hit your ball over a family cemetery and then over a working railway. The only disappointment at Bushman Sands is the unimaginative dining facility which feels more like a conference facility than a place Out of Africa.
Shamwari Game Reserve a short distance away is another matter. This 49,000-acre private game reserve situated in the Eastern Cape in a malaria-free region along the Bushmans River, has six luxury lodges, some thatched, some former manor houses. In Shamwari you are in the African bush yet you enjoy luxuries like sunrooms, private plunge pools, wellness spas, luxury linens - you get the picture.
It is at Lobengula Lodge that Tiger Woods popped the question to† Swedish beauty, Elin Nordegren while Riverdene where acacia trees spread out to the horizon. We dined outside enjoying delicious traditional foods like bobotie (a sort of savory bread custard with lots of ground lamb, curry, fruit and nuts) and baked yams.
The highlight of a stay in a safari lodge are of course, the game drives which take place in early morning and late afternoon. At Shamwari, competent guides drive their Land Rovers off road for a close-up view of the animals. Indeed on one drive, we sat motionless, breathless as a bull elephant brushed his trunk on the front of our Rover's grill before ambling on his way, ears flapping back and forth. It's wild.
Travel Tips
Getting there: Johannesburg is your gateway into South Africa via South African Airways. Flights go from Boston through either New York's JFK or Atlanta to Johannesburg via South African Airways www.flysaa.com
Johannesburg: The first night we stayed at a smashing† hotel, Protea's Melrose Arch. Contemporary, edgy with every conceivable modern amenity including inwall-CD and DVD players, its buffet breakfast spread doesn't get much better. Fill up on everything from salmon and fresh figs to nuts.
Links
Shamwari: www.shamwari.com; reservations@shamwari.com
Bushman Sands: www.bushmansands.com
Fancourt: www.fancourt.com
Erinvale Estate Hotel & Spa: www.erinvale.co.za
Melrose Arch Hotel: www.proteahotels.co.za
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