The best golf courses in South Africa
Arabella Golf Club, 60 minutes outside Cape Town, features long, winding waste areas that were built to protect the lagoon as well the presence of abundant wildlife.
South Africa is the king of African golf with more than 450 courses. The Western Cape province possesses the most courses in our 2026 ranking, but the golf is spread across the country's diverse landscape, from Eastern Cape to Gauteng (site of South Africa's largest city, Johannesburg) to North Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and beyond.
As the naturalistic style of architecture has become dominant in contemporary architecture (exemplified by places like Bandon Dunes in the U.S. and Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania), the prevailing tastes in South Africa tend toward modern chic, with clean lines, formal water features and emerald presentations of turf offset by the gorgeous natural backdrops of the various regions. Architects like Jack Nicklaus, Ernie Els, Zimbabwe native Peter Matkovich and Gary Player feature prominently, but South Africa's older golf heritage is also represented, including British architect S.V. Hotchkin's Humewood, a links course in Port Elizabeth that opened in 1931, Scotsman Laurie Waters, who emigrated to South Africa at the turn of the 20th century, and created Royal Johannesburg West, Durban Country Club and Parkview, a newcomer to our top 30, and Charles Alison, who designed Glendower in Johannesburg and made some modifications to the greens at Royal Johannbesburg.
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Editor's Note: Our Best Courses in South Africa ranking is part of the rollout of the Best Courses in Every Country. Check back over the next few weeks for more of our rankings of the best golf around the world.
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Golf Digest South Africa
Parkview is one of Johannesburg’s oldest clubs, founded in 1916 close to the city centre. It has a close association with four-time Open champion Bobby Locke. As a 17-year-old amateur he won his first South African Open here in 1935, the only time the championship was played at Parkview. Locke was a club member in his older years, and his statue stands alongside the clubhouse. A Bobby Locke festival week is held annually. Designed by Laurie Waters, Parkview Golf Club is an unusual layout, the holes being narrowly confined on either side of a wide stormwater sluit running through the property. The front nine does a clockwise loop around the stream, and then switches back and forth on the back nine.
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George was for many years the only golf course in this major center of the Garden Route region (today there are six). Visitors to the nearby Fancourt resort soon discover one of South Africa's great parkland gems, which some refer to as “The Old Course.” Its reputation comes from being an attractive walk along leafy fairways; having an interesting variety of holes on gently undulating terrain; and a majestic backdrop in the Outeniqua mountain range. Designed by Charles Molteno Murray and opened in 1931, it is one of the busiest courses in the Garden Route. A feature is the lake around the first, 17th and 18th holes, while the back nine is unusual in having three par 5s, three par 4s and three par 3s. The front nine has seven 4s.
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Houghton is a famous name in the annals of South African golf, a strong and proud club founded in 1923 and strongly associated with championship moments. Today the club has reinvented itself with a new Jack Nicklaus signature course built on the same property in 2009-'10 to replace the old parkland layout, and luxury high-rise apartments and a hotel have emerged alongside one corner of the course. A modern state-of-the-art clubhouse with basement parking stands attractively in the middle of the course overlooking the first hole and 18th. Hougton has hosted the Joburg Open on the DP World Tour since 2022.
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Woodmead is the premier course at Country Club’s 36-hole facility, a championship parkland layout with tall, mature trees defining the holes with undulating terrain, which provides interesting variety in terms of design and challenge. A large clubhouse (opened in 2000) stands on a ridge above the course, and each nine starts with a par 4 that sweeps downhill to start each round. The CCJ property covers nearly 1,500 acres and is home to over 100 different bird species. Woodmead, originally designed by Fred Hawtree in 1970, has been upgraded and improved by Golf Data. Louis Oosthuizen had a record 28-under total of 260 (66-63-66-65) in winning the 2008 SA PGA Championship here.
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Fancourt is South Africa’s premier resort experience with three 18-hole courses and a nine-holer, exclusively reserved for members, homeowners and hotel guests. Outeniqua, a Gary Player design, starts outside the Fancourt clubhouse and meanders around the large estate, only returning to the clubhouse at the finish. Though it is regarded as the easiest of the Fancourt layouts—the Montagu and the Links are longer championship layouts—Outeniqua is subtly challenging on gently undulating terrain with tricky, fast-running greens complexes. There are water hazards on 11 holes, and the course is well-bunkered from tee to green.
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Royal Johannesburg’s West Course, considerably shorter than the adjoining championship East Course, is a favorite among club members. Length is the biggest distinction between the two attractive parkland layouts because the West covers the same undulating tree-lined terrain, with a similar quota of water hazards. A natural stream runs through the two courses, entering near the sixth tee on the West and departing at the sixth green of the East. Golf was first played on this site in 1910 when it was Johannesburg Golf Club with just 18 holes. The original designer was Scottish club pro Laurie Waters, who won the 1920 SA Open (his fourth title) on the course he had designed and built.
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Erinvale Golf Club is a Gary Player design, in Somerset West near Cape Town, which has two very different nines. The front nine is flat, with plenty of water hazards in play, while the back nine traverses the slopes of the Helderberg mountain overlooking Somerset West and the False Bay coastline. Erinvale was the first residential golf estate in the Cape Peninsula and Winelands, and within a year of opening, it hosted the 1996 World Cup of Golf, won by the South African duo of Ernie Els and Wayne Westner. It also hosted the 2003 and 2004 SA Opens, both won by 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman, who grew up in the town.
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This 2005 Jack Nicklaus signature design sits high in the hills above the Garden Route coastal town of Knysna. The hotel buildings are on a ridge overlooking the course, with views of the Knysna Lagoon. Simola is on such undulating terrain that golf carts are essential and included in the green fee. Walking is not easy because of the distances between green and tee. There’s a steep cart path with hairpin bends leading down from the pro shop to the first and 10th tees, and another long climb from the first green to the second tee. A high ridge framing the property splits the course into two distinct parts. There are 12 holes in the area below the hotel, and another six in a separate valley. Nicklaus designed five par 5s and five par 3s.
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The parkland Pretoria Country Club sits in a magnificent setting in the upmarket Waterkloof suburb east of the city. The club still occupies its original site from when the club was founded in 1910. The original course was by Laurie Waters, while Bob Grimsdell and Gary Player subsequently put their imprint on the design. It is a tricky and testing layout with several creatively designed green complexes. The clubhouse stands on a ridge above the mostly flat course, but there is undulation on the back nine. The club has hosted professional events for the DP World Tour.
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Highland Gate
This newish course (2011) is one of the most remote settings on this ranking, sitting in a mountain valley in the Drakensberg escarpment of Mpumalanga about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Johannesburg and Pretoria. The Ernie Els signature design opened embodies high-altitude golf, sitting around 2,000 meters above sea level, perhaps the highest-up of any of the courses on this list. Els compared the location to Scotland. “It reminds me of Gleneagles in the Highlands. The expansive views seem to go on forever.” There are three flyfishing dams on the estate, in an area known as South Africa’s premier flyfishing destination.
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One of the great vistas in South African golf is from the clubhouse at the Champagne Sports Resort. Perched on a hillside above the course it offers breathtaking panoramic views of the Drakensberg mountain range and surrounding countryside. The parkland layout, designed by Hugh Baiocchi (1997) is one of South Africa's most scenic, and the only 18-holer this close to the Central Drakensberg peaks. For a holiday resort layout, it’s a strong test with one challenging hole after another, full of elevation changes and challenging bunkers. The opening holes run alongside the deep Sterkspruit River gorge that cuts through the property. In winter the fairways become brown and firm, making for longer drives and shorter approaches. Champagne Castle is a nearby peak and the second highest in South Africa at 3,377 meters. It was named by two 19th-century mountaineers who were about to toast their feat of ascending the mountain with a glass of champagne when a guide dropped and broke the bottle.
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Mark Sampson
Humewood Golf Club was designed by S.V. Hotchkin in 1931 with some tweaks by Donald Steel in the mid-1980s. The course is nestled into the sandy shores of Algoa Bay overlooking the Indian Ocean. The club features low sand dunes sprouted with native grass, wide fairways straddled by thick seaside brush and brutally challenging windswept greens. The two nines are set up as out-and-back loops with the front side featuring the long par-3 third, often playing over 200 yards to a green protected by the prevailing breeze, two deep bunkers, and a large mound often protecting the pin location. The back nine at Humewood is known to be more scenic than the front and is highlighted by the par-4 13th playing straight uphill into the wind to a green shielded by high dunes and thick brush. A significant renovation by Golf Data and designer Sean Quinn was completed in 2008 with all 18 greens rebuilt and resurfaced with bentgrass.
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American course designer Tom Weiskopf was presented with a considerable challenge when he first saw the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast terrain on which he was asked to build Zimbali in the mid-1990s: “I had never before worked with land where so much elevation had to be taken into account." His solution was to integrate a cart-only layout, at the time a first in South Africa. Zimbali (1998) rolls and tumbles among hills on the Indian Ocean shoreline with only two flat holes in the layout. Three par 3s are played from elevated tees. The Zimbali Coastal Resort development has a large residential component plus two hotels. The course is again open to visiting golfers. It has a neighboring course outside the estate, Zimbali Lakes, designed by Ernie Els, which opened in 2025.
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Cut into the dense seaside brush of the Eastern Cape and set above the Indian Ocean is East London Golf Club. The club opened in 1923 and was originally laid out by George Peck before S.V. Hotchkin remodeled and completed it. The club is set above the Indian Ocean on a prime piece of real estate in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The courses, a mixture of parklands and links, feature undulating greens, steep dunes, native plants and wildlife, and a stifling breeze blowing off the ocean. Tumbling and hilly fairways make for unexpected lies and approach angles into the difficult elevated putting surfaces. The highlight of “East Bank” as the course is locally referred to, is the winding downhill par-4 ninth with an approach flanked by thick coastal bushes. The back nine features the seaside green on the par-4 12th appearing to slope off into the sea behind it. The elevated clubhouse offers stunning views of the sea and beaches in the town below, however, very little of this hidden course is visible from the outside, adding to the excitement.
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KA Wright
The Club at Steyn City is a Nicklaus Design with design and construction by Golf Data, opened in 2014. It was the venue for South Africa’s inaugural LIV Golf tournament in March 2026, won by Bryson DeChambeau. Located on an expansive residential estate northwest of Johannesburg, the club exudes luxury from its course condition to its facilities and award-winning clubhouse. The course is built on undulating terrain and divided in two by the Jukskei River which flows in front of the clubhouse. Playing conditions feature manicured fairways and greens, 75 bunkers and various water hazards. The front nine is highlighted by an elevated tee on the downhill par-4 seventh, to a fairway protected by bunkers and a creek. The second nine is shorter and concludes with a lengthy par-4 18th with a split fairway guarded by bunkers and a lake short of the green.
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Pinnacle Point Estate opened in 2006 and commissioned Peter Matkovich and Darren Clarke to design a championship golf course on the rocky cliffs of Mossel Bay on the Western Cape of South Africa. The result is a unique routing that follows the natural contours of the land and features undulating and snaking fairways cut around steep cliffs and desert canyons. The front nine climbs in elevation before turning towards the water for the first of seven seaside holes, and is highlighted by the daunting par-3 seventh played over a steep canyon to a cliffside green overlooking the ocean. The second nine is routed along the water with each hole's view more impressive than the previous. The highlight of the back nine is the par-5 18th played over a deep canyon to a steep sloping fairway and then down to a green protected by snaking waste areas, bunkers, and cliffs behind. Ranked as one of the best courses in the world since it opened, Pinnacle Point Estate also includes a world-class Louis Oosthuizen junior academy as well as an elevated clubhouse with panoramic views of the sea.
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The Montagu Course was the first of three courses to open at the Fancourt Resort in 1992. Initially there were 27 holes until an additional nine was added in 1997. There was a major renovation in 2004 by David McLay Kidd and tweaks in 2018 by Gary Player. These improved playability and emphasized its traditional parkland look and feel. Each renovation focused on resurfacing greens as well as making sightlines more intimidating while removing dense native bushes on the fairways to make landing areas larger and more forgiving. The course features fast greens and undulating fairways flanked by native trees and dense vegetation. The more challenging front nine features three par 4s over 400 yards as well as the challenging par-5 ninth with a small green seemingly shrunk by the lake behind. The second nine is highlighted by the challenging 200-yard par-3 17th over a lake to a green guarded by bunkers. While The Links course garners much of the attention at Fancourt Resort, the Montagu is well-worth playing and deserving of its ranking.
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Pezula, built on rugged cliffside land overlooking the Indian Ocean, boasts some of South Africa’s most photographed holes. The front nine of this estate course has views over Knysna Lagoon, while the back nine holes tumble downhill to the brink of the high cliffs. The course’s attraction lies in the originality of many of its holes, and exhilarating elevation changes. The routing by American designers Ronald Fream and David Dale (2000) was inspirational. Given such undulating and inaccessible terrain on an environmentally sensitive property, there are only three holes where you play uphill. Five tee options means Pezula caters to a broad range of golfers. Even for fit and strong walkers, the course is best enjoyed in the comfort of a cart, particularly in terms of pace of play. There’s also a luxury hotel adjoining the clubhouse, making this an idyllic destination.
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Richard Heathcote
The golf course at Royal Johannesburg was designed by Robert Grimsdell in 1933, with the routing changed in 1939 to accommodate the clubhouse, and would undergo reconstruction in 1999 after merging with Kennsington Golf Club and again in 2017. The club exhibits a feeling of luxury from the moment you enter, highlighted by the stunning clubhouse and facilities. The club features pristine conditions, subtle undulations on fairways and greens, and challenging bunker placements off the tee. The front side is the easiest of the two nines with three scoreable par 5s, Nos. 1, 6 and 8. The back nine is a beautiful contrast to the front and begins with two par 4s over 500 yards including the famed dogleg right 11th, known to be one of the most challenging holes in the country. The course is located just 20 minutes outside of Johannesburg and is a premier golfing destination in South Africa.
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The Peter Matkovich-designed course at Elements Private Golf Reserve opened in the Limpopo bushveld in 2005. A two-hour drive north of Johannesburg in the Waterberg region, which is home to numerous game reserves. The only wildlife at Elements is a few species of buck. Situated among low hills, red cliffs, sweeping grass plains and dense native trees, the parkland-style layout was designed to coexist with the natural environment and features vibrant green fairways with subtle undulations and bentgrass greens. A modern two-story clubhouse sits on a ridge with panoramic views over the opening and closing holes. A large lake borders the ninth and 18th greens, which sit back to back below the clubhouse. The back tee of the par-3 ninth tee is atop a high cliff, opposite the clubhouse, with nothing but water between it and the green. The par-5 18th fairway falls steeply down a hillside. Elements is part of a residential estate, but the homes are separate from the course, which traverses pristine bushveld. It is a championship layout of 7,400 yards, and the longer back nine includes the 608-yard 14th.
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GRANT LEVERSHA
South Africa’s best-known global course, due to its high-profile television exposure as host of the Million Dollar Challenge and then the Nedbank Golf Challenge. The Gary Player Country Club is an iconic layout in a bushveld and wildlife setting in a valley of the Pilanesberg north of Gauteng. Until Sun City was built in the late 1970s, South Africa did not have a resort where golfers could stay and play. Gary Player worked with a variety of designers throughout his career in architecture, and his partner was Ron Kirby for this important design in his home country. Gary Player Country Club has hosted nearly 100 pro tour events since opening in 1979, including two SA Opens in 2020 and 2021. The course has stood the test of time with changes and improvements in the new millennium ensuring it retains its reputation as one of the toughest examinations on the DP World Tour. Playing over 7,800 yards from the back tees, it was South Africa’s longest course for many years until overtaken by more modern designs in Gauteng.
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Sishen Golf Club was designed by Robert Grimsdell in 1980 and is one of the most unique and remote golf courses in the country. Set on the edge of the Kalahari Desert in an ancient forest of Kameeldoring trees, Sishen features special off-the-beaten-path luxury. The flat course is known for undulating greens and vibrant fairways straddled by dense thickets of thorn trees. Each hole at Sishen could be considered its signature, however, the ones that stand out the most are the risk-reward par-5 sixth with a thorn tree in the center of the fairway and water hazard short of the green, and the drivable dogleg 14th with a green shielded by mounds and deep bunkers. Located seven hours from Johannesburg in the mining town of Kathu, Sishen Golf Club promises one of the most special and least crowded rounds on the planet. The course is part of a residential estate.
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Located 20 minutes from Johannesburg International Airport is the C.H. Alison-designed Glendower Golf Club, host to eight South African Opens. Opened in 1937, the club underwent major renovations in 1985 and 2007 adding yardage, bunkering and adapting each putting surface to USGA specifications. The parkland-style course is famous for sprawling red bunkers, wide hazards and immaculate putting surfaces. Large meandering water hazards help create the signature holes at Glendower and are on full display on the par-5 second with a tee shot over a shimmering hazard to a tight tree-lined fairway, as well as on the par-4 10th featuring a lengthy approach over a lake to a tightly protected green. The course is home to Kikuyu grass fairways protected by 64 penal bunkers and is challenging and well worth its ranking as a premier destination in South Africa.
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St. Francis Links is a Jack Nicklaus signature design from 2007 recognized as one of the premier golf destinations in South Africa. The challenging links-style course is built inland from the ocean among towering sand dunes, with distant views of St. Francis Bay and the Indian Ocean. The layout features gently tumbling fairways with large sloping greens. The front nine is highlighted by the par-3 fourth, which uniquely has two separate greens, one atop a dune, the other in a hollow below it. The short par-4 eighth has a tight fairway framed by indigenous bush and a shapely green guarded by deep bunkers. The back nine at St. Francis Links is more challenging than the front, with water in play on several holes, and is capped off with a closing par-4 featuring an elevated tee and fairway seemingly shrunk by the water down the left side. Located an hour’s drive from Port Elizabeth, it has been home to the SA PGA Championship since 2022.
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Located 60 miles East of Cape Town on the edge of Bot River Lagoon and framed by the Kogelberg Mountains is Arabella Golf Club. The course is situated on rocky farmland and was designed by Peter Matkovich and opened in 1999 with an emphasis on coexisting with the natural environment, evident in the long winding waste areas bordering and protecting the lagoon as well the presence of abundant wildlife including the Blue Crane where the club gets its emblem. The highlight of the front nine is the intimidating downhill par-5 eighth with a massive waste area lining the fairway and a green that appears to jut out into the lagoon behind it. The second nine is known for the dramatic par-5 finishing hole featuring a massive waste bunker and forcing players into an intimidating risk-reward decision.
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Grant Leversha
Intended to merge with its Bushveld environs, what with Kruger National Park and the Crocodile River on the north and west, the Gary Player-designed Leopard Creek is really more akin to a polished, immaculate American layout, with a manmade stream diagonally slashing in front of the 14th green, the fifth, 15th, 16th and 18th greens guarded by stone-bulkheaded ponds and the par-5 18th green on an island. But no course in America has views of elephants, hippos and crocodiles in the wild.
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Golf Digest South Africa
Durban Country Club, one of South Africa’s iconic courses, was rebuilt in 2023 by Golf Data after suffering extensive damage in the 2022 Durban floods, which coincided with the club’s centenary year. It was closed for months afterward, and a decision was taken to reconstruct all 18 greens as part of a major upgrade that also involved building a wide “Scottish-style” burn through several holes furthest from the clubhouse to prevent future flooding. The course re-opened in 2024. The property is on the Durban beachfront, 100 yards from the Indian Ocean, and is an old-fashioned out-and-back layout, designed by Laurie Waters and George Waterman. Much of the tropical vegetation within the course, which for many years had isolated each of the holes, has been removed to expose the dunes and create vistas between holes that had not been seen for decades. The par-5 14th was lengthened to accommodate a new green site. Bentgrass was planted on the greens for the first time. The first five holes at Durban Country Club, heading north from the clubhouse, are regarded as being among the best opening stretches in world golf. The round ends with two memorable holes, firstly the par-4 17th that rolls through two deep valleys, and the short par-4 18th with its green immediately in front of the clubhouse. Durban Country Club has hosted a record number of 18 South African Opens, the most recent in 2025.
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Pearl Valley Golf and Country Club was the second signature course in South Africa designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 2003 featuring a match between him and Gary Player. It hosted three consecutive SA Opens between 2007 and 2009. The course is located on a 500-acre estate in one of the premier residential communities of the Cape Winelands region. The course sits in the Paarl-Franschhoek Valley surrounded by the Simonsberg Mountains and displays an aura of luxury and tranquility. Pearl Valley is known for large hazards, deep white-river sand bunkers and waste areas covered in native brush grass. The front side at Pearl Valley is highlighted by the 161-yard par-3 third with a forced carry over water and penal bunker protecting the green. The standout hole on the back nine is the challenging 211-yard par-3 17th with a sloping and elevating putting surface ready to repel even the best-struck tee shots.
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Blair Atholl Golf and Equestrian Estate, formerly Gary Player's homestead, first gained a reputation for horse breeding and polo before it became a luxury estate. Player designed an 18-hole championship course in 2007, which is reputed to be the second longest in the world. Located in the heart of the estate, each nine follows an anti-clockwise loop adding to the luxury and privacy of the estate. The course is known for its incredible length at 8,232 yards—there are five tee options, the shortest at 5,472 yards—as well as undulating greens, snaking hazards and wide sprawling meadows. The back nine has three consecutive par 4s from 14 to 16 that respectively measure 524, 566 and 560 yards from the black tees. There are five par 3s, which can play between 200 and 240 yards. A signature Augusta-like hole is the 200-yard third playing over a water hazard to an elevated green surrounded by tall trees. The course is located on the edge of Rhenosterspruit Nature Conservancy and features wildlife and the meandering Crocodile River. Blair Atholl hosted the South African Open in 2022 and 2023. A large domestic airport is a few kilometers from the estate.
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The Fancourt Resort unveiled its first two golf courses in 1990 and 1997 before adding the Gary Player-designed links course in 2000 as a championship-level complement to the existing courses. The links-style course, which Player has described as one of his greatest design achievements, features towering man-made sand dunes dotted with tufts of native grass and framed by the Outeniqua Mountains in the backdrop. The luxurious experience of the links course, without the requisite windy conditions, is highlighted by gently rolling fairways and subtle breaking greens. The front nine features the 200-yard downhill par-3 second, framed by mountains and three small bunkers short of the green. The back nine is known for the short-but-difficult par-3 17th playing over a sprawling burn and deep bunker. The course, located on a former airstrip is five hours West of Cape Town and quickly gained world recognition after hosting the Presidents Cup in 2003 which included the famous tie between Tiger Woods and Ernie Els.
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The above ranking is courtesy of our partners, SA Top 100 Golf Courses.
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