A handful of these, threaded between the Kruger and the Cape, is the journey. All rank among the country's finest by Golf Digest SA.
Fancourt's Links is the reigning No. 1 — a man-made links masterpiece, often rated the finest course in all of Africa. Leopard Creek, on the Crocodile River edge of the Kruger, is the purest golf-safari course on earth: hippos at the 16th, an island-green 18th. Gary Player Country Club at Sun City hosts the Nedbank — 'Africa's Major' — at nearly 8,000 yards, with the Lost City's famous crocodile hazard alongside.
Then the supporting cast that would headline anywhere else: Durban Country Club, a classic dune layout reborn after a superb upgrade and host to more SA Opens than anywhere; Nicklaus's Pearl Valley among the Winelands vines and his wild, windswept St Francis Links; Arabella on the Bot River lagoon with whales offshore in season; and BlairAtholl, the longest course in the country.
Our advice after sixty years: you don't need all of them. Two or three, woven between bush and Cape, is the perfect trip — always leave a course or two for next time.
— Graeme Harker, Garden Route