South Africa Vacation Guide

Gary Player's Goose Valley Golf Club a bargain in South Africa

Gary Player-designed Goose Valley is one of the least expensive courses on South Africa's upscale Garden Route, but it doesn't skimp on scenery or shot-making. Sitting just off the coastline, the course is filled with native wildlife and offers stunning mountain and ocean views.
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Goose Valley Golf Club in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa

Native son Gary Player designed this course and has a home on the property as well. Even with its subdivision setting, the course teems with natural beauty and wildlife, including guinea fowl and peacocks, and the bay is always within sight.
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Reader says South Africa still has its problems

Worldgolf.com's Brandon Tucker had some great things to say about South Africa in a recent article. Having grown up in South Africa, this reader says he knows the nation still has a long way to go as it prepares to host the 2010 World Cup.
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A slow ride on an old train the most luxurious way to golf South Africa

Taking a slow, vintage train through South Africa, with the moon rising over Pretoria, is definitely the most luxurious and exotic way to travel and play golf in the southern part of the Dark Continent.
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Prince's Grant lodge gives you Zulus, monkeys, Paradise Flycatchers and some fine golf

There can't be too many places on earth where you can put together a Zulu-monkey-golf package. The Prince's Grant Golf and Country Estate north of Durban happens to be one such place. If you like your Zulu history, monkeys, wild and strange birds and - oh yeah, if you like to play golf in exotic settings - you might want to try this small property far from the well-trod South Africa tourist path, writes Tim McDonald.
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Find yourself a couple of big Afrikaners and enjoy golf, wine and spectacular views at Erinvale

Located in the winelands, with awesome mountain views, Erinvale Golf Club is a great setting for a visitor to get a feel for South African golf, preferably with two big Afrikaners, sweating and cursing their way good-naturedly around the course. From the back nine, you can see the ocean and from almost the entire course you have views of the surrounding vineyards gleaming in the African sun.
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Drink your wine and tee off - or vice- versa - at De Zalze in the Western Cape

Whoever first combined wine tasting and golf should be given some kind of award, writes Tim McDonald. We couldn't agree more! Say, the Ben Hogan/Dionysus Golden Goblet? The DeZalze Golf Club is laid out within the De Zalze Winelands Golf Estate, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It's sometimes a toss-up question for tourists: Do you tee off or taste some fine Chardonnay? Thankfully, one does not necessarily preclude the other.
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For truly wild, wild golf, Skukuza in the African bush is a must play

The sign as you enter the Skukuza Golf Course is a harbinger of what you're in for: "Beware: Dangerous Animals. Enter at Your Own Risk." Located, deep in the African bush, within the confines of South Africa's Kruger National Park, this is a place where the animals have a free, lifetime pass to the course. With hippopatami, lions, leopards, elephants and rhinos in the mix, never has keeping it in the fairway been better advice.
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Jackals, hyenas, wildebeest and good golf: Mabalingwe has it all

The pre-game ritual of most golfers doesn't involve handling lion cubs with paws the size of Andre the Giant's head, but after this, nothing on the Mabalingwe Country Club course in Limpopo, South Africa is likely to scare you. Except for maybe the jackals, hyenas or wart hogs. Named the best new course in 2004 by the South Africa edition of Golf Digest Mabalingwe lives up to the title, writes Tim McDonald.
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Teen phenom Ashleigh Simon swings as South Africa's version of Michelle Wie

Imagine picking a golf club up when you were three years old and finding the game just comes naturally to you. That's what happened with Ashleigh Simon. At the ridiculously tender age of 15, Simon is South Africa's version of Michelle Wie - the Hawaiian-born U.S. teen phenom who not only has already played on the LPGA Tour, but has also had a try with the big boys in the Sony Open last year.
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Birdies, bogeys, lions and leopards - Kirkman's Kamp in South Africa offers a wild ride

For what's surely one of the biggest incongruities on earth, you can have intimate encounters with wild African beasts at Kirkman in the mornings and evenings, while enjoying a round of golf during the day. Mpumalanga, where Kirkman and Kruger are located, doesn't have the high concentration of golf courses other provinces of South Africa do, but it does boast the country's top-rated course as well as some other good courses.
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South Africa a relatively undiscovered, exotic location for traveling golfers

With the current exchange rate, South Africa is still a good deal for Americans and Europeans to visit. As Tim McDonald discovered, South Africa makes for an intriguing place for traveling golfers to visit, thanks largely to its sunny days, cool nights and a wealth of choices for excellent golf courses, some of them world-class. "Combine a golf safari with a wild game safari and you can have a truly amazing experience," he writes.
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Babu laid the foundation for a great, South African golf course

Located in the heart of South Africa's Zulu nation, Prince's Grant Golf Course s consistently ranked among the top 25 South Africa golf courses. It's a spectacular play, if you don't mind the monkeys.
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Nicklaus and Els collaborating for first time amongst wild African lions and rhinos

Ernie Els's design company has about 10 projects it has either finished or is currently working on. But, thus far, he and Jack Nicklaus have not worked together personally. Now, the two are finally collaborating on a design, at a course in South Africa, at Waterberg, roughly 90 minutes north of Johannesburg. As you might expect, the more established Nicklaus will take more of a lead role.
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A few lessons still can't help Rock's game

Robert Rock's colleagues were off to the far east and China for the BMW Asian Open at Tomson Shanghai Pudong GC, but he decided against it. Instead Rock went to Germany and then back for Wentworth and Wales.
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Big bucks and Big Berthas in South Africa

The Executive Helicopter Challenge is a unique concept that is the vision of a South African company called the ABC of Golf. Here, you can play some of the most amazing courses in the world, while enjoying wildlife and scenery only Africa can afford.
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