Golf in South Africa

South Africa is comfortably Africa's leading golf destination. A national census counted about 414 courses affiliated to GolfRSA — 195 with 18 holes and 219 with nine — more than half of all the golf courses on the continent. The game runs deep in the country's sporting identity, home to major champions from Gary Player to Ernie Els.

Marquee courses

The headline layouts span the country's landscapes. Leopard Creek, a Gary Player design opened in 1996 on the edge of the Kruger National Park, is ranked among the world's best — No. 65 on Golf Digest's 2024–25 list of the greatest courses outside the United States — and tops South Africa's own Golf Digest Top 100. The Links at Fancourt in George, another Player design, hosted the 2003 Presidents Cup and rates as one of the country's very finest. The Gary Player Country Club at Sun City, opened in 1979, is the resort's championship centrepiece, alongside heritage layouts such as the Durban Country Club.

The big events

The country's headline tournament is the Nedbank Golf Challenge, staged at the Gary Player Country Club since 1981 and now a DP World Tour event. Older still is the South African Open, first played in 1903 and one of the oldest national opens in the world; Gary Player holds the record with 13 titles, ahead of Bobby Locke's nine. South Africa's standing was underlined when Fancourt's Links hosted the 2003 Presidents Cup, which famously ended level at 17–17.

The golf safari

The "golf safari" is a distinctly South African idea — pairing a round at a bush-fringed course like Leopard Creek with wildlife viewing in the neighbouring Kruger region. With a mild, dry-winter interior and year-round coastal play, the country is a strong golf destination across the seasons; the Highveld and Lowveld are especially pleasant from autumn through spring.