• Western Cape Province

• Johannesburg

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MOUNT EDGECOMBE

This successful and attractive residential estate, some 13 miles north of Durban and just inland from Umhlanga rocks, features two championship courses. It is the older layout (Mt. Edgecombe I) which has the established credentials, having hosted several pro tournaments and any number of KwaZulu-Natal's top amateur events. And in 1998, after a complete revamp of the layout involving both the re-routing of existing holes and the creation of some entirely new challenges, the SA Amateur Championship was held here - making Mt Edgecombe I, the first estate course to garner this distinction. Its history goes back to the days of Natal's sugar barons and despite the far-reaching changes, its fairways still sweep between densely masse pines and tall gum trees and the ambience remains old and stately.

Now are the large, heavily featured greens, whose surfaces ('Country Club' grass) are generally excellent, and the attractive housing component - wide verandahs under moss green roofs in the 'Natal Victorian' style, a theme carried through to clubhouse and lodge.

Feature Holes:

Entirely new too are some holes on the front nine, of which the pick is probably the par-five 5th, where the drive must crest a hill, with boundary fences both left and right. Thereafter one plays sharply downhill and over the edge of a large dam wich eats into the vitals of the pulting surface.

But the course's "piéce de résistance" remains an older stretch of holes on the bark nine; known asAmen Corner, the par-five 14th, the short 15th and the stroke-one 16th are all water plagued. The tee of the latter is set back in a large lake, over which one must belt the drive, cutting off as much as one dares.