Although Gauteng is the smallest province in South Africa, it is the financial capital and industrial hub of the country. Gauteng is also the golfing capital of the country, and contains an impressive 31 courses within the Golf Digest top 100 courses for South Africa. Gauteng also has a wide selection of other tourist attractions, and is therefore the ideal destination for a golfing holiday.
A Gauteng golf holiday offers the golfer a wide variety of top rated championship golf courses which will challenge the amateur and professional alike. Golf can be played in Gauteng throughout the year because of its ideal year-round climate. The favorable South African Rand exchange rate is also attractive for tourists coming from Europe or North America. Visitors from Europe or the United States will find that the price of accommodation, restaurants and golfing green fees a fraction of what they normally would pay when converted to euros or dollars.
Many of the golf courses in Gauteng have been designed by some of legends in golf, such as Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Greg Norman and Ernie Els. Many European PGA Tour and South African Sunshine Tour golfing events have been hosted at Gauteng golf courses. Any Gauteng golf holiday should include the following courses:
- Glendower Golf Club – Rated as the top golf course in Gauteng, and is one of South Africa’s most challenging and beautiful golf courses. This famous golf course has hosted numerous South African opens and is one of the older courses in South Africa. A must play for any golfer visiting Gauteng.
- Royal Johannesburg Golf Club – Two of the best 18-hole parkland golf courses in Johannesburg can be found at Royal Johannesburg. Although a challenging golf course, the famous ‘East’ course provides a spectacular round of golf. 7 South African opens have also been hosted at the ‘East’ course. The ‘West’ course provides a different, but slightly easier challenge and is ranked 30th in South Africa.
- Blair Atholl Golf Club – Recently opened in 2008, Blair Atholl was designed by Gary Player and it is predicted to become one of Africa’s top golf courses.
To find out more about the golf courses in Gauteng, have a look at the GolfLinx golf directory for Gauteng.
Besides its world class golf courses, Gauteng has many other attractions. Gold Reef City is a reconstruction of Johannesburg during the gold rush era, and is built around a functioning gold mine. Visitors can take a trip down an old mine shaft and observe the process of mining gold. Besides the gold mine, Golf Reef City has a brewery, a Victorian fun fair, pubs, hotel and tribal dancing.
50km southwest of Johannesburg is the famous Cradle of Humankind. This is an area of caves set in dolomitic limestone formed billions of years ago, and the fossilized remains of ancient plants and animals, as well as ancient human/ape fossils can be found here. There are more than three dozen fossil-bearing caves, with some of the ancient ape-man fossils dating back 2.3 million years.
Visitors wanting to see the Big Five, which are Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Rhino and Buffalo, can visit several excellent nature reserves and game parks situated around Johannesburg and Pretoria. The few tourist attractions mentioned here are just the tip of the iceberg, and there are many other exciting tourist attractions in Gauteng, not to mention the spectacular Gauteng golf courses.
To find available accommodation in Gauteng, take a look at the GolfLinx Gauteng accommodation directory.
