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. Because of its ideal year-round climate, golf can be played throughout the year in Gauteng. The favorable South African Rand exchange rate is also attractive for tourists coming from Europe or North America. When converted to euros or dollars, the price of golfing green fees, accommodation and restaurants is a fraction of what one would expect to pay in Europe or the United States.
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. Glendower has hosted many South African open tournaments and is one of the oldest golf courses in the country. A must play for any golfer visiting Gauteng.
- Royal Johannesburg Golf Club – The two 18-hole parkland golf courses at ‘Royal’ are among the best courses in Johannesburg. The challenging ‘East’ course is rated as one of South Africa’s 8th best course and has hosted 7 South African opens. For a totally different, but slightly easier golf challenge, try out the ‘West’ course, which is also ranked in South Africa’s top 30.
- Blair Atholl Golf Club – Designed by Gary Player, this course was recently opened in 2008. Blair Atholl is predicted to be one of the top courses in Africa in years to come.
If you want to obtain more information about the courses in Gauteng, go to the Gauteng golf directory provided by GolfLinx.
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. The golf mine gives visitors the opportunity to view the process of mining gold, as well as the opportunity of taking a trip down an old mine shaft. Besides the gold mine, Golf Reef City has a brewery, a Victorian fun fair, pubs, hotel and tribal dancing.
The famous Cradle of Humankind, 50km southwest of Johannesburg, is a strip of dolomitic limestone caves containing the fossilized remains of ancient forms of animals, plants and most importantly, ancient human fossils. 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.
If you want to find and book accommodation within Gauteng, have a look at the Gauteng accommodation guide provided by GolfLinx.
