South Africa: Cape Town to the Garden Route to Leopard Creek

South Africa rewards the traveller who is willing to drive. The country's golf landscape is distributed across three distinct regions — the Cape Peninsula, the Garden Route, and the Lowveld near the Kruger — and treating it as a single-destination trip means you see one third of what's available.

The itinerary I've settled on after seven years of South Africa work: three nights Cape Town, four nights Garden Route (base at Wilderness or Knysna), two nights Plettenberg Bay, two nights Johannesburg area, two nights Kruger/Leopard Creek. Thirteen nights, nine rounds. A hire car from Cape Town to Plettenberg Bay (five hours of driving across three days), then internal flight from George to Johannesburg.

**Cape Town: Steenberg and the mountain courses**

Cape Town has a dozen good courses; the three worth building an itinerary around are Steenberg, Royal Cape, and Erinvale.

Steenberg is the most visually dramatic — set in the Constantia Valley with the Steenberg Mountain rising immediately behind the course, vineyards on two sides, and a course condition that makes you wonder if anyone has ever taken a bad photograph here. Green fee around R2,100 (approximately £90). The hotel next door is exceptional if budget allows.

Royal Cape is the history play — founded 1885, South Africa's oldest golf club, and a course that has hosted more national championships than any other in the country. The condition is more variable than Steenberg but the atmosphere is irreplaceable. Green fee R1,800.

Erinvale Golf Club near Somerset West is the drive from Cape Town (forty minutes), a Gary Player design against the Helderberg Mountains. Green fee R1,500. Book the late afternoon slot and finish in the golden hour with the bay behind you.

**The Garden Route drive**

The N2 from Cape Town to Knysna is one of the five great drives in the world. I say this without qualification. The road runs through wine country in the first hour, then scrub and coast, then the Wilderness lagoon system, then the Outeniqua Mountains, then drops into Knysna Heads — two massive sandstone cliffs framing the ocean — and you understand immediately why people who were on holiday here as children come back fifty years later.

We drive in stages with two or three stops, taking two days rather than one. Lunch at The Mogg's Country Cookhouse in Hemel-en-Aarde. Coffee in Hermanus. A swim at De Kelders if the timing works for whale watching (June to November).

**Fancourt: the Links course**

Fancourt Golf Estate near George hosts four courses; the one that matters is the Links — an Ernie Els design that replicates true links conditions inland, with fescue rough, bounce-and-run fairways, and a wind exposure that means you rarely play it the same way twice. Ranked consistently in South Africa's top five courses. Green fee R3,500 (around £145) for resort guests.

I've been sending clients to Fancourt since 2012. The single most common reaction: 'why isn't this more famous internationally?' My answer: because it's in George, which sounds like a county town, and nobody outside of SA golf circles knows it exists. That is good news for the people who make it there.

**Plettenberg Bay: Goose Valley**

Goose Valley Golf Club sits where the Bitou and Keurbooms rivers meet — an estuarine landscape of extraordinary biodiversity that plays through vlei, dunes, and coastal fynbos. The back nine turns towards the Indian Ocean and on a clear day the views would distract any honest golfer. Green fee R1,200. We combine Plett with two nights at a private house rather than a hotel — the bay is better experienced from a kitchen than a lobby.

**Leopard Creek: the finale**

Flying from George to Johannesburg (two hours, regular departures) and driving east to the Kruger border: this is the final gear shift of the trip, and it's the one that leaves the deepest impression.

Leopard Creek Country Club backs onto the Kruger National Park — a wire fence is the boundary between the eighteenth fairway and the reserve. You play golf while impala graze the rough and hippos use the water hazards. On our last trip, a group of elephants walked along the fence line during the afternoon round. Nobody spoke for four holes.

Green fee R4,800 (approximately £200) — the most expensive round you'll play in South Africa and worth every rand. Member introduction required; we have it, and we secure tee times in advance.

**The prices**

Thirteen nights, self-drive Cape Town to Plettenberg Bay, internal flight, all accommodation and green fees: approximately £3,800 to £4,400 per person at four-star level, business class flying. Economy class from London brings this to £2,800 to £3,200. South Africa remains extraordinary value relative to equivalent product in Europe or the USA.

**October through April**

South African summer — warm, largely dry, long evenings. The Garden Route can get rain in any month but October to January is the most reliable window. Avoid the Christmas/New Year period unless you book eight months in advance: the whole country is on holiday.