The heart of the golf coast

For most of the year the coastal town of Margate, on KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast, masquerades as a sleepy retirement village, seemingly occupied only by pensioners, surfers and layabouts, all seeking refuge from a fast-paced world.

But for a few weeks in the year, the outside world flocks to Margate like seagulls around a fishing trawler, bringing youth, energy and, of course, plenty of Joburg rands to the party. For these few weeks, restaurants are packed, tills overflow, bottle stores run dry and the golf course is flooded with holidaymakers desperate to squeeze as many rounds as possible into their three-week break.

For Margate Country Club, it’s a tough act to balance – on the one hand you need a course that is playable for the old-timers, who form the majority of the membership, but on the other hand you would like to persuade visitors to spend their cash here and not at any of the other local courses. And let’s face it, for those staying on the South Coast, there is plenty of choice when it comes to high-quality golf courses.

Heading south there’s Southbroom, San Lameer, Port Edward and the Wild Coast Sun, while a trip to the north will uncover Port Shepstone, Umdoni and Selborne – all of which are within 50 kilometres of Margate, an area often referred to as the ‘golf coast’.

Interestingly, Margate Country Club somehow manages to find the right balance, and certainly the fact that one Peter Matkovich was called in to help spice things up with a redesign in 1990 has helped to add some bite to the course.

“It was really an upgrade of the course,” says Matkovich, “where we reshaped and re-laid greens, added some holes and did a bit of a redesign. I knew I had to make the course tougher, but I was mindful of the fact that it was very much a holiday surface.”
Together with Ivan Curlewis, a KwaZulu-Natal provincial team stalwart and Margate member, Matkovich went about making subtle changes to the layout within something of a shoestring budget.

“We tried to make the greens more interesting, we introduced some risk-and-reward holes, like short par fours, and we brought the bunkers closer to the putting surfaces,” he said.

Matko's influence

Matko’s influence is visible on the course and those who know his style will be able to easily recognise two new holes – the par-three 11th and 16th holes – that he introduced to the course.

These two shorts form part of a group of five par threes on the course, of which four make a compelling claim to be considered the signature hole. This honour, however, ultimately falls to the 11th hole, a cleverly designed short hole that calls for a clean strike to clear the ravine protecting the front of the green.

The Margate course, somewhat surprisingly, is not located on the coast, but rather to the west of the N2 freeway, and the original nine-hole design – built by Laurie Mandy in 1956 – formed a horseshoe around the old Margate airport.

When the airport closed during the 1970s, the land was snapped up by the golf club and an extra nine holes were added, with the par-five 15th running down the old airport runway. Since then the course has undergone several improvements, most notably Matkovich’s facelift in the early 1990s.

Like most coastal courses, Margate Country Club is on the short side, with the wind offering up the main protection from low scoring. Unlike other courses in the area, however, the edges of the fairways are not overly penal, with trees – instead of the popular coastal bush – offering some opportunities to recover from a poor tee shot.

An interesting design trait is that all four par fives play in the same direction, and with the prevailing wind assisting your tee shot, all four are generally reachable in two shots for the average hitter. While the longer hitter may find he has no more than an iron approach to the green, it certainly adds to the fun nature of the course when most players are able to have a crack at the par-five greens.

If the wind is at your back for the par fives, expect to play all of the long par fours directly into it, as they play in the opposite direction to the three-shotters. Effectively, what this means is that you will need to take advantage of the wind direction and score well on either the low-stroke holes or the par fives, since one of the sets of holes will be playing a lot tougher than the other.

The course

The long 3rd, 6th, 14th and 17th holes – rated the four hardest holes on the course – average close to 400 metres in length and are generally played into the wind, meaning that a good tee shot is essential for any chance at par or better.

Another design element that clearly smacks of Matkovich is the collection of short, barely reachable par fours. The 7th, 12th and 13th holes are all well under 300 metres in length and, given the right wind conditions, are reachable for the bigger hitters. It’s all about risk and reward when teeing up on these holes, where an iron off the tee would generally leave nothing more than a wedge approach for the conservative player.

While the four long holes may add a certain amount of steel to the course, the overall layout is unlikely to strike fear into any golfer, and Margate Country Club fits the profile of a very good holiday golf course where you are unlikely to record any damaging scores – yet the layout will not be easily out-muscled. Locals are quick to point out that the course plays a lot longer in summer, when softer fairways produce less roll, but even so this remains a wonderful example of a course fitting its membership rather than trying to outwit it.

Golf along the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal has long been regarded as being of exceptional value, and Margate is a fine example of how clubs can and should be able to operate without charging golfers exorbitant prices – whether it be greenfees, at the halfway house or at the bar.

Despite these relatively inexpensive prices, the course loses nothing when it comes to conditioning and even in mid-winter – if you can call the weather in this part of the world wintery – the greens are firm yet responsive and true.

In a town where folk are mostly retired or on holiday, it makes sense that the country club bar is either entertaining or cheap – and in this case it is both. Shared with the bowls club, the bar area is spacious, tastefully decorated and, with beers going for under R10, a rather popular place to relax after a round of golf.

Picture 1

The approach shot on the par-four 10th hole can prove to be very tricky, as water and bunkers protect a sloping green with a narrrow entrance.

Picture 2

Rated as the hardest hole on the course, the 400-metre 6th requires two well-struck shots to find the raised green, which is protected by bunkers on either side.

Picture 3

Margate’s par-three 16th was one of Peter Matkovich’s additions when he gave the course a facelift in the early 1990s.

Picture 4: The clubhouse

The clubhouse at Margate Country Club is unimposing and friendly – much like the course itself.

Likes...

• The clever use of water hazards on the course. They improve the visual appeal of the layout and attract birdlife.
• The five par threes on the course form an excellent set of short holes.
• The bar and halfway-house prices.

... and dislikes

• It’s unfortunate that the course is not actually found on the coast and, as such, the views are less impressive.
• Almost all fairways are flat – some mounding would give the course more of a coastal feel.

Fact File

Getting there: Take the N2 South Coast highway (toll road) from Durban and travel for approximately 120km. At the Uvongo/Margate exit turn right and drive 500 metres to the club.

Course: Parkland, kikuyu fairways, country club greens, 6 063 metres, par 71

Designers: Laurie Mandy (1956), Peter Matkovich (1990)

General Manager: Tabitha Hapelt

Course Superintendent: Pedrie van der Westhuizen

Club chairman: Maureen Ogilvie

Pga professional: Jan Nel

Greenfees: Non-affiliated R255, affiliated R195

Contact: Tel: 039 312 0571
              E-mail: countryclub@margate.co.za
              Website: www.margategolf.co.za