Double the fun in the sun!

The first time I laid eyes on the Gary Player Country Club, it was but an infant – or perhaps more accurately, a bush baby. Our annual family holiday to the Kruger Park suddenly had an opening act in the wonderfully named Independent Homeland of Bophuthatswana, one of the apartheid government’s odd experiments with dubious intent.

Early days

I remember reading somewhere that there were issues with drawing up the official borders because some of the local farmers weren’t overly excited about their lands ending up in another country, so one of the more surreal memories from those days was that, when you drove from Johannesburg through to the Pilanesberg, you exited SA and entered ‘Bop’, then exited Bop and re-entered SA about 10 times.

And each time you would have great big signs on the side of the road telling you exactly that! Although unrecognised by the rest of the world, having a ‘country’ within the country circumnavigated a couple of useful legal constraints.

In Bop, you could gamble – and then blow your winnings on topless revues and classy strip shows! For a man like Sol Kerzner and his Sun International group, the opportunity was simply too good to ignore and so it was that he embarked on the most ambitious project ever undertaken in the SA resort business.

Sun City

Sun City officially opened on 7 December 1979 and as Joburg and Pretoria’s well heeled quickly realised, having a place like that just 180 kilometres west was an enticing option. Within no time, the resort lived up to its moniker ‘Sin City’ and as the years progressed, thanks to facilities second to none and an ever-expanding smorgasbord of entertainment options, the world’s top musicians and live acts graced the stage of the famous Superbowl. Sun City has played host to everything from heavyweight world-title bouts and the Miss World pageant to the Loeries and the SA Music Awards.

If, like me, you remember the early days, you are surely equally astounded each time you pass through the gates to see how the place has grown. I clearly remember standing on the balcony of our cabana, looking down at the extraordinary man-made lake where people were jet- and water-skiing and watching a huge crane lifting up 10-metre-high palm trees that were being ‘planted’ on the banks.

By the time we woke up the next morning, there was a tropical avenue in place – and that same feeling of regular, almost instant change has never really disappeared.

From the original layout with just the main hotel (and its inner den of iniquity known as Raffles where showgirls would go to drink and dance after their shifts!) and the Cabanas, Sun City has become a true mega-complex with the addition of the Cascades Hotel and the Entertainment Centre in the mid ‘80s, the awesome Palace of The Lost City that appeared in the early ‘90s and the latest accommodation options, the Vacation Club where timeshare owners pack out the self-catering units almost year round.

And in case you never noticed, one of Sun City’s greatest charms is its proximity to the Pilanesberg National Park, which was also born in 1979 following “the largest game resettlement project in the history of South Africa” that resulted in a 50 000-hectare environment inhabited by the Big Five that offers a truly accessible glimpse into the African wild.
As the hotels have grown, so has the list of attractions and ‘things to do’, from wandering around the artificial rain forest outside the Cascades and soaking up the sun at the Valley of the Waves with its wave-pool, to the aviaries, tennis and squash courts, spa, casinos, restaurants – the list goes on and on. All in all, between the four hotels, there are in the region of 1 300 rooms available, and the fact that the place is pretty much booked out in high season says it all.

Back in the mid ‘80s, when Simple Minds infamously declared they “ain’t gonna play Sun City”, I remember feeling rather sorry for them, because if there was one place in the world made for playing, it was Sun City – and at the centre of it, a golf course that would effectively launch South African golf into the ‘modern’ era.

It was the first ‘USGA spec’ course built in this country and with Gary Player at the drawing board and a piece of African veld that offered just enough undulation and elevation, it should come as no surprise that what you see today is almost identical to the original golf course.

Back in 1980, Gary himself was in office at the club that bears his name and his resident PGA golf professional was none other than our senior golf writer, John Botha. “You know,” says John, “everyone thinks that the course has been constantly upgraded and redesigned, but in reality, all that was done, certainly up to the turn of the millennium, was to tweak the existing layout.

Gary Player Country Club

From the beginning, there were four tees on every hole – three ‘normal’ ones and the ridiculous gold markers hidden way back in the bushes. From the day we opened, almost 30 years ago, the course measured 7 033 metres from the tips.

I had a standing bet with any young hotshots who came through that if they broke 80 from the gold markers, I’d pay. In three-and-a-half years, I never had to put my hand in my pocket. And if you look at the course today at full length, it’s 7 162 metres.

Basically 5, 17 and 18 are the only holes that have had major length added – people think 11 is much longer now, but that back tee was always there, just never used!”
If anything really has changed at the GPCC over the years, it has to do with water.

For those first few years, indeed much of the ‘80s, it could be argued that the course was an entirely different challenge to the luscious monster you tackle these days. Back then, the fairways were strips of green bordered by hard, stony rough – and a slight misjudgement could see your ball careering off into impenetrable bush.

In fact, I well remember over-cooking my approach to the 10th hole once and it ended up just past the ladies tee, about 60 metres down the hard slopes of the tee complex at 11! Botha had a great explanation: “Everything changed in the mid ‘80s when they built the Cascades,“ he explains. “It was all about water, you see – on a hot summer day, you need anywhere around three million litres a day to keep the place alive and they just didn’t have enough water.

It was being pumped from dams 14 kilometres away – or in desperation, they’d pump water out of the big recreational lake that everyone knows so well, but then it would get too low for people to water-ski! And then, when they built the Cascades hotel, a whole new era opened up thanks to readily available grey water. They spent a fortune on water purification and the results showed.”

The result is very much what you see today – beautifully maintained, fairly wide fairways that are bordered with large areas of kikuyu. That’s all due to a decade of decent watering. It’s completely changed the character of the course – and the ability of whoever is in charge to set up the course in a multitude of ways. As soon as the new, wrist-snapping rough was on offer, there was potential to set up the course in brutal fashion with narrow landing areas and insanely thick kikuyu everywhere else – anyone who’s been lucky enough to play in the Sports Trust day immediately after the Nedbank Golf Challenge tournament will tell you that’s the truth!

Speaking of the Nedbank, aka the Million Dollar, 2009 should go down in history as the first year when the tournament officials really discovered the true potential of Gary’s CC – and all it took was graduated rough.

An argument could be made that for its first few years (back when Seve and co played), if a player missed the fairway, he’d be lucky to find his ball as it bounded into the bundu. And then when the grass grew up, if he missed the fairway, he’d be plugged in six inches of kikuyu.

But 2009’s set-up with a second cut meant that for the first time, probably ever, the GPCC played the way it should, penalising players marginally for marginal errors and heavily if they erred any further. Kudos, gents – let’s hope that’s the way of the future!

Of course, if there are major changes, they’ve been very noticeable – like the completely redesigned 17th hole that truly is a monster when played from the very back tees on the ‘other’ side of the water.

But for the rest of it, Gary’s masterpiece in the bushveld remains the same extreme and wonderful challenge it has always been – and a worthy holder of the ‘top course in SA’ title. For me, one of the most amazing things about the GPCC is its sheer magnitude – and a routing that almost pays homage to the great links courses: with the exception of the four opening and closing holes, once you’re out there, the course feels very much as if it belongs to you.

With dense bush rather than dunes separating each of the holes, there’s a real feeling of solitude – particularly out at the turn of the back nine when you get to the 13th (and one of the most devilish greens on the planet), turn back and realise you’re a long way from home, wandering in the distant hills. I got caught out there in a thunderstorm about five years ago and it remains one of the most dramatic natural experiences of my life. Not that I’d recommend you try it on purpose!

Ironically, if you ask Gary Player, he’ll probably tell you that there’s an even better course at Sun City. When he sat down to design the course that would bear his name, there’s no doubt that Gary found inspiration from what could be termed an ‘American design philosophy’.

Wide fairways, relatively small, undulating, clover-shaped greens that allow pins to be tucked away, perfectly placed traps to define the targets – and enough length to keep the better player on his toes. But when the opportunity arose to design a second 18, Gary used it to construct an entirely different layout.

Lost City Country Club

The Lost City CC, born in 1993, is distinctly ‘African’ in flavour compared to its more famous sibling. It’s also often referred to as ‘the more playable of the two’ for the average golfer, but then again, if you can keep the ball straight, there’s hardly a course in the world that isn’t playable!

The African character is first and foremost a product of basic design. Unlike the oversized ‘American’ influence of the GPCC, The Lost City would comfortably sit almost anywhere in SA.

It benefited from one very notable ‘first’ in that it was the very first course built in this country where international shapers were involved – guys sitting on huge earth-moving machines, shifting sand, rock and stone to create a physical manifestation of the designer’s dream.

Next time you sit on the verandah of the clubhouse and gaze out over the 100-hectare course with four rugby fields’ worth of water features, that’s what you’re seeing – and feeling. Secondly, there are the obvious finishing touches to the general aesthetics that enhance the effect: waste bunkers, hundreds of aloes and indigenous plants, elevated tees that frame every hole like postcards from Africa.

And all that before we even start thinking of the most famous African image on the course, the remarkable short 13th with a green shaped like the Dark Continent and a crocodile-filled pit fronting the green.

There’s no doubt that The Lost City has a far more ‘resort-course’ feel about it – including the fact that, unlike the ‘walk it to experience it’ GPCC, it was designed as a ‘cart-compulsory’ course (well, you could walk it, but only once!). And that resort feeling extends through to the clubhouse – and its Zimbabwe Ruins-style theme.

I touched on it earlier, but of course, when you think of Sun City, the one thing that comes to mind immediately is the Nedbank – and rightly so since it has, for 29 years, been the greatest international golf event on our calendar. I

t has brought almost every great golfer in the past three decades onto our soil – and into our homes; it almost single-handedly highlighted SA as a golfing destination; it was the only thing other than The President’s Cup able to lure Tiger Woods out of hiding.

And whatever it becomes in the future, it is an event with a legacy that will never die. In light of that, it’s easy to forget that the GPCC in particular has regularly hosted professional tournaments on the Sunshine Tour, top amateur events and, as you’ve no doubt experienced if you’ve tried to book a tee time in the past decade, both courses at Sun City host a truly remarkable number of corporate events year on year.

One of those, the Final Round, is an invite-only launch day for the Nedbank Golf Challenge held just before they close the course in preparation for the tournament and whenever we at Compleat Golfer have compiled a list of ‘do before you die’ golf days, the Final Round ranks right up at the top.

The old saying that ‘there’s never a bad day on the golf course’, is doubly true for what’s on offer at Sun City. Truth be told, every golfer has a list of courses that give you a little tingle up the spine, a sense of excitement and anticipation that’s almost childlike.

It’s easy to find examples like, say, the 1st tee at St Andrews, but here at home, that ‘x’ factor comes from a slightly different place. I get it as I drive through the gates at Fancourt and Arabella; I get it when I walk onto the 1st tee at Humewood, at Durban CC, at Royal Johannesburg East; and I get it walking over that little bridge that leads from the clubhouse to the 1st tee at the Gary Player Country Club.

If you haven’t been for a while, or you’ve not yet played both courses, that alone should be reason enough to book a Sun City trip. Go find that shiver up your spine – you’ll never regret it.

Picture 1

The par-four 2nd with its waste bunkers and indigenous flora is typical of the desert/bushveld design on the opening nine at The Lost City CC.

Picture 2

The 480-metre 4th hole at The Lost City is a classic par five that doglegs sharply right to left and requires a well-placed drive to set up the hole. It’s not all about length on this course.

Picture 3

The par-four 17th at the GPCC is the most radical change to the golf course in 30 years. With the green now converted into a semi-island target and expanded tee options including the one on the ‘other side’ of the water, it’s a seriously daunting hole – particularly since the protective bunker on the right and the slope of the green seem to ‘push’ you towards the water.

Picture 4: GPCC Clubhouse

The GPCC clubhouse is where it all begins and ends and there’s nothing quite like sitting on that patio knocking back a cold one and reflecing on another day out at the No 1 golf course in the country.

Fact File

Getting there: From the new N4 highway between Pretoria and Brits, take the slipway signposted on the left side indicating Pilanesberg to the left (route 91). At the T-junction turn right and follow the signs on this road to Sun City.

Course: Gary Player CC (bushveld style, par 72, 7 162m) and The Lost City CC (desert style/bushveld, par 72, 6 983m) Kikuyu fairways, tees and semi rough and bent grass greens

Designer: Gary Player

Golf director: Antonie Els

Greenfees: Gary Player CC (non-cart course, medical certificates only) R840 (visitors), R720 (residents) The Lost City CC (cart hire compulsory, included in greenfee): R720 (visitors), R600 (residents)

Contact: Golf reservations: +27 14 557 3700/1245 www.suninternational.com