Parkview Golf Club

Parkview Golf Club, founded in 1916, is one of Johannesburg’s oldest golf clubs. Its 18-hole parkland course was designed by architect Laurie Waters and follows a valley in the suburb of Parkview, with big old trees, views of Westcliff and the Emmarentia ridge, and a stream that the members simply call the sluit.

That waterway, part of the Braamfontein Spruit, runs the length of the course and is the defining hazard: it keeps the fairways green through the dry Highveld winter but threatens a wayward shot on almost every hole. Add narrow, tree-lined fairways and you will often find that an iron off the tee is the smarter play. The layout has an unusual shape too: eight holes out to the halfway house, then ten holes home, and it includes three par 3s and three par 5s.

The greens are the course’s real talking point. Some were shaped by hand, they can run anywhere from a gentle 9.5 on the stimpmeter to 13 or more for the club championship, and the club admits golfers either love them or hate them. Reading feel rather than line is the local secret.

Off the course there is a clubhouse bar and a terrace overlooking the course, a venue for up to 150 guests, a halfway house, and a pro shop. Golf pro Dean Nysschen, a former Sunshine Tour player, runs the academy with video and TrackMan analysis, plus junior coaching.

Parkview has more than a century of golf behind it. Over the years it has hosted national championships including the South African Open and the South African PGA Championship, and major champions Bobby Locke and Gary Player have both been associated with the club, which still runs a Bobby Locke Festival.