{"id":116436,"date":"2016-03-13T10:41:03","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T08:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=116436"},"modified":"2016-03-13T10:47:39","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T08:47:39","slug":"the-best-golf-courses-in-south-africa-vs-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/116436\/the-best-golf-courses-in-south-africa-vs-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The best golf courses in South Africa vs the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Golf Digest<\/a> has published its prestigious list of the World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, which features three courses located in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The publication noted that that the dominant theme of its new ranking is proximity to the sea – with 46 of the top 100 seaside venues, including the new No. 1, Royal County Down in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Top 10 best golf courses in the world<\/h3>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
2016#<\/th>\n2015#<\/th>\nCourse<\/th>\nLocation<\/th>\nCountry<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\n4<\/td>\nRoyal County Down G.C<\/td>\nNewcastle, County Down<\/td>\nNorthern Ireland<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\n3<\/td>\nAugusta National (Ga.) G.C<\/td>\nAugusta, Ga.<\/td>\nUnited States<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nPine Valley (N.J.) G.C<\/td>\nPine Valley, N.J.<\/td>\nUnited States<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\n2<\/td>\nCypress Point Club<\/td>\nPebble Beach, Calif.<\/td>\nUnited States<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\n6<\/td>\nRoyal Dornoch G.C. (Championship)<\/td>\nDornoch, Sutherland<\/td>\nScotland<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\n9<\/td>\nRoyal Melbourne G.C. (West)<\/td>\nMelbourne, Victoria<\/td>\nAustralia<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\n5<\/td>\nShinnecock Hills G.C.<\/td>\nSouthampton, N.Y.<\/td>\nUnited States<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\n7<\/td>\nThe Old Course at St. Andrews Links<\/td>\nSt. Andrews, Fife<\/td>\nScotland<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\n8<\/td>\nMuirfield<\/td>\nGullane, East Lothian<\/td>\nScotland<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\n14<\/td>\nMerion G.C. (East)<\/td>\nArdmore, Pa.<\/td>\nUnited States<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The top three courses in South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n

43rd –\u00a0The Links at Fancourt – George, Western Cape<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gary Player and then-associate Phil Jacobs built Fancourt from a dead flat airfield, with more than 760,000 cubic yards of earth churned and piled to create the first faux links in South Africa.<\/p>\n

“They used cool-season grasses to promote bounce-and-roll on their topsy-turvy fairways. Greens\u2014mostly long and thin or wide and shallow\u2014are guarded by revetted pot bunkers,” noted the Golf Digest.<\/p>\n

Fancourt hosted the 2003 Presidents Cup as well as the 2005 South African Open and 2012 Volvo Golf Champions on the European Tour.<\/p>\n

\"Fancourt\"<\/a>

Fancourt Estate<\/p><\/div>\n

88th – Leopard Creek C.C. – Malelane, Mpumalanga<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Intended to merge with its Bushvelt environs, with Kruger National Park and the Crocodile River on the north and west, the Gary Player-designed Leopard Creek is really more akin to a polished, immaculate American layout,” Golf Digest said.<\/p>\n

“But no course in America has views of giraffes, hippos and crocs in the wild,” it added.<\/p>\n

\"LeapardCreek\"<\/a><\/p>\n

99th –\u00a0Gary Player C.C – Sun City, North West Province<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It’s thoroughly American in its design, with huge flowery bunkers and massive greens,” the magazine said of the most recognisable course in the country thanks to the annual Nedbank ‘Million Dollar’ event at Sun City.<\/p>\n

Gary Player and South African designer Phil Jacobs revised the course in 2010 by removing massive sand pits around certain greens and creating an island green on the par-4 ninth.<\/p>\n

\"Golf\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More on golf in SA<\/h3>\n

5 of the most expensive golf estates in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is how much the \u2018million dollar\u2019 winner gets \u2013 thanks to the exchange rate<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Where South Africa\u2019s super-rich buy their second homes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Golf Digest has published its prestigious list of the World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, which features three courses located in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":104819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[11230,26],"class_list":["post-116436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-golf","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116436"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116550,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116436\/revisions\/116550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}