The Gary Player Country Club
The Original
When construction of the Sun City Resort began in 1978, the decision was taken to build a golf course that would rival the best in the world. South Africa’s most successful professional Gary Player, was an obvious choice to route the course in what is the crater of an extinct volcano. The result, which conformed to the stringent USPGA specifications, surpassed all expectations. Today, in spite of stiff competition, the Gary Player Country Club is deservedly ranked as the number one South African golf course, and the Sun City Resort has become an international landmark in the hospitality and leisure industry.

Player drew on his vast experience of playing championship courses around the world to produce a test of both power and finesse. The likes of Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods have since discovered that the course carefully examines every aspect of one’s game. Both the inward and outward loops are perfectly balanced, with every club in the bag being tested along the way.

From the championship tees the course measures a mammoth 8000 yards – but either the intermediate or the forward tees can be used without the integrity of the design being impaired. Another strength of this layout is that it favours no particular shape of shot.

The fairways, clad in manicured kikuyu grass make for the perfect surface from which to hit approach shots to the bent grass greens. Imaginative bunkering protects the sand-based putting surface, all large and undulating. The magnificent views of the resort’s four hotels and lake, as well as the surrounding mountains that form part of Pilanesberg National Park, is enough to stir the blood.

The Gary Player Country Club has a fully equipped health club and spa of an international standard offering a full range of beauty treatments and therapies.

Sun City is many holidays in one place. Game viewing safaris, hot air ballooning, riding the giant swells in the Valley of Waves and water sports are all part of the experience. Sun City is also home to the Nedbank Golf Challenge, which has become known as Africa’s major. Accommodation is offered in four hotels, The Cascades, The Sun City Hotel, The Cabanas and crowned by the magnificent Palace of the Lost City, a Leading Hotel of the World.

The Lost City Country Club
The Contender
Some ten years after the completion of the Gary Player Country Club, the popularity of the Sun City Resort and its many attractions demanded that another golf course be built. Again Gary Player was commissioned to lay out the course, his challenge being to create a very different golfing experience.

A mere two-minute ride by shuttle bus from the Gary Player Country Club is the imposing Palace of the Lost City. In its shadow lies the legendary golf course.

As with its older twin, the Lost City’s course required extensive earthmoving, yet amazingly, the finished product appears to have existed as long as the mythical Lost City. The course defies being bracketed into any particular genre – having touches of mountain, desert and even a brand of African parkland in its makeup.

It is interesting to note that the architect of Lost City’s course argues against the views of the independent judges of South Africa’s golfing facilities, claiming that this layout is in fact better than the Gary Player Country Club. Maybe the fact that this was the first golf course in Africa to benefit from the work of a professional shaper has something to do with his position.

The fairways were originally planted with the Bay view strain of Bermuda, but later replanted with the hardier kikuyu, making the fairways easier to hit.

Changes in elevation is just one of this course’s features, another is its series of lakes, which separates the ninth and finishing hole. The par-three 13th, features a green constructed in the shape of the African continent, which is bordered by a pond, home to several large Nile crocodiles.

Like the Gary Player Country Club, the golfer can chose whether to tackle the course from its championship tees (suggested only for the longer hitting, single-figure handicappers), the standard markers, or forward tees. Even playing the shortest route presents a fascinating test, as the approaches to the greens (clad in bent grass), protected by the trademark Player bunkers, demand careful judgment. If, as many golf course critics maintain, a great layout should test every one of the 14 clubs, the Lost City passes the acid test with flying colours.