Durban Country Club

Since the time it was first shaped from the bush and dunes of the KwaZulu-Natal coast during the early 1920's, the Durban Country Club course achieved and maintained an excellence that keeps it at the forefront of South Africa's 250 odd courses.

The Country Club is not long at 6,075 metres, and to be seen at its best, must be experienced in all its moods - especially in the wind which blows often and puts a green out of reach of two shots when it could have been hit with a 7 iron only a matter of hours before. Suddenly all the bunkers then begin to make sense. The course has been updated on occasions - by Bob Grimsdell in 1959, and before him by the English architect, Colonel S.V Hotchkin, whose suggestions were adopted in 1928. Several tees have been resited and some holes have been renumbered but basically the Durban Country Club has remained unchanged since 1922.

From the outset there was very little interference with the natural terrain but rather an accentuating of some of the site's original features. Grimsdell said, "The player is not shown everything at a glance, but is given the thrill of anticipation and uncertainty."

There are two distinct features - the holes on the dunes where either tee or green is elevated and surrounded by the natural bush, and those on the flatland where trees still help shape the fairways but where the chance of a hanging lie are minimal - typically at the 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 14th and 15th. They are no easier, but are not likely to cause so much apprehension.

The courses difficulties commence at the very first hole, where the golfer who flinches from the out-of-bounds on his right hand risks a hanging lie on the hump to his left. From it he can be out of sight of the green, set into a huge tree covered dune. From the plateau green at the 1st there is a climb to the tee on the 2nd where the shot is played from on ridge to another over a deep grassed hollow.

The 3rd is everybody's favourite hole, played from an elevated tee at the highest point of the course into a valley. The ground rises again through a series of mounds, reaching like fingers on to the valley floor, to a green in the shadow of a tree covered dune. Two shots are possible, but getting home with the second depends on the perfect placement of the first - and an ability to shut out the hazards lurking in the bush on both sides.

At the short 4th the golfer is coming off the dunes on to flatland, with the green, surrounded by slopes and mounds, looking deceptively small from the elevated tee. The 5th is a tough tee shot as the flat parkland area as one approaches the distant green is deceptive. The 6th and 7th take the corner on the flat, allowing the golfer to breathe a sigh of relief, provided he is placing his shots well from the tee.

The 8th journeys back alongside the 3rd, playing in the opposite direction and with the high ground now causing more than a little concern: a three wood might not get the distance nor the height to hold the conical green, which is only partly visible. On the same level, the 9th tee looks down at a broad expanse of fairway - the green is somewhere to the right, out of sight. But for a time the pressure lifts.

The 10th and 11th are again on the flat and length is the greatest prerequisite. There is a climb to the short 12th and the biggest concern again is to hold the green, as it is a long way back up the dune in the event of failure. Here Edward, Prince of Wales cut a ball down the bank and legend has it that he took 16 shots before he finally holed out.

Still on the parkland, the 13th tee is elevated - a pitch with a wedge for most players. A big second at the 14th and 15th demands another short iron. Now the player is back in the dunes, close to the sea. The 16th is a dog-leg to the right where danger lurks on the right of the fairway along which runs a road bordered by dense bush. The 17th is a spectacular hole requiring a carefully placed drive to the rim of the valley on the right, for otherwise there is no sight of the green from the bottom of the deep basin in the fairway.

One can drive the 252 metre 18th in favourable weather. Whatever the conditions, the severe temptation to hit beyond one's capacity is always there and this makes it a fine finishing hole, demanding accuracy. The way into the green is left, but a big pull finishes below the level of the fairway; a quick hook is dead in dense bush and a slice is invariably headed down a steep bank to the practice area below. Our 18th is among the shortest finishing holes anywhere in championship golf but this in no way makes it easy to play.

"A little longer and the hole would be mediocre - just another drive and pitch," said Grimsdell. "But at this awkward and tempting distance it is just the finish needed for a course which rewards good golf but ruthlessly exposes all our weaknesses."