Erinvale Golf Club

There are some good courses on the Western Cape of South Africa, but no great ones—not even venerable institutions like Mowbray or Royal Cape quite measure up in terms of layout and scenery. So when the South African Open comes to the Cape, it settles for Erinvale in Somerset West, a small city an hour or so outside Cape Town. The wide open parkland setting features a high bluff, and most players will want to use a cart to tackle its sharp slopes. At 6500 meters, the layout has plenty of length to handle tournament play, though it accommodates players who live in the residential development and visit the resort with generous fairways and straightforward bunkers. The scenery suffers from the squat cement houses through which a number of the holes play. Erinvale may not be the most memorable experience, but it at least offers a good challenge.