Worcester Golf Club Verified listing

Worcester’s championship layout, 112 kilometres from Cape Town in the Boland Golf Union region, is set against an attractive backdrop of the Brandwacht mountains. In winter, a fine time to play here, these often have snow on their peaks.

It is the third oldest club in the Western Cape, founded in 1895. The course, opened in 1988, adjoins the N1 highway and is easy to access. The layout is an early Peter Matkovich design when he was working for Gary Player Design.

Matkovich was into risk-reward short par-4s and par-5s, and being creative with the shaping of greens. He liked to be different in his thinking, so the final three holes on each nine are only par 3s and par 5s, three of each. He introduced one of the first par 3s (No 7) where golfers had to carry a large body of water to a green sitting on the edge of the dam, and a double green shared by No 9 and 18. Unusually for Matkovich though there are no water hazards next to this double green, originally shaped in the form of the African continent.

The course is in a quiet rural setting, with plenty of open space, which makes the surrounding land popular with mountain bikers. Worcester’s layout could be described as “Karoo parkland.” The fringes of the course border the dry bushy scrubland that is indigenous to an area with limited rainfall. The green fairways provide a stark contrast to the rest of the landscape.

Being in a windy area, there are plenty of challenges here, particularly on or around the attractively contoured greens which are a feature. The early holes, all par 4s, venture into scenic low hills, but once you play the steeply downhill fourth the terrain becomes easier to walk. Water hazards (not all visible from the tee, a weakness of the course) come into play from the fifth to the eighth.

The par-3 seventh is a hole which gets attention, the tee shot having to carry a wide expanse of water to the green, varying from 158 to 102 from the three tees. The teeing areas for this hole are unusually stretched in a line along the bank and pathway of the dam.