I was privileged to play at Leopard Creek recently, courtesy of a friend who has a property there, and it was quite treat to finally see and play the golf course rated as number 2 in the country at the moment, but rated as number 1 for about the past three years until The Links replaced it at number 1 this year.

My home course is number 6 in the country, so I do have a fairly good idea of the components of a top class golf course, and apart from the fact that it is almost a 5 hours drive away, Leopard Creek really is an exceptional course and a very privileged way of living, with the 80 or so homeowners who have built stands there, overlooking the Crocodile River and the Kruger Park. The views from the clubhouse, or the recreation centre, don’t disappoint – and if you sit and watch for only a short period of time, you will see buck, elephants, hippos and giraffe and even if you are watching the golf course, you might well come across a few giraffe strolling across the fairway, as we did. The golf course is very intimidating – I think largely mentally – because there are quite a few short holes which I would ordinarily expect to take advantage of, but I did not.

I had been told beforehand that the fairways were exceptionally narrow, but if anything, I found the greens, with huge slopes and fast speeds, far more difficult than most. The finishing 7 or 8 holes are beautiful, as you would expect when you have Kruger Park on the horizon and are able to provide at the 12th and 13th holes, for example, wonderful views of the bushveld. There is also a huge man-made lake which has a particularly picturesque par 5 hole, namely the 15th, as well as a very intimidating par 3, which is playing at close to 180 metres when I first played it, almost all of it over water.