I had the very rare opportunity to play the number one golf course in South Africa, The Links at Fancourt recently. The Links recently replaced Leopard Creek as the number one rated golf course in South Africa and I was lucky enough to play the two golf courses six days apart, allowing me the rare opportunity to compare them, as well as the number six rated golf course, Blair Atholl.

The Links is a pure quality golf course where no expense has been spared and which has beautiful views of the mountains overlooking George. The course does not have that many rounds, with membership costing $100 000,00, and you need to be invited by a member, or have some other special occasion in order to play The Links, so the course is in an extremely good condition with very little wear and tear. Every hole is a challenge and on the day I played, a strong wind, which is apparently unusual for The Links, did not make things any easier. If you miss the fairway, you will not find your ball and so it requires extreme concentration when driving and hitting it fairly straight. Working out the wind, the distances at low altitude and where to try and land on various greens made it quite a challenge and there is no doubt that this golf course will get the better of players.

The greens are in superb condition and the attention to detail between the holes and on the holes are incredible to the extent that the small tees are hand-mown, as opposed to the normal use of machines. A fabulous experience and one that I certainly hope to have again. A special thanks to the Golf GM, Lloyd Martindale, for his incredible hospitality.