Golf around Durban: Cotswold Downs and Royal Durban GC

Sometimes it rains, its grey and its miserable, but that didn’t dampen our spirits as we pulled into a empty car park at Royal Durban golf club early one morning.

We’d arranged to play early, but with no one there we were struggling to get going, then all of a sudden, the club woke up, the sparse pro shop opened, with a slight bustle of activity and we were ready to go.

We were pretty keen to get going as black clouds were looming, and golf, camera equipment and us don’t really mix with rain - I think we’ve been Africa spoilt!

Golf cart loaded and we’re off, and the first thing you notice are the amount of trees on the golf course, not unusual for a golf course, we know but as Royal Durban is in the middle of the racetrack, it was a little surprising.  That said they were not huge overpowering trees, but subtle fairly understated ones which helped shape the course.  Rain the night before meant the course was a bit wet underfoot and sloshy as the golf cart splashed through puddles.  As the course dissects roads and the golf courses takes its own route, its an interesting course to play in more than one way.  Planted trees and the traffic noise are in conflict with each other as the your sight senses tells you one thing and the hearing senses tell you another, but it works.  Dotted around the course are small ponds, some with reeds growing along the edge.  Ending on the pretty 9th/18th hole were back into he clubhouse and to a welcome breakfast following our early start and welcome because we were hungry
and the food certainly did slake our hunger pangs.

Stephen won this game in our Africa 100 challenge.

After a good feed we set off for the next course, Cotswold Downs.  We’d decided to play two rounds of golf in one day, but as we only played 9 holes at Royal Durban, which was nice and flat, we had lessened our mad challenge to crush two courses in one day - one and half is fine!

A sweeping driveway takes you down to Cotswold Downs Golf estate.  A smile upon our faces as we approached with thoughts of our own Cotswold courses springing to mind.  Even the houses that were on the estate looked very similar to the town houses of Cheltenham.  A warm but misty afternoon, and hole one greeted us with a wow moment.  

The land sloped left to right and a turn left at the bottom towards the green, but not before crossing a ravine to land on this huge ‘come and get me’ green.  So many similarities to our English course, we were right at home, even the mist that was shrouding us in a familiarity known only to those who play golf in cooler climes.

As the rain had been heavy, it was a cart path only game, and of course,  like most amateur golfers, nine times out of ten, our golf ball was no where near the path!  This didn’t deter us as much as the grey clouds rolling in, and a desire to quickly play the golf to get all 18 holes in and capitalise on this hugely undulating elevation changing delightful course.  Arriving at hole 5, we were blown away by the drop down to the
green, which was cleverly covered with elongated irregular shaped splodge bunkers left and right.  Different staging points denoted the tee you’d play from with even the forward tees bearing down on this wonderful challenge.  But the green looked big and how can any ball miss that?  There are only two bunkers, one either side - oh and a drop of water in front, by way of a mini lake…hum!  Stephen landed neatly on the green and me, I went out the back, probably water shy, but we both rescued a par in the end.

With the bunkers being quite deep in places, we were happy we’d missed those ‘velcro' ones, especially as the rain was taking hold now and the sand was becoming wet and heavy, although some were made GUR from the heavy rain on the previous day.

The balls were starting to plug, the walk the width of the fairway was becoming less enjoyable and we were getting very wet.  I must add at this stage, it wasn’t due to golf course maintenance that was the problem, it was us, just cold and wet and probably unprepared for the weather thrown at us.  The course maintenance was top notch, even in the variable conditions of late.

Sadly we had to stop after 9 holes and watching the hills rise up towards the grey clouds and away from us at hole 10, I think we made the right decision.  As we count play all 18 holes we decided on a half, overall Africa 100 score - Stephen 12.5 Sarah 11.5

After a day of playing two separate course, but only 9 on each, a day of getting wet and cold and a day when it was getting to us, we decided to take a half and reluctantly move on.

Closing the Cotswold Downs chapter wasn’t easy, as the course resonated with us so much, but one day we will go back and finish this wonderfully hill rolling course, with its large greens and deep bunkers that look picture perfect in every way.

Next we head further south on the east coast of South Africa, and hopefully hit some sunshine along the way…    but we’ll be back!