Discovering Golf in Zambia

As part of our Africa 100 challenge, we played 12 golf course in Zambia, as we travelled from Livingstone, to Lusaka, to the Copperbelt to Chipata.

This is about our golf discoveries as we explore Zambia in Andi the Landy.

Crossing from the Caprivi Strip, Namibia, and were in a whole new African country - brand new to us and a country we knew little about.  Arriving into Livingstone we could see the mighty Zambezi river - from he other side.

Arriving at Livingstone Royal Golf and Country Club we were mobbed by a plethora of caddies, each wanting to caddy for us.  Crowded but feeling slightly bemused by the attention we had gained, we left the club and contacted the managers to arrange a game, which we duly did as our golf course number 46.

Two decent caddies and we were taken around a course that was 18 holes, but with the lack of funds they are only showing and playing 9 holes.  When I say two decent caddies, we were actual assigned three.  A caddy each, plus a spare??  The third caddy was the flag caddy, his job was to watch the incoming ball and be ahead of our group to put the flag in the hole as we played up towards the green.  Once on the green and we were putting, whether we want the flag in or not, it was whipped out as he hot trot it to the next hole to be our flag caddy all over again.  Whilst we have had three caddies before, we’ve never had one assigned to the flag!  This was anew golfing experience to us.  In truth the course could have been in much better condition, so it really didn’t matter too much about the flag, besides the greens weren’t that good, so we allocated a maximum of two putts per green, then moved on, chasing the flag caddy!  Besides, along with our caddies, we were having a nice time walking on this relatively flat piece of ground.

The club house harks back to the British colonial, still imposing and resplendent on the outside, lacking some care when inside, but it was clean and it was functional, and we were
told the members had undergone a ‘sprucing up time to make it as good as it was, but also admitted, there was some way to go yet. The winners boards tell the story of this clubs history and it was great to re-live the stories of yesteryear.

We stayed at the Waterfront Hotel, first for camping, then in one of their rooms, which we’ll show you in the next article but mark my words, its a perfect location right next to the Zambezi River when staying in Livingstone.

Making our way to Lusaka, we arrive at Choma.  Such a friendly welcoming club and the members we met were just as lovely.  Built in 1958, the relative small membership of around 60 keep abreast of the clubs activates and needs via an active club WhatsApp chat.

With watering by bore holes, the dry conditions  can get a bit away of the desire to make this a great course.  Some of the par three’s have trees in the way, which means standing on the tee, there’s a choice of under or over, which is always a fun challenge.  The greens are generally quite good though, and in the heat were kept slightly longer so they didn’t die back, which was sensible.  You do have to be careful as the locals pop up and don’t take heed of it being on a golf course as they wander around, so you as the golfer have to remain extra vigilant.  Finishing after golf, there is a lovely place to sit under a plant clad pergola, which gives the whole feel of a soft and welcome approach and a nice place to have a cold drink after 9 holes of golf.

Quite close but just a little further North, we arrive at Mazabuka golf course.  The increase in members, with Mazabuka has risen to around 80 members. 

Fairly decent tees, fairways and greens, with many small mountains of worm casts on the day we played.   But the ball rolled well on the greens, it wasn’t a major problem.  Chatting to the caddies, it was nice that the club encourage these young people and offer a caddy membership.  This builds a strong golf community from the bottom up and you really couldn’t fault the caddy involvement, with Kwl running ahead of our group to turn the sprinklers off.  Strange you might think to be watering during the day, but the water is  waste product from the local sugar factory.  This great little find was established in 1926 and a wonderful place for a stop-over on the road to Lusaka which is just 3 hours drive away.  Its a well thought our course with hole 8 being a challenge with huge trees either side and a - what seemed tiny, gap to drive through off the tee.  In the match, Steve got 2 ahead after 2 holes, but by some swift and pretty decent golf, I pulled it back and even went 1 ahead.  Culminating in a respectful half, as we birdied the final hole.  Nice pretty course in pretty decent condition. 

Next stop and its another capital city in Africa - Lusaka is the capital of Zambia, not as hectic as some we’ve been to, but still a decent size and fairly sprawling. Our first attempt at AirBNB accommodation failed miserably as the place was simply tiny - obviously we can't complain about that after living in a landrover, but it wasn’t at all comfortable either.  And as we can move on, we did!

We met with some lovely members at Lusaka Golf Club and made arrangements to play there.  Whilst we’ve been travelling towards the capital, with the courses getting gradually better, we had high hopes for Lusaka GC, and we weren’t disappointed.  Even the water being the magnets for my golf balls didn’t detract from the good golf course it is.  Dog legs and pretty good greens made a nice change in Africa.  Shapely greens and nicely managed fairways, Lusaka was a
real treat.  

Big trees dominate the course in places, whether they are mangoes, African flames trees or Fenella trees with her huge orange trumpet flowers. It is clear this old club has been designed with thought for its aging process.  Par 3’s over water and bunkers that play well, but the overriding sense of this course is one of lush green. Varying shades of green graduate from the trees down to the grass.  Just genuinely nice holes to play and a genuinely nice course in all with a bit of a tropical feel that was so welcome at this stage in our journey  Caddies dressed in blue boiler suits look the part too- and they knew their stuff, yet didn’t try to tell us how to play golf - the perfect combo.

For a golf course in the capital city of an African country - Lusaka Golf Club is very nice, very nice indeed and a great experience we are glad to share.

Overnight at Ciela Hotel - part of the Bonanza Estate, and the third world luxury is far surpassed by the expected norm of European luxury.  

Better still as we hit the half way mark for our Africa 100 Challenge and played Bonanza Golf Course as our celebration reaching our half century

And what a place to embrace this milestone?

This Louis Van Der Walt course willingly adopted by Peter Matkovich putting it together with Ciela offers a world class golfing experience.

Slightly more open than Peter’s other courses, but with trees planted, this course will only but improve with age - like a good wine, they say.

The stylish on-site hotel is almost modern Spanish in appearance and as the first couple of holes sweep around the hotel, you get a good look at your accommodation wrapped up in the golf course.

Huge greens with some really interesting undulations, in all its near perfect.  The course has been built to be the centre stage of some top world wide golf tournaments.

If I had to be super critical, some par 3’s were a bit lack lustre, but again time will improve that, as their overall appearance and playability matures.  So I really can’t make that too much of a negative!

In fact it is much more difficult to write a course review when everything is just amazing, so lets focus on the amazing.  Lovely big trees set further away from the fairways give it the open appearance, its an easy walkable course and there is clever use of the bushes and shrubbery. We loved the personal care and influence of the ladies replanting the grass - small tuft by small tuft - all done by hand - but most importantly, they didn’t look miserable and seemed quite happy to be doing this relative menial task.  The beauty being, in just a couple of weeks with the wonderful Zambia weather, we will have full fledged grassy verges whose vibrant green defy the short amount of time it took to get to this stage.

In truth, Bonanza is a great course.

Back to the large white fluffy bed to relax in Ciela - well why not - we have played 50 golf courses you know!

I’ll tell you more about Ciela and the fantastic gastronomy in the next article.

Course number 51 is Chainama Hills, a course with no golf carts, so we walked. 
Walking does give you another perspective, one that enables you to really see the course - taking your time instead of whizzing about in a golf cart, its real grass roots stuff

Of the three in and around the capital city, Chainama is probably the weakest one, but it really isn’t that bad, just shows up against Bonanza and Lusaka golf courses.

Slightly fluffy around the edges the fairways and greens were kept quite long.  This did make putting slow and took us a few holes to get used to.  But as the weather is so hot it is the greens that can suffer if they are cut to short.  Interesting observation from Steve, the there is some familiarity about Chainama, you can see the English parkland influence, which also makes it not really African looking yet it is.  A lovely green course where keeping straight is fairly key to scoring well.

Leaving Lusaka, we still have so much to discover in Zambia.  We’d heard about good golf in the Copperbelt region, so instead of following the usual touristy routes we, via the landrover garage!,  set our sights on the Copperbelt.

Our first golf course heading North was Nkana in Kitwe whose clubhouse was so
clean as the people are welcoming. 

Smaller than we were used too greens the opening hole was a nice straight hole.  A nice fluffy bunker in the way made the green appear a smaller target too.  The course isn’t pretending to  be something special, it is what it is and what it is is very very good.  Sandy in places, it makes you think you’re playing on one of the good named Surry courses in England. Small deep bunkers of varying sizes give you something to think about too and with the pine straw (pine needles) thickly laid up, you think you can be the next Phil Mickelson and hit a stinger from underneath the trees and land on the green.  Being realistic, its far more likely to go under with the club head and pop the ball up into the overhanging pine trees.  Then you could find one of those deep lost pot hole bunkers which are dotted around.  There are a few man-made water features with the 18th being home to a monster water feature.  A crescent of water wraps itself around the green in tiers.  A nicely bedded in course which showed and played well despite the rough being quite punishing.

Nchanga golf club was up next - what is it about the letter N preceding the names?

Originally supported by the mines and hopefully getting an opportunity to get that support back again.  There wasn’t really anyone around, except a bunch of guys wanting to caddy for us.  Eventually the Captain came and all was settled, we set to play golf.  Leaving the slightly run down clubhouse behind, it soon became apparent that while the equipment was there to maintain the course, there was no-one who had the skills to maximise the equipment, which was a real shame.  The on-going costs were beginning to bite, and we sincerely hope that the course doesn’t get too much out of hand before this gets sorted out?

It is one of those courses that doesn’t deserve to go wild.  With no running
water the caddy’s use an on-course stream to dampen down the towels - now we are not going to comment on how clean that stream might be - we did after all get clean golf balls!  Many nice holes and with water courses dissecting the fairway fairly frequently, it again had an English parkland feel about it.

The kikuyu grass was thick in places, it has a tendency to thicken up and can be difficult to play from as it grabs the club, but the upside is, it gives a lush green overall appearance..  The bunkers were hard grey ‘sand’ and whilst hard in appearance, they played surprisingly well.  We loved the big brown structural boulders around the course and we loved the nice friendly chatty caddies who themselves played off 9 and 11 handicaps.

The score now sitting at Steve 26 and Sarah 27, I was keen to capitalise on my usually slight lead, but could I?

Overnight in the Royal Solweizi Hotel and we’re pretty far north in Copperbelt country now. Next stop was a Peter Matkovich course, in a copper mine to play Trident in Kalumbila.

private course built for the employees who utilise the clubhouse and all its splendour to the hilt, its their place, and the relish in it.  And so they should, as its beautiful.

A central meeting point for many an employee, this is the hub of Trident golfers.  18 holes sweep and sway around the hills, never once giving sight of the mines or even an indiction the the mines are even there!  Peter must have pulled out all stops for this course, with its reflective water not so much bringing the sky down on you as reflecting the wonderful clear blue sky with the odd white cloud fringed with a menacing grey.

I was just about to chip in (well I say that) when the sprinklers take on a lease of life and with great pressure, decide to create rainbows against the sun, and get you slightly wet in the process too!  The easy to play bent grass offered enough resistance to make the golf ball act as you’d like.  Offset by the deep red African soil looking resplendent.  With greens receiving the golf ball with open arms, it wasn’t unusual to make a pitch mark, something we hadn’t been able to do much in the past!

Despite it being wet underfoot and the ball rolling a bit slower, you just can’t fault the fantastic condition Trident is in.  Bird song was quickly replaced by thunder as we approach hole 5.  A deep carnivorous ravine ready to swallow up the golf balls and despite it being stroke index 17, it's a thought provoking hole.  I laid up, then put in into the ravine, which was destined to eat my golf ball come what may! Hole 6 with its tee on high gives a wonderful view of the reflective lake, calm and mesmerising and the doubly dramatic blackening sky reflecting back.

Sadly the rain got the better of us, and we stopped after 7 holes, but returned the next morning to complete our game. and what better way to start than the par 3, 8th, with water on one side and plenty of space the other.  Arriving at hole 18 all too quickly, this par 3 over the water onto an island green - a real island green with its slight downturned edges dipping its toes into the mass of water.  It is a great finishing hole - mind you, if you’ve got a good stroke play score, you might just submit your card with 17 holes played!  With a bunker at the front, what could possibly go wrong?

With such an amazing club facility the food had something to live up to - and it did, by the bucket load.  Lovely tasty food too

We had the perfect hostess in so many ways and are grateful for the friendships we developed whilst at Trident.

Back to the N’s and our next stop heading back towards Lusaka to play Ndola, our now 55th golf course in Africa.  A nice friendly start as we got to meet the President and Lady President of the Zambia Golf Association, who seemed really pleased to have us promoting golf in Zambia.

When you meet really nice people who are figure heads for the game of golf, then you know that golf is in secure hands.  We chatted for a while, discussing the merits of golf in Zambia, then we tee’d off and were in the throat of this nicely established parkland course sitting just on the edge of a busy metropolis.  Slightly brown in places, but the overriding lush green still prevails.  James, our caddy was
as good as gold and led us perfectly around the course, that in truth we might have struggled to find our way around.  The watering systems pump had failed on
one part of the course, so the greenskeepers were managing it by throwing buckets of grey water on to the greens to keep them alive. Yet despite the varying watering levels the greens did play quite well and as some of the greens were hidden it made for some interesting approach shots.  

Fairways with not too long or short grass, just perfect, played well too, the bunkers weren’t raked the best and looked hard, but again played better than they look, although I did use the putter twice to get out of a couple of them!

With the thicker edges marking the rough didn’t make it easy as the ball could either nestle down or stand proud on the grass - guess which one I had!

We did like hole 14, a long par 5 which was shapely and had a raised green to contend with.

At this point, I felt it necessary to say to my caddy, ‘I can play to my 12 handicap - honestly’

His response - ‘not on this course!’ had me in peels of laughter - its always good to have a caddy with humour - whether he meant it not!

The clubhouse is dark and looks slightly unkempt, maybe its a case of the money spent on the course or on the clubhouse? I don’t know, but it didn’t exude warmth or a welcome at the end of your round.

Back in Lusaka and staying again at the stunning Ciela Hotel.  We are invited to play a unique nine hole course, a private course owned by one gent in his ‘back garden’ 

Nabbobwe is a really nice nine hole course, quirky in its design, but that is also fun.  Wild animals roam freely and you might find your approach shot is over a swimming pool, but who cares- well maybe the bathers might!

Built and designed by the owner, he even has a bar area where his guests can take a break overlooking the Chalimbana River- now that’s classic with it only being nine holes!   But as you can play it as 18 holes, why not!

A huge pen contain a mass of crocodile, with the oldest being around 70 years, but don’t worry crocs don’t roam freely - the only wild animals that roam freely are nice ones - not fluffy or cuddly, just not predators - but they are still wild animals.  

But don’t be surprised to see ducks, zebra, giraffe peacocks, impala wandering around, living in harmony with each other.

This private park also doubles up as a day tripping family get away form Lusaka.  Families are encouraged to take a day out and enjoy this gently undulating land, even if they don’t play golf!

We played with the owner, and one of his friends, both are chatty, friendly and a bit of a laugh too. Some really narrow exits off the tee, namely hole 6 with its trees either side and the day we played grazing waterbuck just ‘resting’ on the fairway, assuming as most non-golfers do, that golfers can actually play golf!  Once over the waterbuck and under the tree canopy the approach shot is over the swimming pool to a green that slopes back to front.  Talk about a challenge.

There were plenty of trees in the way, but it was really nice to be invited to play this fun course - and whilst it might be positioned as ‘by invitation only’ it isn’t.  Nabbobwe is open to the public.

A sad goodbye to Lusaka, which we enjoyed so much and we reach our final golf course in Zambia - a course we really wanted to play because of its history and its heritage.

Chipata sits on the border of Zambia and Malawi, so we took a couple of days out exploring the area and of course playing their nine hole course.  Being a border town, as most border towns are, its a bit shabby.

Although initial appearance is one of lush green, when you play, it is very noticeable that the fairways haven’t been cut well, and in places, not at all.  When we asked about this, we were told the tractor had broken down.  

The caddy carries a tool, not too dissimilar to a rake, but without teeth.  In its place is a small metal roll about half a meter wide.  it could well be scaffold pole cut down - as it is quite heavy.

To set the scene Chipata is the oldest golf course in Zambia and therefore plays browns, not greens.  The browns were slow and very gritty, so the pole is dragged from the other side of the hole to where your ball landed -creating a ‘runway’ for the golf ball. 

Thinking this is so much easier, the runway keeps it in play and the ball will obviously drop it in the hole which was larger than normal golf holes with sloping edges inwards.

The ‘rake’ did make it smoother, but not by  much and when putting, you still need to aim and have some degree of accuracy- the speed is key to putting and scoring well.  Wearing shorts or a skort, the waist high grass of the fairways was a bit of a tickle along the fairways that weren’t mown

So a really interesting course, maybe not in the best way of interesting, but with the history, it really is nice to play Chipata.

Maybe help us out and consider subscribing to our You Tube channel @travelLifestlyeGolf or follow us on social media where you’ll be given almost daily treats about Africa and our unique journey self driving as seen through golf adventurers eyes

Next up Ill talk about Zambia as a country to visit, what else to see and do, so watch our for the next instalment of our golf and travel adventures around Africa.  be prepared for some pretty unique stories.