Durban - If you want a traditional golfing experience, an elegant stayover and an enjoyable night out, look no further than Gowrie Farm golf and fly-fishing estate in Nottingham Road.
Fly-fishing remains a mystery to me, but I found the golf a happy surprise and a great learning experience. It’s almost like striding the links in Scotland, but a great deal more convenient if you’re making the trip from Durban or Joburg.
Some people think Gowrie is a nine-hole course, but this is untrue.
There are 12 different greens, 14 unique holes and the overall feel of an 18-hole course because of clever routings by means of different tee boxes.
The course designer, Pietermaritzburg attorney Guy Smith, has created a challenging, Scottish links-style course that’ll properly acclimatise you for that special day when you eventually play the Old Course at St Andrews.
I make no idle boast when I say that Gowrie is a special golfing experience. After all, the course has just been included for the first time in Golf Digest’s top 100 courses, coming in at 54 – a great achievement.
The day I played, I was warned by my two experienced partners that the first five holes would “sort me out” unless I was able to hold firm. Alas, the prophecy proved correct and I was chastened by an opening slew of bogeys and double bogeys as I began the middle section of the course.
Thereafter, my swing improved and I began to understand the linksy conditions with the uneven fairways, pot-bunkers and the run-off areas around the undulating greens. The secret to playing at Gowrie? Good course management and the ability to play many different kinds of shots. Not to mention a sturdy sense of humour, a good appetite for humble pie and an ever-watchful eye for the fast-changing weather patterns.
Unlike many layouts, this is a golf course that doesn’t impose itself on the environment, but accommodates itself to the natural ebb and flow of the land. There is nothing artificial about it. It’s no wonder that former SA amateur champion David Suddards describes it as one of his “hidden gems”.
Gowrie is not an easy challenge, but it’s a fascinating one. The subtleties of the course grow on you, and I know I’ll understand and enjoy the course more, the more frequently I play. In the words of Robert Hunter, who wrote the classic book on links golf: “It is not the love of something easy which has drawn men like a magnet for hundreds of years to this royal and ancient pastime; on the contrary, it is the maddening difficulty of it.”
In an era where the golf cart has become almost ubiquitous, it was reassuring to learn that Gowrie is a “walking course”. It’s a good walk, but not a stressful one, and you should get round comfortably in four hours.
I was put up in the adjoining lodge for the night in a spacious room with a huge bed and a large, well-appointed bathroom. Looking out of the main windows, you gaze on a dam that borders the 18th green, one of my more successful holes. At night I was comforted by a symphony of frogs’ croaks as they sought their mates.
But the night was not just spent with amorous frogs. Just down the road is the Nottingham Road Hotel (“Notties”), where I enjoyed a sumptuous meal in the dining-room and where I was able to gaze at a number of fascinating historical pictures on the walls.
Following a tasty starter of snails in blue cheese sauce in a phyllo pastry basket, I then attacked the hotel’s signature meal, the lamb shank cooked in red wine with a delicious thyme and tomato base.
With the superbly cooked vegetables, I couldn’t think of a better meal (washed down by a bottle of Graham Beck’s Railroad Red) to restore a sense of well-being after a challenging day on the links.
Just before my brief stay came to an end, I had breakfast with the golf director, Duncan Price, and the joint owner of Notties and the Gowrie lodge, Clive Foss. I was struck by their commitment to youth golf and by how generous they were about the many other attractions of the region.
The talk wasn’t just about Gowrie or Notties, but the lure offered by the other hotels, trout fishing facilities and golf courses in the area.
How to get there:
Take the N3 from Durban towards Joburg. Turn off at Ramp 132 and travel 8km to Nottingham Road. Gowrie Farm Golf Lodge is 2km on the far side of the village on the left. Booking: Telephone 033 266 6294; e-mail [email protected]; www.gowriefarm.co.za - The Mercury