Benoni Lake Golf Club Review
Par: 72
Lengths:
Men – 6504m (7113 yards)
Ladies – 5425m (5933 yards)
Championship – 6647m (7269 yards)
The Benoni Lake Golf Club reminds me very much of a football match – in that it has two very different halves. The front nine at Benoni Lake is flat, ordinary and run-of-the-mill. Even though there is nothing wrong with it, it just lacks the spark you get from the back nine. The back nine is beautiful, challenging and warrants much praise from golfers of all skill levels and I think the back nine may be what saves Benoni Lake from being a boring East Rand course.
From an overall standpoint the course is actually quite nice and the club and its staff are both accommodating and friendly. It is not a long course even in the wet months, but during the very dry winter months on the Highveld, it plays incredibly short, with even the medium length hitters having nothing more than a wedge into some of the longer holes on the course. The use of sand at Benoni Lake is quite genius on both nines, and when you throw in the water on the back, Benoni Lake becomes a thinkers course rather than a smashers course. The Benoni Lake Golf Club played host to the 8th round of the SOS Golf Tour and a few surprises were thrown up by the course as well as by the Tour.
Featured Holes:
Front 9:
9th Hole
Never before has the SOS Golf Tour picked two par 3s as their featured holes. The problem with our choices was that we could have picked several holes on the back nine to make our features list, yet we had to scratch our heads to sort out the holes on the front nine to choose just one to feature. Although the par 4 stroke 1 sixth hole was a decent challenge and the par 5 fourth hole a rather good looking hole, the 200m par 3 ninth hole stood out. It is a downhill par three that offers the biggest mental challenge on the front nine. There is water to the left, bunkers to the right and out of bounds if you go long. Add to that the length and you have a really tough hole that can either ruin your lunch or give you a serious reason to sink a few at the 19th.
Back 9:
16th Hole
There are 9 feature holes on the back at Benoni Lake Golf Club and the 16th stands out as the star. The par 3 is played over water to a green that needs no other protection. The hole’s length ranges from the mid 140s to 180m plus and with swirling winds blowing off the lake, club choice is everything. The hole slopes severely from back to front where the water protects, and finding the wrong side of the dance floor can mean a shot or two lost. Over shooting the green to stop yourself falling into the drink could earn you a seriously tough chip shot down a lightning fast green. On very few holes we have played on tour this year has club selection been so important. A par is a good score here and this hole proves simple use of the elements can be a winning formula.