Steyn City Golf Course – An absolute beaut!
By Chris Caalsen (Peacock)
I recently received an invite to play golf at Steyn City from one of our business partners and was rather surprised to see the invite was for Steyn City. I honestly didn’t even know that Steyn City had a golf course. Not knowing what to expect, I arrived early, extremely early, as I know that traffic around Fourways can be a real ‘mare’. To my surprise, I had no traffic as I was going against it in the early hours of the morning and it was a real pleasure getting to the golf course.
Driving in, I immediately knew that this was not just an ordinary course. I immediately noticed the dark green lush grass. It felt like I was attending a PGA type event.
We all know that Mr. Steyn has got money, but he really out did himself on this one. One of the key features of the course is the spectacle of Mr Steyn’s house. At first glance, you would think you are looking at some type of castle with two aqueduct waterfalls. It cost around R250m to build and it’s magnificent. Douw Steyn must be a perfectionist, as I could not fault the course on a single thing.
You have free access to the driving range and this is a real quality facility with Diamond ball stacks ready and waiting for you.
Golf carts have full GPS and Mr Steyn has even gone to the trouble of pointing out his house along with the great view. There are messages on the GPS when you are in specific locations around the course.
Steyn City Golf Course a great layout and is very well manicured, we imagine to USPGA standards. The course has plenty of water hazards and this is a real risk/reward type course. The tee boxes must get vacuumed at night as you won’t find a blade of grass out of place, nor will you find any broken tees etc, it’s absolutely flawless.
The course is still in the settling stage and I believe this will be in top 5 courses in SA in a few years from now.
The service was impeccable and the clubhouse has a very modern, yet relaxed feel to it.
I would suggest every keen golfer go and play this course, you will be pleasantly surprised by the condition. If you have good course management, it is very possible to shoot a low round here. Yes, people might say R850 is steep for a round, but if you want to treat yourself, it’s certainly worth every cent. This fee also includes your cart and range access with unlimited balls.
I’m certainly looking forward to my next invite to Steyn City. It would appear that insurance is not a bad industry to be in if Douw Steyn has anything to do with it… good thing I’m in the same industry!
Facts:
The Steyn City Golf Course is an 18-hole championship Nicklaus Design.
Construction started February 2009.
It is a par 72 and is over 7 000 metres from the championship tees. All the greens are built to USGA specification.
The course is looped, with holes nine and eighteen finishing at the clubhouse, making for a spacious and elegant halfway house. It features 73 bunkers.
The golf course is situated on an old quarry / river site of rock aggregate making use of the natural canyons.
The course has been built on both sides of the Jukskei River, which flows through the estate, with two holes playing directly across the river.
The course has been designed as a user friendly golf course for the average handicapped golfer and can also be set up for tour professionals.
Golf course membership will be open to all Steyn City residents. As members, they will be able to invite guests to play the course on a monthly basis.
The course is currently in its growing-in phase and scheduled for full completion when Steyn City launches to market in early 2015.
This unique growing-in period includes planting of thousands of saplings and established trees to enable Steyn City Properties to showcase the course in its pristine state, a first in South Africa.
Steyn City’s sprawling golf course spans approximately 90Ha and is situated at 1 350m above sea level.
The greens and tees are planted with 007-Bentgrass and the fairways and roughs with cool season fescue / rye grass – guaranteeing a green playing surface all year round.
A fully computerised irrigation system allows for the adjustment of the water supply according to weather conditions. Two pump stations currently service the course’s irrigation, each irrigating nine holes; however should one pump station become faulty the other is equipped with the capacity to service all 18 holes as well as the driving range and putting green.
Furthermore, the irrigation system will be using grey water of the highest quality to irrigate the course. Grey water is received from the Northern Works plant and flows into a pre-treatment plant onsite at Steyn City. This now cleaner grey water then flows into the onsite dams whereby it is aerated, improving its quality even further, before being pumped onto the course.
The course is fully navigable with a golf cart. The carts are equipped with state-of-the-art GPS technology allowing for management to monitor and control the whereabouts of each cart. For example, should a player attempt to drive the cart into an area deemed a ‘no-go zone’ or ‘danger zone’ on the course, the cart will automatically shut down forcing the player to remain within the demarcated areas.
The golf course features along the Jukskei River amongst a wooded parkland and as of early 2013 thousands of trees have been planted on and around the course. Steyn City houses a large on site nursery for planting and propagation purposes as well as to temporarily house rescued flora, which is replanted on site once construction has been completed within a certain area.