The hotel course, Arabella, was completed in 1999 and ranks among South Africa’s best. Another Matkovich design, Arabella is set on gently rolling terrain within a nature preserve and alongside South Africa’s largest natural lagoon. There is great variety—long and short par 4s, doglegs each way and elevation changes. The closing holes of each nine wend toward the lagoon, most dramatically at the 8th, a steeply downhill par 5 to a green surrounded by water and reeds.
 
There were other courses I wanted to play—Pearl Valley and Steenberg in the wine country; Humewood, the only true links in Africa; Wild Coast, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design with a par 3 over a natural waterfall. Alas, my time was limited and the final stop was Cape Town, a city I wanted to see, not just pass through.

The one-hour drive along the edge of the Western Cape took me through a stretch of scenery that was like the Monterey Peninsula on steroids—broad sand beaches at the feet of steep mountain cliffs. I rarely take the time for pictures, but at one point I simply had to pull over and snap off a few, just to be sure I wasn’t dreaming.

A few miles outside Cape Town, Table Mountain hovered into view. A geological oddity, it rises 3,000 feet but instead of forming a peak, it flattens into a two-mile-wide plateau, the iconic broad shoulders above one of the prettiest harbor cities in the world.

Situated at the southernmost point of Africa where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans merge, Cape Town was a waystation for the Dutch East India Company, and the colonial influence remains in the 19th
century Dutch and Victorian architecture. I was fortunate to be billeted at the Cape Grace, a classically elegant hotel on the west quay of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, a working harbor that has been gentrified into a dining, shopping and entertainment center. The French doors of my balcony opened to a view of the marina below and Table Mountain above.

Since opening in 1996, Cape Grace has ranked among the best hotels in the world. Bascule, the hotel’s cellar bar, is stocked with more than 450 varieties of single malt whisky. While sampling an all too small selection of them, I learned a few words of Afrikaans from the Englishman on the barstool next to mine as we listened to a terrific jazz trio. It was all very cosmopolitan, emblematic of what this city is about.  

I could have gone to several lovely beaches but took a tour of the city, wandering the shops of the waterfront and stopping for a couple of adventurous meals—medallions of ostrich steak, springbok salad and crocodile curry. I heartily recommend the ostrich, which is actually a red meat. I could have sworn I was eating prime aged filet.

The weather throughout my stay was San Diego perfect—sunny 70–80 degrees during the day, cool at night—as it is for most of the year in most of the nation. Indeed, for 12 days I was blessed and pampered.

I was also more than a little sheltered. Much of South Africa beyond the resorts continues to be troubled by high crime rates and drug use. Unemployment is high, a third of the population doesn’t have electricity and a fifth has AIDS.

The legacy of apartheid is evident in the deep economic divisions that remain, and South Africa’s rich cultural diversity—there are 11 national languages and almost as many religions—can be a two-edged sword. Even tourists can’t escape the evidence. Every rental car facility has signs urging motorists to keep their car doors locked at all times, and in one hotel the complimentary toiletries kit included a pack of condoms with an exhortation to observe safe sex.

There are also positive signs. The government is stable, its economy has seen eight years of growth, and over the past decade housing prices have risen at record rates. There is a spirit of optimism, evident in the smiles of caddies, cabbies and nearly everyone on the streets, as well as an inescapable feeling that most citizens want to get on with the business of building their nation. They are doing so on the shoulders of a tourism economy that last year grew at three times the global rate—and for good reason. South Africa is an intoxicating place—and a great place to take your golf clubs.