Courses I've played : Glendower Golf Club : 6.5/10

Almost every person I know who has played Glendower has raved about it, how stunning its looks are, how well designed it is, how much of a test of golf it is, how much it forces you to think your way around the course - quite frankly I was bored. This was not the first time I have played the course, so it wasn't like I had any built up expectations that where not being met, its just that I would be bored to tears (or purposely aiming for the trees) if this was my home course and it was all I had to look forward to every weekend.

More often than not it is the design and the conditioning of the course that gets talked about. The course is in very good condition, although I thought the greens where a bit patchy and battered, but they weren't all that hard to read and the pace was consistent throughout (not to fast or to slow). The design however is not all that exciting: Glendower is a parkland course and I suppose Parkview would be the nearest type of course I could compare it to - Parkview is far more interesting and keeps you thinking and trying to place and shape your shots a lot more than Glendower does where it is a case of knock it somewhere down the or near the fairway, avoid the bunkers (which can mostly be carried off the club tees) and aim for the middle of the green. There is not a lot of complexity to this course. The par 5's aren't overly long, the stroke 1, the par 4 4th, relies on distance rather than guile and most of the rest of the par 4's play quite short i.e. a driver and no more than say an 8 iron (off the club tees).

All you need to do is play to your game and stay on or near the fairways and away from the trees and you will do OK, not a lot of complexity there then.

I have read a review that describes the start of each nine as being really difficult, with the end of each being fairly disappointing, I would have to say I agree with the latter (kind of routine straight up par 4's), but not necessarily the former. Both the 1st and the 10th are easily reachable even if you have a bad drive and tend to drift off to the right like most golfers.

The course does have a lot of water hazards, but most of them are carries off the tee box rather than coming into play around the green (5 holes in total, 2 of which are par 3's).

The one thing I did like about this course was the bunkers, the green side ones have sand that is soft, fluffy and easy to get your club through and the fairway bunkers are just hard enough to make a shot out of them not to difficult. Even though there are a lot of bunkers on this course, it didn't feel like the amount was overly punitive.

The course surroundings are quite pleasant with all the established trees hiding most of the housing that adjoins the course, but no more so than any other Johannesburg parkland course though. However the holes that play near the N3 are really noisy (and prone to the occasional honking idiot when you are on the tee box).

Choosing a signature hole was fairly easy though as Glendower has one or two of the prettiest par 3's of the courses I have played, chief of which is the 6th. This is hole is about 160 off the club tees, playing over a small dam in front of the green, to a putting surface which slopes quite sharply from back to front - I can imagine hitting a great shot here and seeing it spinning back off the green into the water. The green itself is raised up from its surrounds such that the ball feeds off the green if you don't get your distance just right, it also has a fairly nasty bunker at its back right that is going to make any shot back down the green towards the water somewhat scary - the putting surface is fairly narrow, but quite wide and makes for some interesting, swinging lines. The hole may only be a stroke 11, but walking off with a par should be quite satisfying.

I'll play Glendower again if I was to receive an invite, but its not the type of course I would make a special effort to play again.

For more info, contact details, etc you can visit www.glendower.co.za