Clarens Golf Club

Few corners of South Africa offer a backdrop quite like this one. Clarens Golf Club sits in the northeastern Free State, near the small artist's village of Clarens — a town tucked into the foothills of the Rooiberge and Maluti mountains, close to the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. The landscape here is defined by dramatic sandstone formations, sweeping highland grasslands, and a clarity of light that makes the Highveld feel almost alpine. It is genuinely one of the more striking natural settings you will find attached to a golf course in the interior of the country.

As a club serving a small creative and tourism-oriented community, the experience tends to be unhurried and community-rooted — the kind of place where the round matters as much as the result, and where visitors are welcomed rather than processed.

The Free State Highveld sits above 1,600 metres, which means the thin air adds real distance to every shot. Combined with mountain panoramas on virtually every hole, this is a course where the scenery competes seriously with the golf for your attention.