Humewood Golf Course

Few links tests on the African continent carry the weight of Humewood's reputation. Laid out in 1931 by Colonel S.V. Hotchkin — the same hand behind Woodhall Spa in England — Humewood is routinely ranked among the finest courses in South Africa, a genuine world-class links built on the dune land fringing Algoa Bay. The design is honest and demanding: wind off the Indian Ocean is not an occasional nuisance but a structural part of every round, reshaping club selection and shot shape from hole to hole. The closing stretch along the beach is particularly memorable.

Port Elizabeth, now officially Grantham — though Humewood the suburb retains its name — sits at the western edge of the Eastern Cape, a city shaped by its shoreline and its winds. The course occupies a corridor of coastal duneland that gives it an unmistakably British Isles feel, the sort of turf and topography that makes seasoned links golfers feel immediately at home.

Humewood is a members' club, but visitors are welcomed, which makes it one of the more accessible genuine links experiences in the Southern Hemisphere. Come prepared for the wind, and expect a course that rewards imagination and ground-game thinking over raw power.