The Gary Player Golf Course and Country Club

Few golf destinations in Africa carry the cultural weight of Sun City. The resort complex rose from the bushveld of what was then the nominally independent homeland of Bophuthatswana in the late 1970s and early 1980s — a deliberate oasis of entertainment and spectacle during the apartheid era, drawing international visitors who couldn't easily come to South Africa proper. Golf was always central to that vision, and the Gary Player Golf Course, designed by Player himself, opened in 1979 as the resort's original championship layout before the Lost City course arrived later.

Player shaped a course that reflects the harsh beauty of the surrounding North West bushveld — rocky outcrops, indigenous trees, and the ever-present threat of the African wildlife that roams the broader Pilanesberg reserve area. The course made its name hosting the Nedbank Golf Challenge, once billed as "The Fifth Major," which drew the world's top players to compete for then-record prize money through the 1980s and into subsequent decades.

Today access is reserved for members and resort guests at the Palace and Sun City hotels, giving the round an exclusive, unhurried character that the setting deserves.