Lost and found on the 24th meridian

A golfer following the line of latitude roughly corresponding to the 34th parallel would be going the conventional route because that’s the Garden Route and encompasses all manner of manicured fairways and greens.

A north-south golfing journey along the 24th meridian is much more fun, even if amenities are limited and the word “rough” has a more literal meaning.

Richmond in the Northern Cape is not the first place that comes to mind when you say “golf”. But when a golfer has had three days of solid book-festing, he goes in search of golf.

I was in Richmond for the JM Coetzee/Athol Fugard Festival, one of two book festivals that the Karoo town hosted in the year I visited. The more famous Boekbedonnerd festival in October is the big annual event that draws big crowds.

Booktown Richmond is a charming little town roughly halfway between Cape Town and Joburg. It’s also just about on the 24th meridian (a line of longitude), and I have worked out that I’ve played golf all along that line. It’s a golf route that takes you from the Karoo to the coast in seven golf courses, offering variety and great hospitality. With a bit of adventure thrown in.

Richmond’s exact location, longitude 23.94°, is important because huge trucks don’t roar through the main street like they do in Beaufort West, 180km down the N1. Richmond’s bookshops are beguiling, and it has churches, South African War sites and a saddle-horse museum. Surprisingly, it also has a river. The Ongers River runs past the southwestern edge of the town and passes through a golf course.

It took a bit of probing around town to establish that Richmond actually does have a golf course, and I received some rather odd looks from the people I was asking. But they were polite and pointed me to the sports club in the south of the town. The caretaker opened the large creaking gate, pointed me in the general direction of a distant koppie and I was away, ready for Great Karoo golf.

I couldn’t miss the first tee. The ground was raised, and it was painted white. Not only that, but a section had been watered, which meant it was possible to get my tee in the ground. Someone had been there before me. There is, however, no evidence that any of the river water has ever been diverted to the veld that makes up the rest of the course.

Working out which way to go was fairly simple on the first hole, though it contained a sharp dogleg. Aim for the koppie, then follow the fence to the left. The tricky part was working out where the fairway (or veldway) was in relation to the rough. I’m used to missing the fairway and playing in the rough, but not so used to working out which is which. This was a new take on the expression “finding the fairway”.

Putting on an oil green was a new experience, but simple. The ball stayed true to the line and glided along nicely.

I overcooked my approach on the second hole, which led to a rocky lie behind the green/black. “Rocky” is not a metaphor. The next tee was on the top of a little ridge, but it wasn’t obvious where the next green was. I decided that a short par-three was what the course designers had in mind, so played towards the green below the ridge. That worked out OK, but then it got a bit confusing. I turned left and headed down what looked like a long fairway (relatively speaking). Some decent blows took me along the edge of the ridge and then I had in front of me … a tee!

It turned out that I had played the hole the wrong way round. Behind the tee was another green and I could see where that one had come from, so I crossed the gurgling river, found a tee and began replaying the holes, the right way around. Having successfully negotiated the holes as they were meant to be played, I again ran out of holes.

I had played five holes as they were meant to be played (with a bonus “reverse” hole), but it had taken about as long as you would expect to play nine. I’d had a good bout of walking about in the veld and was ready for some more book festival. I later discovered, via Google Maps, how I should have played the course, but even with the help of a satellite I could find only eight greens.

Something else I later discovered is that locals mostly make their way down the R63 through Murraysburg to Graaff-Reinet when they want a round of golf. It’s easy to see why.

The Graaff-Reinet Golf Club is a nine-hole course that lies in a loop of the Sundays River just south of the town (24.53°). Its lush fairways and bright green greens are a welcome sight in an otherwise dusty landscape. Spandau Kop is a spectacular backdrop for the signature final hole, which is played over water back to the clubhouse. The clubhouse was full of members and guests when I was there, and the welcome is warm. An annual Bokkedag is played to the individual stableford format. The poster didn’t say whether a hunting rifle would count as an extra club.

Away from the Karoo, on the other side of the Baviaans Kloof and along the coastal strip, lies Hankey (24.87°), about 75km west of Gqeberha. The grave of Sarah Baartman, the Khoi woman who was taken to Europe as an anthropological exhibit, is on a hill overlooking the village.

The nine holes of the Hankey Golf Club are laid out alongside the Klein River (which meets the Gamtoos River nearby) and make for an interesting round of golf. The course makes the most of its changes in elevation, and the way the fairway on the 8th/17th sweeps over a hill and down to a pond-protected green is impressive. The Hadeda Tournament is a major local event.

Just north of the N2 near Humansdorp is the Zwartenbosch Golf & Lifestyle Estate (24.73°). The “lifestyle estate” part of the title is still aspirational, but there is a functioning clubhouse and a nine-hole course. I played on a wet day, but the members I met in the bar were enthusiastic and positive about their club.

Fifty kilometres west along the N2, left at the Oudebosch farm stall and down to the sea, is a little-known gem called Fynbos Golf & Country Estate at Eersterivierstrand (24.13°). The next settlement along is Oubosstrand, holiday home of John Vorster, a former prime minister and keen golfer.

The road is best tackled slowly (this is dairy country) and I wouldn’t try it if there’s been a lot of rain, but the short drive is worth it. The nine holes are played off one set of tees, with two flags on every green, and the 7th/16th has a Pebble Beach feel about it. You feel you could step off the cliffs into the sea, but there’s no danger of losing a ball to the ocean, or at least there shouldn’t be.

Then it’s back on the N2 to Humansdorp, at 24.73° longitudinally and 34.03° latitudinally, the intersection point of the Garden Route and my Karoo-to-coast route. South down the R330 lies golfing nirvana and two golfing experiences quite different from anything else on this expedition. The road to Cape St Francis passes over the Kromme River and at the entrance to the village of St Francis Bay the golfer has two great choices: left at the roundabout to St Francis Bay Golf Club or right to St Francis Links (24.83°). St Francis Bay GC offers a well-maintained parklands layout with the thatched roofs of the village circling the course. The course is popular and its annual Calamari Classic is a big draw.

St Francis Links is unlike anything else a South African golfer can experience. It is a testing, thought-provoking and pretty Jack Nicklaus signature course set among fynbos and a rolling landscape with views back over the Kouga mountains and out to sea. On some holes you feel embraced by fragrant fynbos, on others you are on top of the world.

Ranked by Golf Digest as one of South Africa’s top five courses (third in 2024, fifth in 2025), St Francis Links is sensational and there could be no better way to end a golfing adventure than in the well-appointed clubhouse (which doubles as a restaurant and a wedding and conference venue) looking back over the ocean.

Jeffreys Bay is famous for surfing, but JBay also has a golf course (24.91°), so there is at least one more golfing adventure still to be had on the 24th meridian.

I also need to visit a trio of Karoo towns that may or may not have functioning golf clubs: Aberdeen (24.06°), Steytlerville (24.34°) and Jansenville (24.66°). Perhaps mohair will be the strand that stitches together my next trip from the Karoo to the coast.