Harrismith Country Club

Overview: Under Platberg, Harrismith Country Club gives golfers an 18-hole parkland setting beneath Platberg in the eastern Free State. The club describes tree-lined fairways, undulating terrain and a setting where the mountain backdrop can distract from the shot at hand. It is a full country-club facility with a clubhouse and a welcoming visitor culture, and the course regularly hosts provincial golf, making it a meaningful stop between the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

History: Harrismith’s club was officially constituted in 1887, when Scottish settlers were already playing golf around the foothills of the “Ben”. The first nine holes were designed by professional George Fotheringham; in the 1920s George Brews and his brothers Sid, Jock and Douglas helped shape the second nine. Later changes were required when the N3 bypass affected the site, and members redesigned the fifth and sixth holes in the 1980s.

Did You Know? The club calls itself the third-oldest golf club in South Africa, after Royal Cape and Maritzburg. It also claims an early inland-golf distinction: grass greens were introduced before the Boer War, using seed said to have arrived in horse fodder shipped from India and later becoming known locally as “Harrismith lawn”.