Olivewood Golf Estate

Overview: Olivewood Golf Estate Golfers play 18 holes against a par of 72 course in the Chintsa East valley north of East London, where rolling ground, indigenous forest and views toward the coast create an unusually spacious Eastern Cape setting. Local architect Algy Kietzmann shaped the routing to follow the natural contours, with kikuyu fairways and bent-grass greens. From the pro tees it measures about 6,200 metres, while the course’s changing elevation makes several holes play with more character than the number suggests.

History: The golf course opened in 2016 as the centrepiece of Olivewood Private Estate and Golf Club. Its development combined golf, housing and hospitality within a landscape of wetlands, coastal bush and open valley. The later hotel and resort elements broadened the property’s role, but the course still reads as a landscape-first design: the fairways move around the land rather than imposing a rigid grid on it.

Did You Know? The opening stretch heads downhill toward the Chintsa River and lagoon before the closing holes climb back through the estate. That change in direction gives the round a natural narrative, moving from elevated views into the valley and then back toward the higher ground.