Walmer Country Club

Overview: The leafy Walmer district is home to an 18-hole parkland course in the leafy Walmer area of Gqeberha. The regional golf guide describes a relatively flat routing shaded by indigenous trees, with kikuyu and kwekgras fairways, bent and wintergrass greens, roughly 30 bunkers and water hazards. Its 5,958-metre, par-72 men’s course is open to visitors and offers the kind of accessible city golf that fits naturally into a Nelson Mandela Bay trip.

History: Walmer Country Club was founded in 1947 and originally designed by Scottish professional Johnny Robertson. In 1980 the course was upgraded by Brian Blenkinsop, Deryk Thornton and W. Deacon. Those documented design stages are retained together because the current layout is the result of both the original parkland plan and the later improvement work, rather than a single untouched historical design.

Did You Know? Walmer’s playing surfaces tell a small story about the Eastern Cape climate: the guide distinguishes kikuyu and kwekgras on the fairways from bent and wintergrass on the greens. Combined with the indigenous tree cover and water hazards, that mix gives the course its distinctive parkland texture even though the land itself is fairly flat.