St Francis Bay Golf Club

St Francis Bay Golf Club traces its origins to 1975, when developer Leighton Hulett commissioned architect Robert Grimsdell to lay out a private 9-hole course on the Sea Vista area of St Francis Bay, south of where the River Kromme meets the ocean. The club opened to the public through the 1980s and was renamed from Cape St Francis Golf Club to St Francis Bay Golf Club as the village grew. In 1999, after the club was made custodian of adjoining public open space specifically for golf use, designer Danie Obermeyer was brought in to add a second nine. The full 18-hole layout opened on December 22, 1999 built without external borrowing, funded entirely by members who bought life memberships to finance the development.

The course plays to par 71 across 5,647 yards, with a rating of 70.8 and a slope of 123. Greens are exclusively Poa Annua. The layout is ranked in South Africa’s Top 100 courses and sits five minutes from St Francis Links, the Jack Nicklaus-designed links course that opened in 2006.

Course Overview

The terrain is what defines the round here. Fairways sit on gently undulating sandy soil with dense coastal fynbos bordering most holes miss the short grass and you are in thick indigenous scrub with no guarantee of a clean lie. Links-style in character without being a true links, the course shifts between open and enclosed depending on which section you are playing. Holes 11 through 15 occupy a separate patch of ground that runs close to the coast, and the exposure on that stretch changes everything about club selection when the wind is up. Reviewers on LeadingCourses consistently note that a 3-plus club differential is not unusual in a strong coastal breeze.

The opening holes are relatively forgiving and lull most first-time visitors into thinking the course is straightforward. It is not. The par 3 eighth, played over a lake, is the first hole that demands full commitment with no margin for a conservative miss. Hole 9 is widely regarded as the strongest on the front nine,  a dogleg right requiring a precise tee shot followed by a long approach to an elevated, angled green in front of the clubhouse. On the back nine, hole 12 stands out for a different reason: a narrow fairway that tightens severely toward a green set in the dunes a short distance from the beach, with dense bush on both sides from tee to green. The two closing par 5s offer contrast hole 15 is reachable in two for longer hitters, while hole 18 requires a controlled tee shot to open up the severe left dogleg before the approach to a green positioned in front of the clubhouse.

The club is open to the public and green fees are modest by any standard. Walk-on play is available. A putting green and two impact cages sit at the first tee for warm-up. Temporary membership packages are available for golfers staying in the area for an extended period.

For golfers building an Eastern Cape golf itinerary, St Francis Bay Golf Club and St Francis Links together offer two rounds of genuinely contrasting golf within the same small village one member-built and quietly excellent, the other a Nicklaus signature course on natural dunes.