The Benoni Country Club was originally established as the Van Ryn Golf Club back in 1906 when it was created by employees of the Van Ryn gold mine. A nine-hole course was set out as a recreational pursuit for employees of the mine. This initial layout was then extended to 18 holes a short time after.

Even before golf had taken root at the likes of ERPM, Crown Mines, CMR, Houghton, Observatory, Modderfontein, and State Mines, the golf club at Benoni was up and running and it has shown no sign of slowing down since.

Down the years, a number of significant improvements have been made to the course including a Bob Grimsdell redesign, bunker and green refurbishment by Christian Robinson and an upgrade carried out by Golf Data.

It has one of the premier parkland courses in Gauteng, a varied and challenging layout that has hosted many amateur championships, including the men’s SA Amateur and SA Stroke Play. It has been a qualifying course for the SA Open.

Situated on a flat piece of property, the holes flow through wooded terrain, and golf at Benoni Country Club is a quiet and tranquil experience, with buck roaming the fairways.

Benoni has been described as ‘old-school parkland’ and it is testimony to whoever laid out the original holes that the course doesn’t feel cramped or confined, even with the housing that now surrounds the course. There’s a balanced mix of holes here with well-defined greens that offer plenty of interesting pin positions.

Both nines start and end with par fives, all of which measure over 550 yards from the back tees. The pick of these is the 540-metre 18th, which many consider to be one of the best closing holes in the province of Gauteng. One of the property’s five lakes lies to the left and a densely wooded area to the right of a fairway that leads to a two-tiered home green.