The Sunshine Tour makes its first-ever stop at Gowrie Farm in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands this week for the second Vodacom Origins of Golf event of 2025.

Gowrie Farm opened in 2007 as one of South Africa’s more unique layouts, a modern 12-green hybrid creation in the scenic Midlands region of KwaZulu-Natal. It quickly became recognised as one of the premier nine-hole courses in world golf.

Today it has grown to a full 18-hole course, with seven new holes opened in March 2024.

Golf was actually first played there a century ago in a rudimentary fashion, but wasn’t sustained. The course is a testament to the timeless beauty and heritage of golf deeply felt by Pietermaritzburg attorney and golf course enthusiast, Guy Smith.

He drew inspiration from classic designs to create a simple yet visually stunning venue that is loved by traditionalists. Running over undulating terrain with bent-grass greens, the course is reminiscent of the links of Scotland and some of the American courses, such as Pinehurst and Merion.

In building Gowrie Farm, Smith made use of some important elements in classic design: Tees which are close to the ground, fairway shapes dictated by the natural features of the land, push-up greens with interesting run-offs, bunkers which are tucked in close to the greens, and fairway bunkers which dictate a player’s option from the tee.

His new holes follow even more the Scottish theme of the earlier design, with adaptations of famous links holes. Bunkers abound throughout the 18, some 150 of them.

The new holes are numbered three to nine, and the halfway house is in the middle of the course, only the 18th finishing at the clubhouse.

This has led to an exciting, traditional course that is enjoyable for the average golfer but tough for the low-handicapped golfer to post a good score.

DID YOU KNOW

• Course record: 59 by Matt Saulez in 2018; played the back nine in 28
• Former Sunshine Tour player Phil Simmons became the club’s golf director in May 2019. He spent many years as golf director at Mount Edgecombe. He passed away in June 2025
• Golf carts are allowed at Gowrie Farm, but without roofs to reduce their visibility on the course