Centurion Country Club played 19 and 23 March 2020
As the headline imply we played Centurion twice.
Centurion is one of the courses that deserves to be played at least twice. It is not a tricky course, but a very fair course. What you see is basically what you get.
There is a river, the Hennops river, running along some of the fairways that you have to be aware of and also in front of a couple of greens you will find a stream not visual from a distance. And, as you can see from the pictures, along and around some greens, especially the 17th and 18th you will find water.
It is all part of the features that make the course exciting to play. All in all the golf course has 10 holes where the Hennops River and Lakes come into play. But if you know your game and don’t take too high risks, relative to your skills, you can get around in a decent score.
Whether you are in a stroke or match play competition hole 17 and 18 are great final holes. Here you can win or lose. The 17th is a par 3 with an island green. From the second longest tee (white in SA) there is only about 140m to the middle of the green. With a good shot you can make a birdie. A not so good shot you will be in the water and struggle for a boogie. If you survive or get one up on 17th you might loose that stroke on the 18th.
A tricky one. You can go over the water to the fairway about 180-200m and have a very realistic chance for a birdie. If you don’t hit the fairway you might end up in the huge waste areas between the lake and the fairway and have a tricky kind of waste bunker shot to the green. Or you can play it safe. That is go for the fairway on the left side of the lake and cross the lake with a shot about 120m to the pin and be sure of a par.
The fun thing is that many of the holes on this course are long, but the final score and result of the round can depends more on the score on these 2 relatively short holes than on some of the long ones.
Due to the GPS on the golf carts, on your mobile phone or the range finder, many if not all clubs are no longer offering manual course guides. I think that’s a shame. Playing a course the first couple of times there are still features on the course you cannot see or be sure of and therefore making you unsure of the optimal line or length of your next shot.
The first round on Centurion we teed up in of four ball with Samuel and Jeremiah. Scores wasn’t that great, but the company was.
Now when I am writing this we have learned that the RSA is closing down in 21 days from Thursday night. Both days that we played the Centurion golf course they did all they could to prevent an eventual transmission of the virus. Hands, handles on push trolleys, steering wheel on golf carts all was sprayed with disinfection. Today we were also asked to always leave the flag stick in the hole and, if in the bunker, not to rake – every thing to limit eventual transmitting of the virus.
It’s difficult to see that closing all golfing activities should help fighting the virus – at least when you take proper precautions. But then I’m just an enthusiastic golfer.
Facts about Centurion Country Club
18 holes, par 72. From the back tee 6600m. From the front tee 5400m. Course rating 74,1 for back tees. Centurion Country Club forms part of the Residential Estate and first opened the course to the public on 14 October 1997. The first round was played in January 1997.
This is what you can read on their web site: “Peter Matkovich designed Centurion Country Club Golf Course in 1995. He was responsible for the construction of the golf course. The course has three unique features in that we have waste desert section, parkland sections and then we have numerous holes surrounded by water and 44 bunkers in total. All in all the golf course has 10 holes where the Hennops River and Lakes come into play. The course is still relatively easy to play for the straight hitters.
The rough and fairways are planted with Kikuyu grass while the greens are bent grass. The total measurement off the men’s club markers is 6373m and 5313m for the ladies. Senior tees are also available.”
As an integrated part of the club and course you will find a four-hole mashie course available to all members and residents. For Europeans, that is a par 3 hole course consisting of 4 holes. There is also a good driving range with balls with a consistent level of quality and uniformity, relatively new driving mats, a chipping green close to hole 1 and a large putting green in front of the clubhouse. No excuses for not practicing and/or warming up before your round.
Course record
The course record of 61 was made by Brandon Stone nine years ago when he still was a junior. The picture of the bags below belong to 4 of the international known golfers, all members of Centurion country club
My game
Let me be frank; the first round was not to brag about. The second was better. I hit many straight drives, long enough to reach the green in regulation and thanks to fine greens also saved a couple of pars by rolling some putts. The good round in 80 or under ended at the 16, duffing an 8 iron in the creek in front of the green. Left the hole with a triple bogey. All in all; a good round on an interesting course. It doesn’t punish you too hard for bad shots and reward you for the good ones.
And then I like the attitude among the staff – asking about your game and score, with honesty and real interest.
This photo is constructed and taken only for the interest of Joep Van Maaren.
Evaluation of Centurion Country Club played on 19 and 23 March 2020.
Short summary
Centurion is one of the courses that deserves to be played twice. Water is part of the features that make the course exciting to play. All in all the golf course has 10 holes where the Hennops River and Lakes come into play. But if you know your game and don’t take too high risks, relative to your skills, you can get around in a decent score. Here course management is the key.
Hole 17 and 18 are great final holes. The 17th is a par 3 with an island green. From the middle tee there is only about 140m to the center of the green. With a good shot you can make a birdie. A not so good shot and you will be in the water and struggle for a boogie.
18 is a short par 4. You can go over the water to the fairway about 180-200m and have a realistic chance for a birdie. If long enough but not on the fairway you might end up in a huge waste areas between the lake and the fairway and have a tricky waste bunker shot to the green. Or, from the tee, you can go for the fairway on the left side of the lake and cross the lake with a shot about 120m to the pin and be sure of a par.
Even in spite of the water, we found the course fair and very enjoyable and a very good test of your golfing skills no matter what level of skills.
Comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome!
He man, I was talking about a boogie man because you used that word in your report: “A not so good shot you will be in the water and struggle for a boogie”.
Anyway, just making fun. But I also have to say that because of your descriptions of the golf courses I learn a lot about looking with other eyes to the course and to think about course management. It’s very instructional and meaningful to me. In that sense, you are my boogie man. . . . 🙂
Hi man. I was wundering your mentioning of me as a boogie man and checked on wikipedia and holy Moses. In according to wp a boogie man is a mythical creature used by adults to frighten children into good behaviour. Thank you very much my dear friend. Hope you are just refering to golf behaviour. And yes we are surviving – call it a new experience. Tomorrow we take the flight to George and will be picked up by Eza’s sister and go to a farm at the De Rust, somewhere in the middle south of the country where there is nothing else to do than learn to do nothing. There I think, no boogie man are needed – or listening to. But I will keep swinging in to a net.
I enjoyed reading your blog again: nice pictures, especially the last one
To be honest, I have never considered you to be a boogie man 🙂
I wish the both of you strength with the partial lock down overthere. We are enjoying the tenth day of our estado de alarma.
Happy trails