With a history that dates all the way back to 1904, Stellenbosch Golf Club could be forgiven for sitting on its laurels and trading on its legacy as one of the oldest golf clubs in South Africa. A tidy layout, excellent facilities and a long and storied history – the club in the heart of the student town in the Cape Winelands could certainly eke out a comfortable existence through its large member base.

Yet rather than keeping an eye on the rearview mirror, the club has spent the past decade ushering in a new era of golf club membership, transforming into a family-focused, inclusive destination where visitors and families feel most welcome.

“Traditional golf clubs have had to change,” explains Stellenbosch GC director of golf Louis Destroo, who is also the chairman of the PGA of South Africa. “For me, the lightbulb moment came when my wife told me how she hated walking into golf clubs, because she felt unwelcome and could feel the stares of these stale old men.”

Destroo, who has been at the club for 25 years, forms a strong leadership team with general manager Chris van der Merwe, head of finance Jahndre du Toit and head chef Gerhard van der Merwe.

“We made a conscious decision about 10 years ago to make it more vibey,” says Destroo. “We wanted more of a family culture where everyone feels at home. We started with the dress code, but everything we did was aimed at steering away from the traditional old golf club structure to a modern one.”

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One of the key strategies was to identify the ideal structure of the golf club committee.

“We wanted every committee member to fit into their portfolio,” says Destroo. “In other words, if you are on the golf course portfolio, you have to have some sort of agricultural background. If you’re on finance, you must have some kind of a financial background and the same with marketing or any other role.

“Once we got the top part right, the rest seemed to fall into place.”

Stellenbosch’s success can be measured in the tangibles – an increase in memberships from 1 000 to 1 500 members, and an improvement in the number of rounds played here. Last year, the course hosted almost 53 000 18-hole rounds.

The intangibles are equally important. In 2023, Stellenbosch was voted as having the best 19th hole in the country, beating the likes of Pinnacle Point and Champagne Sports Resort to the accolade. Anyone who has enjoyed a post-round beverage and a pizza on the club's covered verandah, looking out over the course, would find it difficult to disagree with the award.

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The course itself is largely underrated. It is a good test from the club tees, and a real challenge from the tips, where it can be stretched back to 6 500 metres. A regular host of major GolfRSA tournaments – such as the recent Premier Men’s Inter-Provincial – Destroo understands just how difficult it can be set up.

“We could certainly host a professional tournament here and the pros would find it difficult,” he says. “It’s not the longest course, but we are at sea level and we get a fair bit of wind. If we needed to, we could can narrow some fairways or change the par of the course by converting some of the par fives into long par fours.

“But with the wind, rough and trees, it’s already a tough challenge. When David Frost won the SA Open here in 1999, his score was only three under par. In fact, there were only two players who finished under par that year.”

More recently, Thriston Lawrence claimed the Vodacom Origins of Golf tournament here in 2019 to claim his first Sunshine Tour title on a score of 15 under par for three rounds.

Another badge of honour for the club is the number of Tour professionals eager to call it home. The likes of Oliver Bekker, Justin Harding, JJ Senekal, Hennie O’Kennedy, Erhard Lambrechts and Keenan Davidse can often be seen playing and practising at Stellenbosch between tournaments.

“I think the key for us is our consistency throughout the year,” says Destroo. “I always say that Stellenbosch is never great, but it’s never bad and it’s always good. I’d rather have a course that is good 12 months of the year than have three months a year when it’s in terrible condition.”

Importantly, the success of the Stellenbosch Golf Club model has allowed it to continue to invest profits into capital expenditure.

“We try to make continuous improvements each year,” he says. “That could be in the form of new cart paths or the planting of new trees. But, ultimately, we want to stay a community golf course that is open and affordable for people in the area.”

Perhaps the greatest endorsement of Stellenbosch Golf Club’s prominent place in South Africa’s golfing landscape comes from businessman and chairman of GolfRSA, Johann Rupert, who once said, “What happens in Stellenbosch today happens in the rest of the country tomorrow.”

Let’s hope he’s right.

IMAGES: EJ LANGNER/STELLEBOSCH GC/ERNEST BLIGNAULT/GOLFRSA