NEW COURSE Ebotse Golf and
Country Estate typifies the new spirit of the East Rand, writes
Patrick Bulger
THANKS in large part to the
Hollywood fame of its most famous daughter, actress Charlize Theron,
Benoni on Gauteng’s East Rand has come to prominence in
recent years for all the right reasons. Once regarded as the veritable
capital of un-cool, Benoni now likes to count itself as modern
and go-ahead.
The economic boom of recent
years has also transformed the town and surrounding areas, raising
property values and ushering in a period of new-found prosperity.
Given urban sprawl and the associated evils of high crime, traffic
congestion and haphazard town planning that blight much of urban
Gauteng, Benoni has been able to retain a lifestyle that harks
back to a simpler, more laid-back era.
Of course, a major part of
the economic boom has been the new middle class’s preoccupation
with lifestyle and leisure. And Ebotse Golf and Country Estate
typifies this dual concern with relaxation and family lifestyle.
When I was first invited to
Ebotse’s media open day recently, I imagined a bushveld-style
golf course set incongruously in periurban Benoni, yet I could
not have been more wrong. Ebotse is in fact a wholly homegrown
product.
For example, far from choosing
the most visibly appealing piece of land and building a golf course
on it, Ebotse’s planners started with a piece of land blighted
by years of industrial-era neglect. What is now Ebotse was in
fact a huge, overgrown and badly run-down quarry, that served
as a cement factory.
From these inauspicious beginnings
on the edge of Benoni’s Rynfield Lake, Ebotse has been shaped
from thousands of tons of earth, designed by world-renowned designer
Peter Matkovich, of Matkovich & Hayes Golf Course Architects.
Matkovich apparently calls
Ebotse his “little secret” — and it is not difficult
to see why.
Quite simply, the course takes
one’s breath away. Forget that it is only a few minutes
off the highway, and just minutes from OR Tambo International
Airport. Being at Ebotse is about the closest most of us are ever
going to get to St Andrews, Scotland. Much of Ebotse is designed
as a links course, about seven holes in fact, and the rest resembles
the parklands-type course one is more familiar with in Gauteng,
and indeed in much of the rest of SA.
Using the many tons of earth
available, Matkovich has been able to build a course that boasts
substantial elevations. Down the 367m par four first hole, for
example, great mounds tower up on either side of the fairway,
reaching well above head-height, and giving that wonderful sense
of gentle undulation that makes it feel so much like the famous
links of Scotland.
Andrew Schwegmann, founder
and MD of the developer, Anvicon Property Developments, says about
R60m was spent on the course, as part of a seven-year project
to bring Ebotse to fruition.
Schwegmann, a handy golfer
himself who in his younger days toyed with the idea of becoming
a professional, has been a major hands-on force in the complex’s
development and, justifiably, he is immensely proud of his handiwork.
Playing a round with assorted
journalists on a media open day to launch the complex, Schwegmann
goes from hole to hole almost as if it is his first time on its
fairways — such is his enthusiasm.
He points out that far from the course having been planted on
pristine land, the developers have had to bring a lot of nature
back themselves, in the form of hundreds of indigenous trees,
shrubs and grasses. All the water the course needs is on site,
and wetlands have been artificially created to boost the natural
environment.
While Schwegmann is enthusiastic
about the golfing aspects of the development, as an entrepreneur
he understands that the real value of the course is to impart
to the estate and to its properties a far higher value than they
would otherwise have.
So, with a R60m Matkovich-designed
course, it is no wonder that the developers have been selling
the stands on the complex for R600000 minimum, which adds to a
tidy sum, of course, and makes the entire project viable.
Amid this beautiful golf course,
much of it designed around water features, is a unique driving
range at which golfers whack balls into an expanse of water, with
old rowing boats to mark the distances. The balls, which float
on the water, are easily retrieved when they drift to the side.
Shaped around the golf course
is the estate itself. Schwegmann places a high premium on family
life, so it is not surprising that the complex is designed especially
for families.
Near the top of the list are
the security arrangements at the site, featuring CCTV cameras,
a full perimeter fence and walling with electric fencing, inter-home
intercoms and roaming guards. Interestingly, the architectural
guidelines specifically forbid burglar bars outside windows, an
indication of the sort of atmosphere it is hoping to encourage.
In addition to the golf facilities,
there is also squash, tennis, nature hikes and watersports. There
is also a clubhouse which the developers hope will serve as a
central meeting place for residents and their visitors —
and not forgetting the players.
The idea is that this will
develop into a fully fledged golf club, attracting visitors from
around central Gauteng and from further afield.
Of course, Benoni already
hosts at least two very well-known and established courses, and
Ebotse should help increase its attraction as a golf centre.
Given the condition into which
much of our public land has been allowed to fall (just witness
the sad state of Huddle Park under the care of Johannesburg),
it seems private ownership is increasingly key to preserving what
few green spots we have in the concrete jungle that surrounds
most of us.
Private ownership and entrepreneurship
at Ebotse has resurrected a derelict piece of land and turned
it into a object of great pride. With its reasonable pricing,
Ebotse offers more for less and could become one of central Gauteng’s
favourite courses over time.
It’s mine, already.
Patrick Bulger
click
here for link to original article : http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/golfer.aspx?ID=BD4A715245
Below is an article
from Larry Gould.
Larry produces the
Larry Gould's guides to golf. You can visit his website On-course
worldwide by clicking here: http://www.oncourseworldwide.co.za/index.asp
When Peter Matkovich invites
you to play golf on his latest golf course design, and he says
the guests he has invited are those he deems to love the game
‘as it should be played’, you just know you are in
for something very special.
At the end of this very special
day, at the prize giving, Andrew Schweggman, one of the principle
developers of Ebotse, told the audience that Peter Matkovich,
the golf course architect of the Ebotse Golf Course was an artist.
Indeed like an artist with
a blank canvas, the golf course architect has to visualise the
brush strokes required to fill the canvas with colour and meaning.
At the Ebotse Golf and Country
Estate, Matkovich was given a different canvas on which to paint
his picture. The site, a former Kaolin quarry, a forgotten land
full of Black Wattle and Blue Gum trees, was also a home to vagrants
and criminals. Add to this, disused Kaolin dumps threatening to
slip into the 40-hectare Rynfield Lake, which is at the heart
of an area on the borders of Benoni, it needed the creative vision
of an artist to find inspiration to fill this canvas with beauty.
I use the word beauty, as
Ebotse, means ‘a beautiful place’ and today; it lives
up to the name. Indeed the rehabilitation of this land around
the golf course and real estate components, will I believe set
a trend for future golf course developments in South Africa. For
it is here, you can see the merit of taking a worn out part of
the earth due to man’s intervention and revitalising the
environment, both physically and economically once again with
man’s intervention. This time the intent is with care and
consideration to provide a long-term sustainable environment to
benefit not only those living there, but also the broader community
at large.
However let’s go back
to the beginning, for the credit must also go to the courageous
developers, who understood that creating a golfing estate on the
borders of the famed Rynfield Dam, might prevent further erosion
and abuse of this abandoned and potentially dangerous terrain.
The developers were confronted
with 800,0000 square metres of alien trees, unsafe kaolin dumps
in close proximity to the Dam with risks of a spill. Quad bikes
and 4x4’s driving through the wetland in the north of the
property was destroying vegetation and wildlife. Illegal fisherman
regularly littered and polluted the dam. Dangerous western quarry
pit high walls were continually eroding; confirmed by a safety
report that this dam wall was unsafe.
Today’s Ebotse is surely
a beautiful place. All the alien trees have been removed and replaced
with indigenous trees and grasses. All the kaolin dumps have been
removed, while new wetlands have been introduced. The quarry pit
high-walls have been rehabilitated and the dam wall spillway upgraded
to safety levels. The completed golf course now meanders in and
around this amphitheatre of reclaimed nature and the 18 holes
are truly exceptional brush strokes on this canvas of land only
15 minutes from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport.
The topography allows for
high locations dipping to waterside features and the high grassy
mounds lining the fairways create a links-like look and indeed
from first visual impact to the lasting impression, the memories
are of having played a major flowing challenge with many an outstanding
moment to savour. Great par 3’s are certain to gain a reputation
among the golfing legends of South Africa, while testing flowing,
sweeping, dipping and rising par 4’s and 5’s are the
standard throughout the experience. A unique feature, which will
no doubt provide the initial 19th hole talking point, is the spectacular
one of a kind driving range, where you hit balls into a dam!
The 19th hole is worth a mention,
as the modern facilities mirror the standards throughout this
216-hectare development and the personnel and management add quality
personal warmth to the visit. I was privileged to play on the
day with the inimitable Dave Usendorff, who forgave my standard
of golf when I complemented him on his team, as his company Inside
Right Club Management is responsible for the management of this
club.
This exceptional environment
will in the future be home to many, as the real estate component
fulfils its potential, as it surely will with its proximity to
essential amenities such as shopping, schools, medical services
all within easy reach. It will also I predict become a major draw
card to the travelling and corporate golfing public, as this venue
has the aura of what my father described as ‘class on grass’
and many will find as I did on this very special day, that the
experience is added to by the sound of a resurgent birdlife and
that on this golf course they will be playing ‘golf as it
should be played’.
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