Pearl Valley Golf Club

Pearl Valley is a Jack Nicklaus Signature design laid out across the floor of the Paarl-Franschhoek valley, with mountains on every side. It is ranked number five in South Africa by Golf Digest South Africa. Like most Nicklaus courses, it asks you to think about where you want to come into each green before you choose a club off the tee. Your caddie will walk you through it hole by hole.

We play it in the cool of the morning. On the Cape Circuit you play it twice, two days apart, and the second round is always the better one, because by then you know where the trouble lies. On the Skeleton Coast & Garden Route it is the opening round, a short drive out of Cape Town before your aircraft takes you north to Namibia.

This is the course for the golfer who cares as much about the glass as the scorecard. You stay at La Residence in Franschhoek, eleven suites on a working wine estate, or at Ellerman House in Bantry Bay. Dinner might be La Petite Colombe at Leeu Estates or a six-course tasting at Tokara on the Helshoogte Pass. Our golf journeys here run in April to June and September to November. Non-golfers spend the morning in Franschhoek village.

Country: South Africa