Southern African golfers lost more than 8-million balls last year: NHA

Golfers across most of Southern Africa lost 8.4-million balls and walked the equivalent of halfway around the world throughout 2023, it has been estimated.

Handicaps Network Africa (NHA) said in its January newsletter on Wednesday that 152,999 registered golfers played a total of 4.17-million rounds in the year.

The busiest club was Country Club Johannesburg with 73,245 rounds across its two courses, pipping nearby Randpark, which also has two layouts, by just 2,330 rounds.

The busiest 18-hole course was Westlake Golf Club in Cape Town with 40,710 rounds, knocking Stellenbosch off the perch.

“The highest number of nine-hole rounds played during 2023 were at Somerset West Golf Club, with 8,436 [rounds] captured ... Coming in a close second was Hermanus Golf Club with 7,687 nine-hole rounds,” it said.

The club that attracted the most visitor rounds was Fancourt with 19,017, followed by Royal Johannesburg (18,595) and Sun City (17,188).

Country Club Johannesburg also posted the most rounds by members, 60,021.

“A total of 114 clubs, of the 551 clubs on the system, had more visitors’ rounds than members’ rounds.”

The busiest courses in other regions of South Africa were: Hermanus (Boland), East London (Border), Port Elizabeth (Eastern Province), Reading (Ekurhuleni), Maccauvlei (Free State), Wingate Park (Gauteng North), Mount Edgecombe (KZN), Polokwane (Limpopo), Mbombela (Mpumalanga), Magaliespark (North West) and Mossel Bay (Southern Cape).

The busiest courses in other NHA countries were: Gaborone GC (Botswana), Kinshasa GC (DRC), Nkonyeni (Eswatini), Lilongwe (Malawi), Clube de Golfe de Beira (Mozambique), Windhoek (Namibia), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Lusaka (Zambia), Royal Harare (Zimbabwe).

The busiest month was December with 393,922 captured scores, followed by January (382,710), March (381,654) and April (380,222).

The total number of rounds was 2.28% down on the 4.27m record set in 2022. “The decline could possibly be attributed, in part, to the abnormal levels of rainfall in various parts of South Africa throughout the year, which caused courses to close and some for extended periods of time.”

The total number of registered golfers was 0.05% lower than the 153,083 from 2022.

But the number of female golfers grew by 4.62% and juniors by 4.36%.

NHA said it calculated the lost ball figure on the assumption that a golfer loses at least two balls per round. “In NHA-land at least 8.4m golf balls parted company with their owners and now languish in bushes, streams, woods and deep rough everywhere.”

Based on a lowly R20 a ball — some cost as much as R75 a pop — golfers would have blown a combined R168m in 2023.

NHA said golfers walked the equivalent of 25,922km, more than halfway around the world.

“We got to this number by taking the estimated global average length of a golf course at 6,750 yards, which converts to 6,172m. We then multiplied this figure by the number of rounds recorded.”

NHA didn’t say how many golfers used carts.