Ceres Golf Club

Description

Records on where or when the first golfers arrived in Ceres are scarce. General consensus suggests that it was sometime early in the 20th century. The course has always been in the same location, a flattish, well-forested piece of property in the south-western corner of the town.

The ground was leased from the Ceres municipality, who also set aside additional land in case the need ever arose to expand to an 18-hole course.

A professional course architect or designer was never consulted and the members routed the course themselves, finding their way by trial and error. In later years, Ken Elkin, who was instrumental in the design or redesign of numerous courses in the Western Cape, offered some help with regards to possible alterations.

The course, like most features in small towns is close to the heart of the community. There were men who kept the club afloat during the war years by digging deep into their pockets. The primary green keeping instruments in the late ‘40s were two donkeys and a lucerne mower. Most interesting was the fact that players never played “preferred lies”. They always played the ball as they found it.

At first the course sported sand greens, but in the late ‘60s the greens were gradually changed from sand to grass. A few members each took responsibility for building and grassing a green.

The locals will be quick to admit that the layout at Ceres is not the most daunting of tracks and that, in this day and age of 420-meter par fours, island greens and forced carries, are a pleasant rarity.