Cape Kidnappers

The opening stretch of holes at Cape Kidnappers navigates excellent rolling, undulating land, features trademark bunkering and captivating green complexes, they’re engaging and enjoyable without smacking you in the face. Intrigue is retained through every shot, and a mixture of blind shots and approaches into heavily undulated greens makes for some enjoyable golf. This speaks to the routing of Cape Kidnappers, where inland holes are perhaps more architecturally captivating than those benefitting from the dramatic coastal views, ensuring excellent flow to the round.

The sixth hole is where the magic of the landscape, and that shots that it can induce truly begins to present itself. A one-shotter playing across a deep ravine, the green melting into the edge of the first finger - anything left of the green will suffer a 500-foot drop-off into the Ocean below. Rugged bunkers are built into the edges of the cliffs to stop balls from the deadly fall, and standing over your ball you can’t help but soak in the magic around you. The sixth hole perfectly encapsulates the spirit of Cape Kidnappers – it’s dramatic, it’s gorgeous and sometimes golf shots can feel downright dangerous. It’s abilities to tackle all of these senses at once makes this a course with a unique place in the golfing landscape of the world.

The controversial 15th hole, aptly named pirates plank, is one that divides opinion. A dead straight 500 metre par 5 hugging the edge of a cliff in its entirety along the flattest land on the golf course offering absolutely no room for error as it narrows the closer you get to the green. It may well be the most dramatic dead straight and flat hole in the world, where you may well be better off hitting an 6 iron three times than attempting to hit driver. This is a hole which in any other location in the world would be thrown in the ‘boring basket’, but the beauty of the Cape excuses all, and may be many people’s favourite hole. In special places like this, beauty often overrides the architecture.

Cape Kidnappers offers a bit of everything to golfers. The scenery is outrageous, filled with Ocean and cliffs as far as the eye can see. The trademark Doak bunkering is fantastic, both visually and strategically, the varieties in size and shape seem to have a gravitational pull much greater than their stature. The greens are as good as anywhere you will find- running fast, firm and pure their diversity in complexes makes many approaches a guessing game first time round and shots around the green become far more interesting. Tee shots offer a mix of tight, wide, blind and forced carries – a unique blend of challenges which force decision making and a careful assessment of risk-reward.