I Travelled 8000 Miles To Play This Golf Course…

My god, how good does that look on camera? Wow. All right, this is it. I’ve traveled, was it? 8,000 miles to come to South Africa. We’re going to play nine holes. We’re at Royal Johannesburg East Course Championship course starting on par five 472. Oh, wow. I cannot hit it better. Come on. Wow. That’s going to be out there. Get that off the first. Okay. 135. Little downhill. Probably playing about 130. How good does this look on camera? Ah, not that far right. H. Uh, it’s on the green, but that is so bad. Little stop there. Little guinea foul shooting himself. O, look how good these greens look. Okay, today we’re going to see what we can actually shoot through none else. This is going to be it’s going to obviously be serious golf, but obviously we’re going to enjoy it. This is going to be like quite novel to me. A little off the right. No idea about the speed. Yeah, that is quick. Good start. Okay, we’re just darting about a bit. This is hole five. There’s just a few people playing like the the second and the third and the fourth. There’s no point because it’s really quiet. There’s no point in sort of like getting stuck behind. So, we’re going to dart about. I cannot believe how good this place looks. is actually insane. And this is this is the debut of the secret weapon. You want to hit like a 270 shot. And this is basically bang on if I rip one of these. Oh my days. Yeah, we like this thing. Wow. That’s got miles as well. 280. It’s downhill a bit. It’s mental. I got a feeling it’s like a sort of like a 260 carry club. Um, we’re doing placing by the way just because it’s like stormy jober. So the golf course underneath the grass is wet. So you get loads and loads of mud balls. So it’s usually it’s uh placing in most in most normal play. 223 219 front 244 back. We know what a safe play is here. Trying to get a solid four iron out the back. Just land it back at the green. There’s no point in taking the water into play. If I was being aggressive here, I’d probably hit five iron. Then when you catch it a little skinny like that, you’re still on the green. It’s gone to the back fringe. All right, boys. We’ve got a hardy dar here. These are the noisy bastards. Is this one injured? He’s got his back up a bit. No, he’s all right. My boy. No, he’s all right. I think he’s an old boy. At least the water looks healthy. It’s like a Swedish glacia. When you have been in England all summer and then you come down here at the perfect time, just after they’ve had their rains and the course just like comes to life, it’s just like it’s just unreal. Do you know how much you pay for round a golf here as well? I think it’s around £30 with a buggy. DP World Tour Course. So, this is quick straight down the grain downhill. Sort of cheating when two par fives in a row, but okay. Get down the hill. Get down there. Little scared of that. Just a little shout out while I’m here as well to Abel, which is my clothing partner. Finally got the weather for wearing these polos. These are the new ones. Uh there’s literally like 10 different colors in this polo. Great fit, nice and breathable. Yeah, they’re quality. So, I know it’s probably not the time of year like in the northern hemisphere now, but just get stocked up for next year you can use James 10. Get 10% off and get them while the stocks are in cuz I think they’re going to they’re going to go quick. Full cup outside the right edge for two birdie start. Oh, I just stayed there. Sorry, I can’t just can’t get over it. I swear this course is looking like even better than last year. So, they’re hosting the DP World Tour. In fact, the the the Dunh Hill um where you get loads of big players. They’re hosting that mid December. So, yeah, I’ve not seen it this good before. Hook a little just right at the trap. That should be fine. Yeah, that’s fine. Seen it down. Okay, so let’s brush off on a little bit of wildlife while we’re out here. So, I won’t get too close to these bad boys, but that it’s spelled like kit. Kiwit. I don’t know if maybe the Africans call it kit cuz the the W’s of these. You can’t get too close to these, especially when they got their youngs here. These are the ones with the long uh lanky legs. So, when they got their their young around, if they get too spooked, they’ll go up in the air and they’ll like come straight down at you. they’ll start attacking you. They’re very very aggressive and uh protective over their young. And then yeah, you’ve got a hardy dah. Okay, we got a 90 98 uphill. I don’t know. Potential for a fly. Not been in this thick co yet. Wiry this. Just going to play this 100. If it’s slightly by, we’re we’re fine. Alex in the hole. Yeah, I could be close. We’re just going to go just outside the hole. All about pace. Beauty door through the holes. Right, just going to have to tee off a little in front the marker just to uh get me all in. There’s not much room behind the tea. Anyway, another par five picking the holes. This isn’t on purpose. Just hope it has a little bit of draw, huh? That was wide. Oh, I hate that swing. That’s just like sit back, spin open. Okay, 202 uphill. It’s probably playing all of like 220. I’m just going to hit five iron. Anything out to the left is fine. Like you just can’t really miss this pin right generally. I don’t know exactly where it is, but okay. That is like a slappy toe. Yeah, it’s going to be fine. There’s no one there for Cuya. This stuff’s a bit dry, so it shouldn’t be too We got a bit of wet stuff here, and it’s Yeah, like so much firmer when it’s wet. So, we’re just going to play I mean, we can’t That’s the thing. What you can’t do out here is you can’t play one into the slope and expect it to jump up just because if it’s into grain kuya, the ball will literally just come backwards. Um, if it’s downgrain, you can sort of get away with it, but haven’t got much room to work with playing onto a down slope. Just got to be fairly conservative. Just trying to land this like pin eye. Yeah, that’s it’s actually really good. Landed it just short of where I was trying to give yourself a bit of margin and come up short of, you know, where you’re trying to pitch it, then it works out perfect. But if you try and find the perfect spot, like two paces onto the green, and come up short, it’s going to hit the top of the bank and come back to your feet. So, well, not literally. Cuyo ain’t that strong. Again, this is just for people in Europe. That is a jackaranda. And in Jo, there’s loads of jackarandas. And they come out at this time of year. They’re just blooming. Get a bit of rain and um the right conditions and they start to come out to continue talking about trees. So, there’s a place called Hton, which is one of the suburbs, which is actually where they host the DP World Tour event. And around the Hton area, you’ve got entire roads where it’s just jackarandas go all the way down these roads and they’re like everywhere. So you’re just driving through roads that like lined with jackaranders. I just missed it to go to three. Hole nine. 389 dog leg right. If you get one moving left to right, you can just take it over the bunkers on the right, just left of the traps and just bleed it. Yeah. Okay, that’s good. Now, I say now because I’ve ripped that, but it’s just come out with not much spin. It’s because this is at altitude and we’re like I think it’s about 1,600 m above 1500 meters above sea level. it goes about 10% further, but also at altitude the ball, you need more spin to keep the ball in the air. So, I usually try and loft the driver up a bit when I come here. And that one, because I’m like squeeze cutting it, there’s not a lot of dynamic loft. So, it’s come out very It’s come out like 1200 spin. 75 playing the number. It’s a little off it. This is what it’s about this trip for me. this distance here. That is not what it’s about. It’s got miles. Right. We just got work to do there. Just working out how far these wedges are going. Hello. Sit. Sit. Sit. Wa, that’s so fast. Good part. Obviously, we played three par five. So, that’s going to be the easy part of this 9hole loop that I’m playing. Now, we got four tough holes. We got this long par four, 460. The next is at least 460. Great hole. We got a 180 par 3 and then a 350ish par 4. Just four greats to finish. So it’s 285 cover on that trap on the right. Hook a bit hook. Okay, it’s fine. Scent that was. If I’m honest, that’s been the pattern as of late. Just just a little under, a little stuck. Bull flights with iron’s just a little loopy. So, not quite getting like down on it enough. So, yeah, it’s just um look, I only just got here really. So, we are going to put in a lot of work. Obviously, I’ve got loads of time. 134. Play this 1:30. Pulled it a tad. So, might need to sit back fringe. Good putt. Go in. Did you see how the grain grabbed that? How much slower that is? Feels straight. Sort of want to pay attention to a bit of grain now. Let’s play it straight. Yeah. building. Okay, that’s one of the tough Well, I say tough par fours. It’s sort of not tough if you would it 330. That’s not meant to sound arrogant, but if you do it at 330 on a 460 par 4, obviously you make it easy if you’ve got like a gap wedge in your hand. This is such a good golf hole. So, it goes down the hill a little dog leg right. You’ve got a lake in front of the green which goes around the front of the green. So you can hit driver up to the right. If you hit driver left, it’s in the trees. And if you hit driver right, it’s in some weird nature reserve. Some nature, what do they call it? Some sensitive area. He’s got a secret weapon out again. John, will you stop getting your weapon out in public? Toe slapper. Love a bit of gear effect, don’t we? Only on the golf course. So log on. I go 160. Should be a smooth nine. Just pretty much bang on a n ir now. Now I got irons that don’t knuckle ball. It’s nice to not hit flyers on every shot from the fairway. Okay, just right of it. Allow myself a little margin. Be good. Yeah. You know what I’ve not seen yet I’m slightly concerned about is my old uh my old compatriots, the Egyptian geese, the old Egyptians, the ginger mohawk ducks. I’ve seen two at a distance so far. I’m pretty sure it’s Egyptian season right now cuz they’ve all moved down, you know, from Egypt. Go on, son. It’s pyramid, lads. Let’s get straight down here. I’m going like that, son. Rocket to the moon. Okay, one into two. So, we’re going to play this as play this as a one just because it’s up the hill and this is pretty much like a full cup outside. Most of the breaks fairly late. slid in mate. Is that Tres? Trez on de 169. Probably playing like four down. So 165 just hit a good nine. It’s probably going to come up a few paces short, but what’s the point in playing around with like half swings when you don’t need to? No wind, so look a little a little right, isn’t it? It’s fine. It’s on the fringe. Don’t know. It might be a bit of alignment. Might just be me just dropping it under a bit. stuff we’re going to work on is getting up and off. We’ll go into the drills and other videos. I’m going to start releasing loads of videos on this channel. So, all the stuff I’m working on right now with Liam, I’ll be literally doing videos of this stuff. So, uh yeah, if like I said, if you if you’re watching this, you unsubscribed, whack the subscribe. The cuyu. The coui. The cuya. The I’m pretty sure it’s cuyu. It’s down the grain, so that’s fine. But there’s a bit of a clump behind it. We’re playing straight onto a down slope really quick down the grain. I didn’t have a massive clump of grass behind me. You could just easily just nip this off the top. But that clump, unless you’re like proper steep, and the reason it does make a difference is watch this. Like there is no give in this grass at all. So I think the play here, believe it or not, is the the Texas wedge. Is that what it’s called? The belly wedge. Just get it onto the green cuz I would really have to go digging to find back of ball cuz there’s a big clump behind it just over the fringe. There’s just no way on earth that that you’re bus. We need this for uh to remain bogey free. Just the tiniest bit right to left. Oh, it’s just gone at the end. Ah, that’s the first drop. Okay, last hole of the day. We got 3 384. And really, this is this is the play. This is the play. It’s just four irons short of the trap on the right. Like a 230 shot. Yeah, that’s really nicely struck. Yeah, that’s good. Just a little more loopy than I want it at the moment. What’s that? He’s left himself a Ronny John. Sorry. Playing a Ronny plus three, but it’s a back pin. And this is where I definitely do need to do something with it. Um, you know, we want to finish. We want to give ourselves a look for bird ear. And there because the green is back to front, there’s no way if I hit wedge and land it near that it’s going to stay anywhere near that pin. So, we’re just going to have to hit a little knockdown. We’re going to get quite aggressive. Good for line. Be the distance. This is for the people that seem to want to see someone replacing divots in a YouTube video. I’m not going to do all of them for you, but I’ll just do one and hopefully that suffices. Enjoy the divot filling. Wasp 3%. Big swinger. Woo! I swung. Okay, that is it. Tournaments start next week, I think. But more to come on that soon. Just seen an Egyptian fly by. Egyptians. The boys. What an ending to the video. We’re going to get a flyby. Hey, the bays. They knew I was coming.

After 8,000 miles of travel, I’ve finally made it to South Africa 🇿🇦 to begin my journey playing tournament golf out here. In this video, I tee it up for the very first time on South African soil — and this course did not disappoint.

This trip is all about testing myself against new conditions, new competition, and a completely different style of golf. The scenery, the atmosphere, and the golf itself are on another level.

🎥 Follow the journey as I document every round, every lesson, and every step toward the Sunshine Tour Q School in April.

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14 Comments

  1. Class, best of luck. Just need to hit fairways and greens when its a tournament now!

  2. Boet, Im travelling back to SA from the UK Nov 22nd, after 5 years and would love a round of golf against you. Playing off 1 now so you would owe me a few strokes though lol. Let me know if you keen and Ill meet you at Royal JHB or my old home course Benoni Country Club.

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