John Collier Club Awards and Certifications

By Alistair Collier | The Business of Golf Magazine

As the John Collier Annual Survey has done over the past number of years, once we have collated all the data from the John Collier Surveys received from clubs and through desk top research and interviews with people knowledgeable of golf courses throughout South Africa (caddies, green keepers and staff and members), and published the 16th John Collier Annual Survey in March, we then re-visit the data on the golf clubs to ascertain which club has the most comprehensive report. Notwithstanding a 44% response rate from
golf clubs throughout South Africa and a 31% national compliance level there are always those clubs that stand out as being exceptional. As was announced on World Environment
Day BLAIR ATHOLL GOLF AND EQUESTRIAN ESTATE is South Africa’s TOP CLUB with ELEMENTS PROVATE GOLF RESERVE as the worthy SPECIAL MENTION.

From a Golf Union perspective, the leading clubs per Union are as follows

Boland – Pearl Valley
Border – East London Golf Club
Central Gauteng – Eagle Canyon Estate
Eastern Cape – St Francis Links
Ekurhuleni – Ebotse Estate
Free Stat – Ladybrand Golf Club
Gauteng North – Blair Atholl Golf and
Equestrian Estate
Kwa Zulu Natal – Umhlali Country Club
Limpopo – Elements Private Golf Reserve
Mpumulanga – Sabi River Sun
Northern Cape – Kimberley Golf Club
Northwest – Gary Player Country Club
Southern Cape – George Golf Club
Western Cape – Westlake Golf Club

Last but not least from a Golf Union perspective, in order to identify the TOP GOLF UNION each of the participating clubs’ environmental compliance and good governance compliance levels scores (Gold 3 points; Silver 2 points and Bronze 1 point) were added together and an average was found for each Golf Union. I regard to this year the TOP GOLF UNION is the SOUTHERN CAPE GOLF UNION From an overall perspective 11% (9% in 2021) of clubs participating in the survey achieved GOLD CERTIFICATION STATUS. This
translates into 22 Clubs in South Africa have achieved GOLD CERTIFICATION STATUS. These clubs are

Arabella Estate
Blair Atholl Estate
Bryanston Country Club;
Champagne Sports Golf Club
Eagle Canyon Estate
Elements Private Golf Reserve
Gary Player Country Club;
George Golf Club,
Kingswood Golf Estate
Leopard Creek Estate
Lost City Country Club;
Paarl Golf Club;
Pearl Valley
Pretoria Country Club;
Randpark Golf Club (Bushwillow);
Randpark Golf Club (Firethorn);
Sabi River Sun Resort Golf Club;
Silver Lakes Golf Club;
St Francis Links;
Umhlali Country Club;
Waterkloof Golf Club;
Westlake Golf Club.

In terms of SILVER CERTIFICATION STATUS, 49 clubs achieved this, which is 23% (21% in 2021) of the participants. While in terms of BRONZE CERTIFICATION STATUS, 138 clubs achieved this certification status which is 66% of the participants.