Whereas a golf course in Cape Town is not necessarily a hidden gem, or even a rarity it could be said that playing golf in Cape Town certainly is. Cape Town is known for its unique four seasons in one day weather and this adds to the challenge of an already difficult game. I found this out the hard way this past weekend.

My fourball and I arrived at Steenberg Golf Course for an early Saturday morning tee time and headed straight for the check-in. Steenberg is an incredibly beautiful, but challenging course and has every danger in the form of tree, water and sand to test golfers and punish them for wayward and sometimes even reasonable shots. It is currently rated 28th on the Golf Digest Top 100 South African courses. Steenberg means 'Mountain of Stone' and this is particularily apt as we noted in the pro shop that the wind that morning was blowing at 45km/h, not quite stone, but with winds that strong, you might as well be playing into a stony mountain.

On the first tee my playing partner was blown completely off his feet in mid swing, bad luck, that's one stroke. We pushed through bravely (I thought) and although there was no chance of me, with my high fade, scoring anything worthwhile in the winds, it was some great practice and one of the members of my fourball even managed to shoot his lowest score ever at Steenberg, which he put down to being so petrified of the strong gusts that he swung slow and strong and used lower club choices that he might usually do. The particular highlight (comedy wise) for me came at a 150 meter par 3 completely surrounded by water. Just the put the hole in context, I usually hit soft 6 iron from the tee here, but not that day. That day the wind was behind us and hard behind us. Simply put, we all went with a wedge and we all went over the back into the water, enough said.

Although, the day was difficult and at times made us want to pull our hair out, I had more fun than I have in a while and havent lauged so hard on a course in quite some time. I mean, how often do you get to watch your partner middle a 3 wood, a perfect shot, and scream with joy as the ball leaves the club face, only to frustratingly watch the ball land 50 meters in front of him. I hate to sound cruel, but that's golf and that's why I love it.