This is a resort course rather than a members’ club, and booking is straightforward: tee times go online up to a year ahead. The one thing to know before you click is that full pre-payment is required to secure a booking, and cancelling inside forty eight hours forfeits the whole fee.
The club also publishes dated closures. The course is unavailable for hollow tining from 28 September to 2 October 2026, 3 to 7 May 2027, and 27 September to 1 October 2027, which is worth checking against an early spring or early winter trip.
The course
Peter Matkovich laid the course out along the edge of the Bot River lagoon, with the fynbos-covered Kogelberg mountains behind. The club calls the setting arguably one of the most beautiful golfing backdrops in the Western Cape, and says the course has plenty to offer all skill levels.
Its own summary of the round is a fabled 18th hole, a bucket-list 8th, tricky sand traps and challenging water hazards. The club states it is ranked fifth in the country by Golf Digest. Hours run from seven to six in winter and six to seven in summer.
Playing Arabella Golf Course as a visitor
No membership, affiliation or handicap requirement is published anywhere. The club asks only that guests read its guest information and etiquette notice, and that they present themselves in neat, appropriate golf attire on the course.
Green fees are not published as a rate card. They appear only inside the online booking system once you have chosen a date, so there is no way to price a round in advance from the website.
Practice, and what is on site
There is a driving range and a separate warm-up range, a putting green and a chipping green, plus a fully stocked pro shop, lessons with the resident professional, golf clinics and a juniors programme.
Golf carts come with GPS and clubs are available for hire, so you can arrive with nothing. There are locker rooms and showers, a clubhouse and restaurant, and the Southern Sun hotel and its spa share the property, which makes a stay-and-play straightforward.
