Orkney Golf Club Orkney

In 1939, legendary golf club architect Bob Grimsdell was commissioned to build a nine hole golf course on the banks of the Vaal River in the town of Orkney. His fee was on hundred pounds. The wooden log cabin style clubhouse was built form Oregon pine creates which winding hoist parts had been shipped in from overseas for the Western Reefs mine in Orkney. There was no liquor license available then but the locker system served the thirsty members.

The course was officially opened in 1939 by Ernest Oppenheimer, the Chairman of the Anglo American Corporation. The second nine holes were added in the mid forties and the brick clubhouse was built in 1953. The old wooden building was converted into a tool shed and is currently the caddy-shack. It is earmarked to become a clubhouse again this time just for the club’s junior members when the new caddy-shack is built.

On the 25th of March 1947, golfing legends Sam Snead, the Open Championship holder and Bobby Locke the South African Open Champion, played an eighteen-hole exhibition round. Locke shot a 68 to beat Snead by one shot on this memorable day.