Wednesday 7 August 2002

This site will be updated on: 15 August 2002 at 17:00

Business - Sakenuus

• Fourth hole at Boschenmeer Nine voted best in SA
• Groenleegte sold out
• Proe jongwyne van die Paarl
• KWV wines shine

THE fourth hole of the Boschenmeer Nine was recently voted the best in South Africa by readers of Golf Today. Johan Pauw, the developer of Boschenmeer Golf and Country Estate and Dick Knight, Captain of the Paarl Golf Club, received the acknowledgement at a function last week.

Golf Today invited golfers to vote for the Best 4th Hole in South Africa, as part of

Boschenmeer 4th. Second place was awarded to the fourth hole at the Durban Country Club (515 votes), followed by 473 votes to the Randpark Golf Club.

The Boschenmeer 4th (Par 5, 490 metres) is the 22nd hole of the Paarl Golf course. The winning hole was scrutinised by the Golf Today team and a suggested "plan of attack" was formulated:

"This is a hole which calls for careful planning. Stay left on your drive as the fairway slopes severely to the right. Long hitters can cut the right-hand corner and reach the green in two, but for most golfers this is a lay-up hole.

"The ideal lay-up shot is short of the bunker in the middle of the fairway. The brave can take on the bunker, but beware of the consequences as water borders both sides of this fairway. The green is very wide, but not very deep, so pick the right club for your approach shot."

The Boschenmeer Nine, together with the upgraded 18-holes of the Paarl Golf Course, offers the only 27-hole golf course in the Western Cape - with its beauty and playability set against a background of the magnificent Franschhoek mountains and Paarl Rock, lakes, water features and the Berg River.

The Boschenmeer Nine was completed two years ago, and was designed and constructed by Danie Overmeyer Golf Course Design and Golfscape in association with David Frost.

Overmeyer has a wealth of global experience, and in association with the Gary Player Design Company, has worked on several outstanding golf courses around the world.

Says Overmeyer: "I believe that a golf course should make a valuable contribution to the environment, nature and the community.

"The Boschenmeer Nine was created from a stretch of under-utilised land and a closed dumpsite, so in essence we have recycled the land and have created something beautiful and useful for future generations."

He continued to say that in designing a golf course, four main factors should be considered: the topography, climate, soil types and the aesthetic value of the area.

"Apart from evaluating the natural contours of the land, designing a golf course on a residential estate also requires careful consideration of the location of residential homes, to ensure that greens are set in a way that it can be played in all four wind directions.

"It is equally important to design a golf course with emotional variety that provides interesting and challenging shots to players of all levels.

"Other strategic decisions include the design around existing water features, and at Boschenmeer extensive use was made thereof.

The flow of the course is of utmost importance, and looking across the fairways of the Boschenmeer Nine at the views of the mountains, it is clear that these objectives were achieved," he concluded.

RETIREMENT buying has given a healthy boost to the property market in Paarl in recent years, but a severe shortage of suitable land is likely to curtail any major new development of this type.

So says Gordon Dick, principal of leading local agency Homenet Caprop, which recently sold the final phases of two large retirement home projects that have brought 500 new residents to the town at the heart of the Cape winelands.

The agency had the sole mandate to sell homes in De Oude Renbaan retirement development, and it has now also sold the last 25 homes at the Groenleegte development, which offered homes ranging in price from R320 000 to R500 000 and where the final transfers will take place by the end of the year.

"It is difficult to see where the next such development will be," says Dick. "We were very fortunate to find the land for Groenleegte, but we haven't found any suitable prospect for new development yet."

Most of the farms around the town are tied into local authority 'green belt' restrictions and they cannot easily be broken up.

Meanwhile, he says, the residential property market in Paarl is very stable, with good family homes available in the R700 000 to R750 000 price bracket.

"Logically, Paarl should be a feeder town for Cape Town.

"We are just 45 minutes from the Waterfront and we have all the attractions of country life with the convenience of a big city close at hand. But we haven't really been discovered yet.

"A similar house to one in Constantia that sells for R2 million or R3 million can be bought in Paarl for R800 000 or R900 000. However, I don't think that imbalance will last much longer."

WYNLIEFHEBBERS kan op 16 Augustus die keur van die Paarlstreek se jongwyne by die jaarlikse streeksjongwynskou op Rhebokskloof proe. Die streekkampioenwyne word daardie aand by 'n dinee aangekondig.

Bykans 2 000 jongwyne wat die room van die 2002 oes in die streek verteenwoordig, het onlangs op nasionale vlak om 17 kampioenskapstrofeë meegeding.

Elke wynstreek kry die geleentheid om op eie bodem met hul uitblinker wyne te spog, voordat die SANW die land se kampioen jongwyne op Vrydag 23 Augustus tydens 'n galadinee op Nederburg - geborg deur Agri-Expo - aangekondig word.

WINES from two of KWV International's best known brands have been highly rated by prominent writers in the United States and Canada.

The 2001 Cathedral Cellar Chardonnay achieved a rating of 90 out of a possible 100 points in the influential Wine Enthusiast publication in the USA and was described as "a rich, generous wine, with complexity and crisp acidity that complements the opulent fruit".

In Canada, the 2001 KWV Chardonnay, which won a gold medal at this year's Chardonnay-du-Monde competition in France, was recommended by widely-read wine writer, Stephen Wong, as a "Best Buy" to his 300 000 readers in Vancouver, Canada.

In the same article, the 1999 KWV Cabernet Sauvignon was also highly recommended.

Vernon Davis, KWV International's managing director, says: "These recommendations are great news and confirm that the new white wine styles combined with the depth of the red wines, suit the palates of our consumers worldwide."

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