CNN
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Professional golfers have been known to complain about unruly crowd behavior, but it could be worse – at a South African course, spectators once feasted on a giraffe in the middle of the third fairway.
The public are, quite literally, animals at Skukuza Golf Club in the Kruger National Park, which stakes its claim as “the wildest course in the world”.
There is no shortage of rivals vying for the title. Fairways in south-eastern Australia are teeming with kangaroos, alligators slither through water hazards across Florida, while in South Africa’s northernmost Limpopo province, zebras, sables and antelopes graze at the Safari Resort’s Legend Golf and Signature Course.
Players in Skukuza can also see all kinds of impressively large herbivores during a round, but there’s one thing they won’t see: fencing.
That means predators, and lots of them. Lions lazily bask around a tee box in the afternoon sun as hyenas wander nearby to grab scraps from the pride’s next hunt. a perfectly camouflaged leopard prowls the thick bush behind a green, while a Nile crocodile – freshly killed between its jaws – stares down golfers from the banks of the aptly named Lake Panic.
Add tree-chopping elephants, warring hippos and more to the mix – it’s all in a day’s work for head greenkeeper Jean Rossouw.
“Our slogan is the wildest march in the world for a reason,” Rossouw told CNN.
“We’re in a national park, we want to keep it as natural as possible for the animals to roam freely in their environment… that’s the experience you want to give people. We have everything on this golf course.”
Having grown up in the two-million-hectare national park, Rossouw was well-suited for a greenkeeper job with responsibilities unlike any other when he took up the position in 2016.
The safety of staff and players is a ‘first priority’ and preventative measures start before the first tee. Rossouw’s team goes on a daily early-morning cart ride around the nine-hole course to check for animals, as well as any overnight damage, be it a carcass, broken branches left by elephants or holes dug by anchovies and other burrowing species.
If the club deems the course unsafe to play, golfers are not allowed to tee off. In the event that potentially dangerous animals are found in a single section, Nearby holes can be closed while the rest remain open. Possessed animals are gently coaxed to move from the area, Rossouw explained, but are allowed to leave on their own if the lure of food doesn’t entice them.
A glimpse of the club’s safety protocols in action came in August 2022, when the sun rose over a dead giraffe on the third fairway. A frenzy of lions and then hyenas saw the course closed immediately, with South African National Parks (SANParks), the park’s governing body, requesting the carcass be removed by truck. When the raptors followed the ranger’s vehicle into the bush, the path was reopened.
Although staff monitor the course throughout the day and maintain contact with park rangers, all golfers must sign an “activity indemnity form” before playing, in addition to the indemnity waiver signed by visitors entering the park through any of its nine main gates.
No major “events” have occurred to date, Rossouw said, a course he’s confident will hold as long as golfers remain aware of the unique environment they’re playing in.
“People obviously respect animals and it goes both ways,” he added. “People tend to think that if there’s a lion on the road, it’s going to charge you – it’s not. It’s seen and smelled long before you see them, so they’ll try to get out of your way first.”
![Players must sign an indemnity form before starting Skukuza.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231214153904-02-skukuza-story.jpg?c=original)
![Players must sign an indemnity form before starting Skukuza.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231214153904-02-skukuza-story.jpg?c=original)
Given the range of bite force displayed around the course, Rossouw’s choice of the animal he is most wary of may come as a surprise.
While there is an outcry about the hippos that roll in the waters next to the ninth hole, they usually only come ashore at night and so pose less of a threat. Outside of winter, when the hippos wander further in search of grass, or during fights between bulls moving in and out of the water, Rossouw is relatively indifferent.
![Two bulls battle for supremacy in Lake Panic as other hippos watch.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231214154042-03-skukuza-story.jpg?c=original)
![Two bulls battle for supremacy in Lake Panic as other hippos watch.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231214154042-03-skukuza-story.jpg?c=original)
Instead, the buffalo are the ones to watch. Weighing up to 1,800 pounds (816 kg), an average pair of antlers that are twinned at an astonishing rate make them a formidable presence.
“They are so unpredictable,” he explained. “They’ve chased me a few times in the golf cart, so we’re definitely watching them a little bit more.”
Since buffaloes are also the main culprits of damages along the way, the species is something of an enemy for the green guard group. A few months ago, an early morning drive revealed a ruined corridor – trampled and dung-covered by a buffalo herd of about 200.
There was some silver lining to the “nightmare” in the form of free fertiliser, but the incident demonstrated how ungulates such as buffalo and antelope – not the perhaps expected party of towering elephants – cause the most disruption.
The team gains some respite from the absence of any warehouses, a conscious choice made in the expectation that hippos and crocodiles might nest in the sand, although the sheer abundance of trees – “sky shelters” – keeps the workload high.
“With all the fuss and what the animals consume and eat, never mind cutting it all down and making it look in pristine condition, I think the course is going really well,” Rossouw said.
![Lions cause relatively little damage along the way compared to other animals.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231214154642-04-skukuza-story.jpg?c=original)
![Lions cause relatively little damage along the way compared to other animals.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231214154642-04-skukuza-story.jpg?c=original)
These days, the club is a far cry from the scruffy few holes in a disused airstrip that it was when it opened in 1972.
Back then, the greens were ‘brown’, while the club bar was the equivalent of a few drinks in the boot of one of the member’s cars. Although further holes and a club eventually followed, it wasn’t until 1999 that the course was opened to the general public, not just club members and park staff.
The hands-on upgrades coincided with a front-end social media strategy to capitalize on the course’s wildlife viral appeal. With their own ‘spectators’ tab on the club’s Instagram, the animals – and the chance to play near them – have become an effective marketing tool.
September saw more than 1,000 rounds at the club for the fifth consecutive month. A nine-hole round for members costs 77 rand ($4), while non-members and overseas visitors, who can rent clubs at the course, can play for 297 rand ($16). Alternate tee boxes that change the length of the holes offer golfers the ability to play 18 holes.
Membership, now offered worldwide, has also grown and Rossouw is very proud to work in an increasingly popular destination. However, the greenskeeper’s most cherished moments come when there isn’t a golfer in sight, when he pours himself a coffee and takes a leisurely early drive around the course.
On a particularly special morning, he can park and quietly observe a pack of his favorite animals: African wild dogs.
![Endangered African hunting dogs are a rare sight in Skukuza.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231214154753-05-skukuza-story.jpg?c=original)
![Endangered African hunting dogs are a rare sight in Skukuza.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/231214154753-05-skukuza-story.jpg?c=original)
Scarce and critically endangered, with just over 1,400 left in the wild according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)even a rare sighting makes any charge or buffalo share more than worthwhile.
“There is no better place to work,” he said.
“Hopefully it’s part of people’s bucket list, even if they’re not golfers, just to come and enjoy the facility. Golf or no golf is one of the things I’m sure people should do.”