The large area (ranging in driving time from about three to six hours from both Johannesburg and Durban) lures hikers, outdoor adventurers and nature lovers aplenty, but with golf courses as well, it’s an ideal time-out spot.

There can be little doubt that the Champagne Sports Resort in the Central Drakensberg offers the most high-end golf experience, with a championship layout that regularly features in the top 30 of the annual SA rankings.

About four-and-a-half hour’s drive from Johannesburg and two from Durban, the course was re-designed by Hugh Baiocchi about 10 years ago. The end result — a challenging layout that is sure to entertain golfers of varying ability thanks to the variety of tees on offer, with the overall length ranging from 6 694m off the yellow markers to 5 632m off the white.

Your best bet, if your handicap is somewhere in the 8 to 18 range, is to go with the more standard blue markers, with the course then measuring 6 203m. From there, if you’re straight off the tee, you should be able to score well.

But don’t take my word for it — that’s according to resident pro, Trevor Livesey, who has been with Champagne Sports since 1994.

“To score well you’ve really got to play good golf. But, also, for the high handicap player, the guys can play the course and they can shoot good scores around here. I think it’s a golf course for everybody.”

Well, it has to be because, as with all resorts, hotel guests come first, and the course needs to be playable for everyone holidaying there. While the average hacker might not appreciate bent grass greens and lush kikuyu fairways and tees, those with a few rounds under their belts over the years most certainly will.

As with all the courses in the region, Champagne Sports makes good use of the natural mountain views, but what sets it apart is that it isn’t self-indulgent in this regard, and still goes to the trouble of offering interesting holes to test one’s skills.

Take the par-four 2nd hole, for example, which used to be the stroke one. A big downhill dogleg to the left makes for a challenging approach shot, as you seek to get your club selection spot-on. But, if you find the fairway, the difficulty factor is significantly reduced — hence the demotion to stroke three. Then there’s the par-three 4th, which is the signature hole. An elevated tee has you eyeing up something in the region of an 8-iron from the blue markers (148m) over water to a narrow green, which has further protection in the form of bunkers at the back. Avoid the sand and water and you’re in good shape.

To cap an interesting round, the 18th is a great finishing hole, requiring a decent drive, ideally with a draw, then an approach to an elevated green fronted by water and sand. This hole is certainly not for the faint-hearted, especially if you’re on track to record a career-best round here.

From there, make sure not to miss out on a rather inviting deck at the clubhouse that overlooks the course, with the mountains in the distance. That’s in summer, while logfires will tempt you indoors during winter.

While Champagne Sports is to be celebrated as the premier golf course in the Drakensberg, that shouldn’t detract from a selection of resort courses that have their own unique characteristics and play to their strengths, in terms of the experience they offer and the fabulous mountain views they maximise.

Cathedral Peak golf course is about 45 minutes down the drag from Champagne Sports and, while it may trail its more glamorous cousin in terms of championship layout, it steals a march by its proximity to the mountains.

Nowhere else does one get the sense that one is playing golf in an stony amphitheatre. Carved out of the natural slopes at the foot of the mountains, there’s only space for nine greens and 18 tees, but make sure you take a cart, because you may get a nose bleed with the amount of trekking up and down those slopes!

The course makes use of plenty of elevated tee shots and this is where one gets the full value of those mountain panoramas. Assuming you’re hitting it well, you’ll be treated to the sight of your ball disappearing into the distance, with the imposing Cathedral Peak mountain range as your backdrop.

It’s on the short side, length-wise, but some of the pins are quite difficult to get close to, due to a combination of hard greens and strategic pin placement. Further to that, one is often hitting to elevated greens or having to carry significant drops to targets way down below.

The par-three 2nd/11th holes spring to mind, where anything between a sandwedge and 9-iron is required to land exactly in the right spot or suffer the indignity of your ball rolling all the way down a severe incline or nestling in bush behind the green. Not easy, and one can say the same for the blind tee-shot that awaits you on the signature hole, the par-four 3rd/12th, which requires a bit of trust in one’s driving accuracy and nerves of steel, to negotiate a downhill approach to a green guarded by water at the front.

A word needs to be reserved for the condition of the course, which is incredibly well-maintained, despite a lack of resources and financial constraints. It may not have the benefit of bent grass greens, but what Trevor Longmore and the folks at Cathedral Peak do have, they keep in tip-top shape.

But, really, the golf course is all about the mountain views, while still being more than a chip-and-putt outing. If you’re in the Central Drakensberg area and you like your golf, it’s well worth the trip and the nominal greenfees, with a rather quaint clubhouse and bar thrown in for good measure.