Club Heritage

Our story start way back in 1911, when the first man in Riversdale to swing a golf club was Maans Jannie Steyn. He only had one golf club, just like many of us when we started out, but he went out every day and hit a couple of golf balls in the land surrounding his home. At a council meeting on 8 May 1911, Mr. Attmore and Mr. Denysson handed in an application for the development of a golf course in Riversdale. After careful consideration the council approved the development of Riversdale Golf Course.

On 19 May 1911, a founding meeting was held in the Riversdale town hall and the first committee was chosen for Riversdale Golf Club. The committee were as follows:

President – D. Versveld
Vice-President – F. Dawson
Additional Members: F. Wége, M. J. Botha, and D. J. Roux

Since then, Riversdale Golf Club has had to make way for the expansion of a Riversdale neighbourhood in 1928 at which time the golf course was relocated to where Oakdale Agricultural High School is today. In 1932, Dr. Pieter Daneel donated a stunning silver trophy which was the only one of its kind at that stage. The idea was to attract more golfers to the areas where there were only 9 hole course, as well as increase competitiveness between golfers. The Daneel Trophy as it is still known as today was played for between Albertinia, Riversdale, Heidelberg, Ladismith, Swellendam, and Montagu. However, since then Albertinia, Ladismith and Montagu have withdrawn from the Daneel Trophy and was replaced with Robertson, Bredasdorp and Riviersonderend.

After the war, Gerhard de Vries took it upon himself to find a new suitable location for our precious gem, and came across wetlands with a river that run all along the left of it. Since that day, Japie Dekenah and Gerhard de Vries went down to the wetlands and started cleaning the area, and removed any and all unwanted bush.

​On 12 March 1945, Councilor, E. Theron applied for the use of the wetlands by
Riversdale Golf Club at the municipality. On 25 June 1945, Councilors A. J. van Wyk and A. H. Karremacher proved the use of the wetlands by Riverdale Golf Club. Mr. de Vries and Mr. Dekenah then went ahead and started constructing the first green. In the year 1952 Riversdale Golf Club got it first club house, which was not very big and could only be used for entry at the golf club, however the total of the club house was a mere R480 to build. It was in 1965, that the wooden club house was burnt down due to a “braai” that was held to close to the club house. It was only in 23 September 1967, that Riversdale Golf Club had a new club house after Mr. Eddie Davids built a new club house where it still stands today. However, due to a influx of new golfers the members at Riversdale decided to expand the club house and enlarge it, as well as to obtain a liquor license.

The captain of that time, Mr. Danie van Tonder, was the one with the driving force to see the club succeed and expand, as well as improve our golf course. Today, we have probably the best, most scenic, and challenging 9 hole course in Southern Africa.

Thank you for taking the time to read up about our history, and we hope that you will visit Riversdale Golf Club whenever you may pass by Riversdale.