Royal Harare was founded in 1898 by a group of intrepid golf lovers, who played on conditions far removed from the lush course that we know today.
The course was established on the current location in 1901.
Originally known as Salisbury Golf Club, the club was granted Royal Patronage in December 1929.
The name changed again to Royal Harare Golf Club in 1980 when Zimbabwe gained Independence. The beautiful Parkland layout that you see today has been the result of years of innovation and vision on the part of the founders and current membership.
In 1979, Golf Digest voted Royal Harare one of the 50 best courses in the world, outside of the United States. After a redesign by Nick Price and Steve Smyers in 1996, the course was rejuvenated and lengthened with some major re-routing of holes.
The new course was opened for play on the 25th of October 1997, prior to the centenary celebrations in April 1998.
The new course is very highly rated by professionals and amateurs alike as a “classic” test of Golf.
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In 2018, Golf Digest once again voted Royal Harare Golf Club the premier golfing destination in Zimbabwe.
Despite its manicured lush appearance, Royal Harare is indeed no pushover; the course rewards shrewd shot choice and course management. Many a golfer has been lulled into carelessness by the veneer of ease that the course projects, only to be humiliated.
Royal Harare Golf Club has hosted the Zimbabwe Open for the last nine years, and in 2018 many of the visiting professionals ranked the course among the top courses on the Sunshine Tour, just behind South Africa’s Leopard Creek for the consistently excellent greens and especially for the warmth and hospitality of their Zimbabwean hosts.
The club welcomes and encourages visitors to come and enjoy all of our wonderful facilities. The golf course is open from 06:15am daily Monday to Sunday, and the club is open every day of the year except Christmas Day.
The weekday green fee for 18 holes for all visitors is US$25.
On weekends, non-affiliated visitors will pay a green fee of US$40.
All visitors must book to play at Royal Harare, and you can contact the Club by calling 0242-702920/27/28/29 or +263782645382 to reserve your tee time.
You can also email your preferred tee time to teetime@royalharare.co.zw to secure a tee time.
We have plenty of well-trained caddies available seven days of the week.
Our halfway house restaurant Birdies and Bogeys provide excellent well priced snacks and meals and our fully stocked bars always have a welcoming sice-cold drink available.
Bookings for lunch on the balcony overlooking the golf course can be arranged in advance by contacting Fadzai Rambanepasi, the Catering Manager on 0242-790967 or emailing catering@royalharare.co.zw
Royal also has a five kilometre running track around the perimeter of the course which is well marked and for a small fee visitors are welcome to come and run in a safe and beautiful environment.
The course is home to a number of duiker and we also have abundant birdlife on the course which is the home to more than 57 of tree species indigenous to Zimbabwe.
Our extensive web site will also provide you with more detailed information on the Club. You can find our website at www.royalharare.co.zw and we are also on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/RoyalHarareGolfClub
The Pro Shop Zimbabwe is a modern shop which offers a selection of the most modern golfing attire and up to date equipment.
From B6
This September, Royal Harare is set to launch a brand new annual mixed event for men and ladies, individual and teams, to be played over two days known as the Jacaranda Challenge.
“We have invited teams from all of the Royal clubs around the world, and are happy to report that we have a team coming from the home of golf Royal St Andrews, as well as a team of ladies coming from Royal Colombo in Sri Lanka.
“We are hoping that teams from the other African Royals, namely Royal Nairobi, Royal Durban, Royal Cape, Royal Johannesburg and Kensington and Royal Port Alfred will all send teams to join us. All local clubs will also be invited to take part in what will be a celebration of our 125-year history and the promise of many successful years of the Jacaranda Challenge to come,” said Mathieson.
There will also be the annual Caddies Championship as well as the Staff Golf Day which is going to be held in November and December while celebrations are set to conclude on February 29 2024 with the lowering of the Quasquicentennial Flag.
Mathieson took the opportunity to highlight some of the club’s achievements over the years.
“I believe that our most notable achievement in the last 125 years is to still hold the position as the premier golfing destination in the country. We have hosted the Zimbabwe Open every time that it has been played since being reintroduced in 2012, and always to the very highest praise from the visiting professionals who come to play.
“We are also incredibly proud of our junior development program for both boys and girls. The first-ever Leadbetter Academy on African soil was established at Royal Harare Golf Club and has produced some fine young golfers. We are especially excited by how well our young girl golfers have fared, representing the club and the country in international events in Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Egypt, Zambia, Botswana and doing extremely well.
“Two of our young junior girls have been accepted into US universities with 70% bursaries, and we are fundraising to try to help them realise their dreams. Kudzai Mandava and Primrose Chikwaya have both played golf for Zimbabwe, and been very successful. Kudzai is the current ladies club champion and Primrose won the Mashonaland East/West Strokeplay played at Norton in March this year before finishing runner-up in the Zimbabwe Ladies Amateur stroke play at Chapman in July.
“Michael Wallace continues to show his fine form and won the Zimbabwe Amateur recently. In 2022 the club had the opportunity to send three of our ground staff on a learning experience to Ohio State University.
“This was a wonderful opportunity for the three young students who got to work alongside highly experienced ground staff at some of the most famous courses in America, setting up and preparing the courses for some of the major PGA events, including the Player’s Championship this year,” he said.
Collaboration with the Pro Shop Zimbabwe also saw the establishment of the first-ever on-course Pro Shop franchise in southern Africa at Royal Harare.
Royal Harare is a typical parkland course which has at least 57 of the 550 species of Zimbabwe’s indigenous trees, as well as 51 non-indigenous trees along the course.
The well-manicured fairways are planted with kikuyu grass and the greens are bent grass, which was introduced in 1986.
More than 74 species of birds have been identified on the course.
See our website for full details of other services available from the Pro Shop http://royalharare.co.zw/Golf/Pro_Shop.aspx
