Golf was played in the wine region of Robertson for more than a century before the local course upgraded from 9 holes to 18 in the new millennium. The golf club and course expanded when it became part of the Silwerstrand Golf and River Estate. Developer Mark Brumer first envisaged the project on a visit to the Breede River Valley in 1998. Planning for a golf estate using the Robertson 9-holer began the following year and only in 2004 was approval granted.
The new 18-hole course, designed by Danie Obermeyer on the same land as the old 9-holer, was opened in May 2008. It became the tenth 18-hole course within the boundaries of the Boland Golf Union. It has excellent bent grass greens.
It occupies a flat yet attractive site on the R60 from Worcester as you enter Robertson. The estate is overlooked by the Langeberg mountain range and close to the broad Breede River which has its source in the mountains near Ceres and enters the Indian Ocean through an estuary at Port Beaufort. Vineyards and orchards border one part of the course.
Obermeyer’s designs are known for their distinctive revetted style of bunkering, and he has maintained that theme at Robertson, although minimising them to only 51 bunkers in various strategic positions. His feature hole is one that doesn’t have a single bunker. Instead, the par-3 seventh has an island green encircled by a broad ring of water, connected by a narrow pathway. It plays between 104 and 159 metres from the four different tees. The green is wide and appears to present a generous target, yet there is not much depth to it, particularly on the right.