Selborne Park was purchased as a cane farm and converted into the first golf resort and estate in South Africa, by a local farmer named Denis Barker. Barker is passionate about golf and in particular this property, but his design talents are limited with Selborne unfortunately hurt by a number of key architectural issues.

One of the problems he has here is with appropriate driving lines, there are often trees in the way of the ideal tee shot and at other times there are hazards that are easily blasted over by strong players yet a major nuisance for the shorter hitters. The construction work is also far from perfect, with shallow bunkers built with ugly, unkempt edges and greens that lack any contour sophistication.

The round at Selborne starts with a sharply bending uphill par five around trees, you almost need a snap-hook off the first tee to keep your ball in play. With the tee pushed forward and to the right the hole could be a decent long par four. The 2nd hole has a tree in the middle and a silly pond on the bail-out side. The 3^rd is better and in truth most of the rest of the front side is reasonably enjoyable.

On the back nine things get awfully cramped with the 10^th, 13^th, 14^th, 16^th and 18^th holes all adjacent and weaving tightly through trees. Unfortunately without clearing much of the internal congestion, and reshaping the greens and bunkers, this will remain a fairly ordinary resort course that is pleasant enough to play but too narrow to take overly serious.