Royal Johannesburg & Kensington East Championship Course: Robert Grimsdell (1935), redesigned by Mark Muller (1998). Par 72, 7,656 yards. Haydn Porteous won the 2016 Joburg Open here with 269 (−18).
Royal Johannesburg & Kensington East Championship Course: Robert Grimsdell (1935), redesigned by Mark Muller (1998). Par 72, 7,656 yards. Haydn Porteous won the 2016 Joburg Open here with 269 (−18).
Updated October 24, 2026
19 editions on the record, by event, newest first.
Sunshine Tour; European Tour
| Year | Champion | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Haydn Porteous | 269 (−18) | by 2 strokes |
| 2015 | Andy Sullivan | 270 (−17) | by 2 strokes |
| 2014 | George Coetzee | 268 (−19) | by 3 strokes |
| 2013 | Richard Sterne | 260 (−27) | lowest winning score in this event · by 7 strokes |
| 2012 | Branden Grace | 270 (−17) | by 1 stroke |
| 2011 | Charl Schwartzel | 265 (−19) | by 4 strokes |
| 2010 | Charl Schwartzel | 261 (−23) | by 6 strokes |
| 2009 | Anders Hansen | 269 (−15) | by 1 stroke |
| 2008 | Richard Sterne | 271 (−13) | won in a playoff |
| 2007 | Ariel Cañete | 266 (−19) | by 2 strokes |
Sunshine Tour
| Year | Champion | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Gary Player | 272 (−16) | won in a playoff |
| 1977 | Gary Player | 273 (−15) | by 3 strokes |
| 1974 | Bobby Cole | 272 (−16) | by 4 strokes |
| 1972 | Gary Player | 274 (−18) | lowest winning score in this event · by 1 stroke |
| Year | Champion | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Jayden Schaper | 198 (−16) | won in a playoff · DP World Tour; Sunshine Tour |
| Year | Champion | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Darren Fichardt | 200 (−15) | by 1 stroke · DP World Tour; Sunshine Tour |
| Year | Champion | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | David Frost | 275 (−13) | by 3 strokes · Sunshine Tour |
| Year | Champion | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Denis Hutchinson | 282 | by 1 stroke · national open (pre-Sunshine Tour) |
| Year | Champion | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Bobby Locke | 285 | by 14 strokes · national open (pre-Sunshine Tour) |
Bob Grimsdell came to South Africa in his twenties, became club professional at Royal Johannesburg for nearly 20 years and laid out the East Course there before becoming the country's foremost course architect.
Source: Royal Johannesburg history page
Royal Johannesburg staged the South African Open many times; Gary Player won three of his 13 SA Open titles there (1972, 1977 and 1981, the last in a playoff).
The walkway from the car park to the clubhouse has the names of SA Open and Joburg Open champions engraved into the pavement.
Source: SA Top 100 Courses
The 457-metre 11th plays gradually downhill around a dogleg to a green fronted by a large water hazard.
Source: SA Top 100 Courses
The 162-metre 5th, the shortest hole on the course, plays from an elevated tee to a narrow green protected on the left by water.
Source: SA Top 100 Courses
The East's strength is its long par 4s, three of them over 500 yards; the back nine is 207 metres shorter than the front, and the layout has no short par 4.
Source: SA Top 100 Courses
Robert Grimsdell
complete remodel: native grasses replaced with kikuyu, greens rebuilt, bunkers refreshed, dams enlarged, new pond in front of par-5 6th
Source: PlanetGolf
full revamp to contemporary parkland
Source: Royal Johannesburg golf page
The PGA Tour and DP World Tour weeks at this course since 2017.
| Year | Event | Winner | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Alfred Dunhill Championship 11–14 December 2025 | Jayden Schaper | shortened · DP World Tour |
| 2017 | Joburg Open 23–26 February 2017 | Shubhankar Sharma | shortened · DP World Tour |
Every value is shown as recorded in GNN's tour-course research (profiles, championship history, the tour's visits since 2017, stories, details and course changes, each with its sources). A value no source confirmed is left out; nothing is estimated. The light in the room is the sun's real position on the last day of a recorded visit.
The routing and ground are drawn from OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL). The clubhouse is drawn by GNN from reference photographs; the photographs stay private.
Data: royal-johannesburg-kensington-east.json. Spot an error? See corrections.