Golf Architects/Designers: Peter Matkovich

Peter Matkovich grew up in Shabani, near Fort Victoria in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and played at Shabani Golf Club, an 18-hole course owned by the local mine. He played many of the magnificent courses in the area, all owned by the mines, and became a competitive amateur golfer. He turned professional in 1968 and played in Europe for three years, Australia for a year and the Sunshine Tour for over ten years. He played in two open Championships, Carnoustie in 1968 and St Andrews in 1970.

‘I was fortunate to play with all the top players of my era. I played with all four Grand Slam winners, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus but I realized early on that I was not going to be a top player. I also realised though that I loved golf courses, the look and feel of them.’

In 1973 Peter and his family moved to South Africa and settled at Circle Golf Club, Pinetown. Soon thereafter he moved to Umhlali Country Club where he fulfilled the role of club professional, playing professional and course superintendent. Playing all three roles was fairly normal for the times, unlike today. Umhlali was then only a 9-hole course and the club was set to add another 9 holes and complete Umhlali as a full 18-hole course. Peter Matkovich took on the job of designing and building the new holes and at the same time redesigning many of the existing holes. The new course opened in1975 and was Peter’s first foray into designing and building golf courses and an experience that was to ‘open many doors’ in the future.

A few years later Peter was appointed course architect, to design and build a new course in Worcester in the Western Cape of South Africa. Peter’s grounding, as a player and course superintendent, and his passion for the game were natural ingredients in his evolution to a course architect and designer. Following the Worcester project the economy went into a slump and few golf courses were being built so Peter Matkovich had to put a hold on design work.

In the early ’90s long-time friend and leading golf professional, Dale Hayes, teamed up with Peter to help promote the business. Dale had played professionally in Europe and America and was quickly becoming a well-known and respected golfing personality in South Africa, both on and off the course. With Dale’s communication and marketing skills and Peter’s design and construction skills they were an ideal association and thus formed Matkovich & Hayes.

Peter’s first appointment was San Lameer in 1990 so he began gathering a team to do the job and at the same time laying the foundations of the company. In the ten years to follow, Peter designed close on ten golf courses that cemented him as one of the leading designers in Southern Africa. He has completed over twenty new course designs and done major renovations to more than twenty other courses.