Gary Player sounds like a man inspired – and set free.

'I've always felt that this course has the potential to be number one in South Africa. I know it,' he says in reaction to perhaps the biggest story to hit golf course architecture in South Africa this year – the changes to the Gary Player Country Club course.

It has been a hard secret to keep. Anybody playing the golf course would have noticed the earth-moving equipment and the hive of activity around the course. Some would've mistaken it as preparation for the Nedbank Golf Challenge in December, which has already sparked massive interest with the announcement of the first five names in defending champion Kristoffer Reitan, former world number one Justin Rose, rising South African star Casey Jarvis, PGA Tour campaigner Marco Penge and the inimitable Bryson DeChambeau.

But it's far bigger than this.

There is the kind of long-term vision involved here that has seen Sun International invest R50-million into this most recent set of changes to a golf course that is the undisputed jewel in their crown and the undeniable heart of Sun City.

The most significant of these changes is the entirely new par four 1st hole and a dedicated practice range, chipping green and putting green on the site of the old first hole.

When Reitan began his march to Nedbank Golf Challenge glory with an opening round of 63 last year, Player was not amused. He had long had a set of changes in his mind to a golf course that has mastered the art of evolving through the decades of the game and its greatest stars as well as their improved equipment.

In his mind, Reitan's opening 63 was not so much the green light that these changes needed to be made sooner rather than later, as it was a red flag to a raging bull.

And when Sun International said, 'Let's do this', Player was about ready to start moving rocks with his bare hands.

His passion is clearly seen in the opening hole. The old 1st was a very gentle introduction to the round in which the pros could choose anything from driver to iron off the tee, wave to the fans, greet Player on the 1st tee, and amble off down the fairway.

The new 1st – built parallel to the old but higher up the mountainside to the left – is 480 metres of grass designed to get the attention of the world's best right from the get-go. Player wants to put a driver in their hands off the tee and tell them to be brave and do their best.

The old 1st makes way for the first ever dedicated practice range this golf course has ever had, replacing the temporary range on the 10th hole. This, combined with the new practice facilities behind it, says everything about where Sun International is going with these changes.

'In the modern era, if you're looking to market yourself as that premium golf course experience for your visitor, then a dedicated practice area is a major component of this. That sense of arriving on the driving range and having pyramids of golf balls waiting for you,' says Ken Payet, the Tournament Director of the Nedbank Golf Challenge and possibly the only man who loves this golf course as much as Player himself does.

The other enhancements to the course entail length. About 400 metres have been added through new tees on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th, 14th and 15th holes. The back tee on No8 in particular – which feels like you're teeing off in the Pilanesberg Nature Reserve – will turn an already challenging hole into easily the most difficult hole on this golf course. Especially with the new greenside bunker there as well.

In response to the world's best golfers seeking more bunker consistency, all of the greenside bunkers have been refurbished with Bunker Armour.

The professionals have always seen the opening holes as a key opportunity to build momentum for their rounds, and in response to this and building on the difficulty of the new first, the dam on the second hole has been enlarged just to keep everybody humble.

There are new fairways bunkers on the 13th and 14th holes, and the impressive 9th now features a more open approach to the green from the left to allow the golfers to see more of the waterfall and the far left pin position.

The other enhancements include new walkways through the natural bushveld linking the greens to the new professional tees, just to give the professionals a brief moment of calm. And there will be a new spectator viewing area for the Nedbank Golf Challenge this year between the 7th and 12th greens.

Overall, and in the words of the current generation of young golfers, this is the grand old lady putting on a flex of note – and it's this vision that so excites Player.

'This golf course is a paradise. There are no houses there, it's out in nature. And let me tell you, next year we will do the second phase and that will be even better,' says the man who back in the seventies not only first saw a potential golf course in nothing but the bush and dirt of this land, but who was determined to make it the best damn golf course anybody had ever played on this continent.

'Africa's Major' has always been the biggest advertisement  for this course, and it started with the first five-man field that played this unique collection of fairways in the bush in 1981. There could be no better way to introduce your golf course to the world than with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Seve Ballesteros and that year's champion, Johnny Miller, striding its fairways. 

Nicklaus came back in 1982, and as the world's golf media observed back then, 'If Jack comes back, it's got to be right.' In a golf course sense, it always was.

And now even more so.

Shaun Roy Sunshine Tour