Karen Golf Club - Kenya

It should come as no surprise that there are several fine courses in Kenya, which was colonized by the English as British East Africa, with golf in Nairobi dating back to 1906. Karen Golf Club is located in the genteel Nairobi suburb of Karen, named for Baroness Karen Von Blixen, the Danish author who wrote out  of Africa under the pen name Isak Dinesen. In her book, which was made into an Oscar-winning movie, she describes her love affair with Denys Finch-Hatton and how she eventually came to leave the coffee plantation where she had lived for nearly 20 years, selling the land in 1931. The golf course was established in 1938, and was one of the first courses in Kenya to have grass greens, rather than sand to create "browns." The course is adorned with a profusion of flowering native trees and shrubs framed by the Ngong Hills. Von Blixen allowed the club to use the center portion of her coat of arms in the design of its flag and her stone farmhouse now houses the Karen Blixen Museum.

Tabarka Golf Club - Tunisia

For many years the Carthage Golf Club in La Soukra, six miles from Tunis, was the only course in Tunisia, laid out near the Punic and Roman ruins of ancient Carthage. In recent years, however, Tunisia has become a major vacation destination for golfers from Northern Europe. Tabarka, like several other courses in Tunisia, was designed by California-based golf course architect Ronald Fream. The course is located two hours northwest of Tunis, near the Algerian border. Opened in 1992, it takes its name from the nearby fishing and coral harvesting village of Tabarka that traces its history to Carthaginian times. The course is laid out through the cork oaks and dunes running along the seaside cliffs, making this the Cypress Point of Tunisia. From the 14th hole there is a good view of the 16th-century Genoese fort that sits on the crest of a small island off of Tabarka's harbor, and inland are the mountains covered with oak forest.