They talk about lightning quick greens, of impossible pin positions and narrow fairways. But mostly they talk about the undulations - Augusta looks fairly flat on TV; not, in any event, what you'd call undulating.

The same can be said for most championship courses - they are harder than they look. I remember playing Leopard Creek the day after the Dunhill Championship, with tees and pins left as they had been for the final round. Needless to say, what followed was not pretty.

It was, however, the sort of experience that renewed my respect for the professionals and what they do.

It is easy to shoot a few over par on a windless day at a local course from the members' tees, with no pressure to speak of.

Put in their shoes for a day, my inadequacy was shatteringly apparent.

The same applied at a recent golf day at The Gary Player Country Club in Sun City. The day began mild and windless. After missing a six-footer for birdie on the first and a four-footer for birdie on the second, I begun to wonder what the pros found so difficult about the course.

Four holes later and six over par, I wished I'd never asked.

As the day grew progressively warmer and the wind picked up, I felt myself walking faster, desperate to get into the clubhouse. What had started well was ending very badly.

The wind is the biggest mystery at Sun City. It swirls and gusts, almost nonsensically, apparently blowing from every direction at the same time. It is not uncommon to throw a pinch of grass in the air and see it blow in three directions before coming to rest. This is not conducive to intelligent club selection.

Then there is the rough. Miss the fairway and it is wiser to keep walking. The odds of finding a ball are miniscule. The odds of finding snake, on the other hand, are pretty good.

And the Kikuyu? Don't even get me started. Just imagine having to hit a chip from a pot of wet tar and you will get some idea.

So when you watch the pros at Sun City this year struggling on a windy afternoon in 40-degree heat, go easy on them. That course is a lot harder than it looks.