Why go
Golf courses are not what most people come to the Gambia for, but this one is worth a stop even if you have never swung a club: instead of mown grass, the greens are oiled sand, raked flat before every round, a legacy of building a course on flat, swampy ground close to the Atlantic rather than a deliberate quirk. The club that built it is also the social hub of the resort strip, with more than 400 members of several nationalities alongside the golf. In May 2021 the course was renamed Sir Dawda Jawara – Fajara Club Golf Course, after the country’s first president, an avid golfer and the club’s first patron.
What you will see
The course plays over 18 holes at par 69, laid out across about eighty acres of tight, tree-lined fairways that still show the sand underneath the grass in patches. It started smaller: members laid out an initial nine holes that opened in December 1959, after the club had moved from Banjul to Fajara, and the layout only reached its current 18 holes once government and member funding came through in the early 1970s. The best-known hole is the 13th, nicknamed the “Water Hole”, where the green sits across a swampy patch reached only by a narrow footbridge, generally rated the toughest test on the course. Off the fairways, the clubhouse runs its own set of sports facilities, including tennis and squash courts, a swimming pool and a gym, so a visit does not have to be about golf at all.
Visiting: hours, admission, booking
The facts box on this page carries no confirmed opening hours, admission price or club website, because no official Fajara Club source currently publishes them online; the club’s own website is not reachable, and the listed phone and email contact are the most reliable way to check before turning up. One third-party listing gives the club’s hours as 8am to 8pm, with tournaments held on Saturdays and Sundays, but treat that as a guide rather than a guarantee. The same source notes that visiting tourists are welcome to play for a fee, though it does not give a figure, so expect to agree the green fee at the clubhouse rather than online.
Getting there
The course sits on Atlantic Boulevard in Fajara, the leafy, planned suburb that forms part of Bakau, on the resort strip’s northern end. Most visitors reach it the way they reach the rest of Bakau and Fajara: a short taxi or gelly-gelly ride along the coast road from the hotels further south, or on foot if you are already staying in Fajara; the getting around guide covers routes and fares. Banjul International Airport is a short drive south.
Nearby
Fajara’s golf course backs onto the wetlands behind Kotu, and Bakau’s old town, with the Kachikally Crocodile Pool, is a short ride north. The Bakau city page covers the rest of the suburb, including where to stay nearby.