Golf du Medoc, Bordeaux

[Philip Gawith]

I am interested in any views on the respective merits of the two courses there - Chateaux by Bill Coore and Les Vignes by Rod Whitman. The Chateaux course seems to be the marquee course - if you had two rounds would you play it twice, or try the other one as well?

[Tom_Doak]

Philip:

I have heard Bill Coore say that he likes Rod's course more than his own -- so I would definitely play both.

I would be surprised if more than one or two out of 1500 here have played the course, in fact I doubt many knew that Bill Coore designed a course in France.

[Johnny_Browne]

Philip/Tom,
I have played both on one day - it is an exceedingly good 36 hole facility (with the usual excellent French lunch in between).  I preferred Golf du Medoc the Bill Coore course which was the best of several very good courses we played in that region of France (Hossegor and Chiberta near Biarritz are also very good).  However since we played Rod's course as a second eighteen and after a good lunch and a nice bottle of Red Wine our judgement may have been clouded!  We were considering returning to play next Autumn as Ireland are playing one match in the rugby world cup in Bordeaux
Regards,    Johnny

[Tony_Muldoon]

Philip I may have been halucinating but I recall one sleepless Monday night turning on the TV and Channel 5 having highlights of a European Seniors Tour event form the Bill Coore course.

For those who don't have Sky it's worth checking the scedule for the middle of the night Mondays. They often have about 45 mins of highlights form the most recent PGA tour event about 3 in the morning.  It's hopelessly edited but I've tap[ed the odd one when it seemed like an interesting result.

[Philip Gawith]

Thanks for the feedback gents. We seemed to have truffled out the two GCAers who have been there.

And thanks for the Bill Coore anecdote Tom - it is very persuasive! I will take my camera along and hope for decent weather and post some pictures.

I suppose some story must lie behind how an architect who is so identified with doing courses in the US came to do one down in Bordeaux. It is a shame he has not been tempted back to this side of the Atlantic.

[Johnny_Browne]

Philip
The 150 metre markers are very large bordeaux wine bottles!
Johnny

[TomSteenstrup]

Some info on and pics of the Chateau course in this thread:
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=6518

[Dan Boerger]

Think of the wine you can drink to drown your sorrows after a bad round! My claret mug would be full.

[tonyt]

in fact I doubt many knew that Bill Coore designed a course in France.

It was the subject of a major thread on courses in Europe, complete with photos posted on here, and I since recommended the place to two separate wine industry travellers to the area who loved it. Both played both courses, with the Coore course getting preference (neither are architecture followers), though they both liked the other.