France to host 2018 Ryder Cup

[Jim McCann]

Bill

You wanted some feedback from people who had played Les Bordes, well check these out:

http://www.top100golfcourses.co.uk/htmlsite/productdetails.asp?id=480

Apologies for the Top100 plug but the website DOES contain comment from golfers who have
actually played the top layouts.

I believe the course is now private again so it may take more of an effort to get an invitation.

Good luck, or should I say "bon chance"?

[Scott Warren]

Jim,

Unfortunately only your entry among the user reviews actually tells us anything about the course. Most of the rest just regurgitate the fact that:

1. it is in the middle of nowhere.

2. it is so difficult that if you break 80 from the back tees you get your name on a board in the clubhouse, kinda like the golfing equivalent of eating a 2kg steak or 15 hotdogs.

3. the conditioning is top-notch, with Augusta namechecked a squillion times.

4. it's a shame it has gone totally private.

It just seems a pity that such a well-constructed and thorough resource doesn't get more informative, useful contributions from its users.

[Adam Lawrence]

A hundred new courses in France in the next seven years is the stuff of wild fantasy. There are not the investors, the sites, the permissions, or the demand. There haven't been five new courses in the ten years I've lived here.

I missed this, but the proposal is for 100 new golf 'facilities' - which would mostly be driving ranges, par three courses and nine holers, as I understand it - rather than full scale 18 hole courses. I still wish the Cup had gone to Madrid, but the fact that the FFG don't have to spend a fortune building their course does mean they have more to spend on other development projects.

[Tony Ristola]

Tom, can you share any plans for your project in Bordeaux?

I'm visiting Bordeaux with the family this July and am very much looking forward to playing Bill Coore's Medoc course...Dave Zink told me that he and Bill made some upgrades to the design a year or two ago....have you played there and/or Rod Whitman's course too?

Bill:

The project in Bordeaux is in the hilly land east of St. Emilion.  But it's really not a project yet, so there is no point in saying much more until they are committed to doing it.

I have not played the courses at Medoc, but walked both of them in February when I was there.  That side of the river is very flat and sandy, very different from the land I've been looking at.  They are both nice courses but they aren't stunners.  And the wild boars like the grubs in the fairways a bit too much!!

DMK had a project near Bordeaux a few years back. Wonder if anything came of it?

The Medoc courses need a local hunter on their staff. Set out feed for the boar (corn or dead chickens) buried in the ground, and then shoot the youngens. They tend not to come back. It's the solution used for a project I did in north Germany. The scheme has worked, and anyone unfamiliar with boar damage... it's like a drunken 12ft giant got loose with an equally giant golf club. Boars can do great damage in no time.

[Tom_Doak]

Tony:

Our project in Bordeaux is the same piece of ground that David looked at years ago, two owners ago.  Tom Lehman was also signed up to do it, in between, and got paid to draw his plans, but that developer got their permits in the fall of 2007 and decided not to proceed.  Hopefully, the third time is the charm.

[Tony Ristola]

Tony:

Our project in Bordeaux is the same piece of ground that David looked at years ago, two owners ago.  Tom Lehman was also signed up to do it, in between, and got paid to draw his plans, but that developer got their permits in the fall of 2007 and decided not to proceed.  Hopefully, the third time is the charm.

Bonne chance!

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

It cannot be worse than the Baltry