As there are a lot of "Tom-boys" in this forum and since I might be one the first GCAlers besides Mr. Doak himself to have played his new design near Bordeaux, I thought I'd share the pictures I took with you.
I played the course in the beginning of November with the last batch of holes only open for about a month. The weather was perfect for this time of year, sun all the way through and over 20° Celsius on the thermometer. It was great to play golf but unfortunately not as great to take pictures as you can see. The conditioning was, as it is so often with brand new courses, not perfect. The club put a lot of sand on the fairways and around the greens to help the growing-in-process. But despite the conditioning problems one can already see the potential of this course. I found it very natural, challenging and most of all fun to play.
Hole 1 (Par 4, 385 Meters): Tee Shot from an elevated tee right next to the clubhouse
The easy start to the round should leave you with an mid-iron from the fairway
The main defense of the green is this bunker to the left
Hole 2 (Par 4, 313 Meters)This shorter Par 4 gives longer hitters the option to hit less than driver because they could run out of fairway on the left side very easy.
The preferred position in the fairway is to the right as there is some nasty rough in the hollow left to the green. There is also a small stream in front of the green, so you don't want to be short with the shot into the green
Hole 3 (Par 3, 154 Meters):The stream from the second green continues here in front of the first one-shotter of the course. This might tempt you to hit your ball safely to the back of the green, but it is three-tiered from back to front, so you will face a tough two putt if the pin is in the front of the green.
...as it was on this day.