Top 5 French Golf Courses

[kconway]

What are the Top 5 French Golf Courses??

[Robert_Ball]

Kelly, I can't say from experience but I don't think anyone will argue against Morfontaine being the clear #1 in France.  There's another Tom Simpson course at Chantilly, Colt's St Germain and plenty of RTJs to choose from.  If you plan on playing there please share your feedback as I may be taking a trip to France next summer.

[Ed Tilley]

In the latest Golf World ranking of courses in Continental Europe the top 5 French courses were:

Les Bordes (2)
Morfontaine (3)
Chantilly (5)
Golf National (14)
Fontainebleu (15)

This was closely followed by Sperone (in Corsica) and Seignosse (near Biarritz). Further courses included in the rankings included St Germaine near Paris, Golf du Medoc (Bordeaux), Le Touquet, Hardelot, Belle Dune (all near Calais), plus Moliets, Chiberta, and Hossegor (all near Biarritz).

I haven't played any of the top 5, but I have played Seignosse, Moliets, Le Touquet and Hardelot and they were all excellent. France is a wonderful country and it also has wonderful golf courses.

[Ran Morrissett]

Without doubt, Saint-Germain, Morfontaine, Fountainebleau, and Chantilly are in there.

Also, are nine hole courses included? The finest in the world may well be the the old course at Morfontaine, built by Simpson in 1910. Known as the Vallière course,  seven of Simpson's original nine greens exist and are the best/wildest/coolest set I have ever seen on any course, any where.

If nine hole courses aren't included, everyone praises Les Bordes (including the Peugeot 2007 Golf Guide which gives it an amazingly high 19 out of 20 rating, the only course in France to receive that high of grade). It is universally considered von Hagge's best.

A very good friend of mine from the Hague owns a chateau near Coore & Whitman's Medoc course in Bordeaux - based on his comments, which I very much trust, I am more keen to see it than Les Bordes.

Cheers,

[Sean_A]

A very good friend of mine from the Hague owns a chateau near Coore & Whitman's Medoc course in Bordeaux - based on his comments, which I very much trust, I am more keen to see it than Les Bordes.

Cheers,

Ran

I have played the Coore Medoc (Chateaux course) course a handful of times on wine buying excursions to the region.  I wouldn't make any sort of special trip to see the course.  Its good, but nothing worth anything like a special trip even if in southern France.  However, if you are interested in combining a bit of drink, wine touring and golf, then the hotel is a lovely place to spend two or three nights.  

http://www.hotelgolfdumedoc.com/

Ciao

[Marc Haring]

I played the two Medoc courses myself a couple of years back. I quite liked them. The Chateaux has a nice heathland feel to it in places as does the Vignes course. There are some good holes on both but perhaps it was built with the tourist market a little too much in mind. The one thing I did think was great was a scene we witnessed following our game in the clubhouse overlooking the first of the Vignes. Teeing off on a Sunday afternoon was a fourball, two men and two very chic looking women complete with tight fitting designer jeans. They all teed off, the men pulled all four trolleys up the fairway whilst the women pushed two prams complete with enfants onboard!!! Only in France.


#5 Vignes course.




11th, Chateaux.