Hi Brett
Scott speaks with unforked tongue.
I just got back from 4 days of golf at Nimes Campagne, so.....
1. I have played it (obviously)
2. Random thoughts about the course (more to come later):
--it is a parkland course with significant changes in elevation (100 feet+ down from the stately clubhouse to the stream and random ponds running through the lower parts of the course). With the flowering trees and shrubs and birds singing and frogs chirping you could imagine yourself at Augusta National, if you have the perversely weird powers of imagination as do some people on this site.....
--unlike Augusta you make the walk down to the lower holes and back up to the plateau on which the clubhouse is sited not just one time but 4 times! This is fine if you are young, fit and daft. If you are old, fat and daft walking the course four days in a row is an unnecessary test of your morbidity.
--also unlike Augusta, there is neither ample width nor restrained bunkering. Drives (or even tee shots on the short holes) which are moderately off-line can have their distance severely impinged by overhanging tree branches, and even if you manage to find the limited driving corridors, on many holes if you stray only marginally away from the proper line, your second shot will impeded by other tree branches and/or steep fronting greenside bunkers.
--on the other hand, like Augusta, there are no forced carries over bunkers off the tee (except for the pros) and none across the various water hazards on the lower part of the course. Also like Augusta the greens are firm, severely sloped and require a deft short game to recover from the high probability of a non-perfect approach shot.
--the course is maintained to a relatively high standard, but at this time (i.e. early spring) the course was still damp and the rough growing daily in the warming atmosphere. Hitting a green in regulation after driving into the second cut of rough required skills that all but the finest golfers in the world have. Likewise, expecting to recover miraculously from under the low hanging canopy of the trees which ringed each hole was just a flight of fancy and or over-reliance on the power of hope.
--I played the course under tournament conditions in a field which included some seriously good golfers, and the winning score over 3 rounds was 234 (i.e. three 78s for those who are arithmetically challenged), so....
If you are young and fit and you enjoy beauty and adventure over playability and are in the area and must play golf, Golf Club de Nimes Campagne is definitely worth playing. The clubhouse was specifically built 100+ years ago as a country chateau by that rarest of creatures--a French Americanophile. It is welcoming and serves good food and good local wine (the area is rife with vineyards). If you do go, I would strongly recommend staying in Les Aubuns Country Hotel (
www.lesaubuns.com), which is within staggering distance from the golf course (if you are capable of staggering ~2 kilometers) and a similar distance (in the opposite direction) from one of the finest restaurants in France
www.michelkayser.com. No, not THE Michael Keiser of Bandon fame......
That's enough for today. Let me know if you need more info.
Rich
http://www.golfnimescampagne.com/