Le Touquet La Mer restoration work - pictures

[Alfonso Erhardt]

Frank,

Fantastic work. Congratulations. I would love to have you fix some stuff in Spain!!! If we only had the money.....

Regards,

Alfonso

[Paul_Turner]

Frank

It's great work and effort.  The old aerial (as usual) throws a lot of light on how the course changed.  I had a copy of the Plumon guide from the 1930s and could work out the big routing changes (like 17) but not the subtle one like greens being slightly misplaced, which you have uncovered.

Horace Hutchinson did the Foret course and Colt redesigned it early on...but I don't know what was done.

[Sean_Tully]

Frank

Love the work that you and Patrice Boissonnas are doing and look forward to seeing some more pics as your work progresses. Love your use of photos to show vegetation removal and improvements. The contrast in the photos is striking and adds to the work that you did. What work are you doing to the greens? How close are the greens to the original Colt designed greens in size?

Thanks for the added info on the course with the aerials and postcards, some really good stuff.

Sean

[Neil_Crafter]

Frank, very impressive work. Love that you got rid of that "in your face" path on that first photo, amongst all the other work. One of my pet hates on existing courses are paths that start before the front of the green :-(

A question if I may, in our Mackenzie Chronology we have Dr Mackenzie visiting Le Touquet around October 1922. Whether he was standing in for Colt - they were still in partnership at this time - or having a golfing break I do not know. He mentioned he had recently been at Le Touquet in an article he wrote on The Upkeep of the Course in 'Golfing' of December 1922, and he commented on the way they managed to preserve their greens in a period of extended drought. Are there any club records intact from this period that might shed light on his visit? I'd really appreciate if you could enquire with the club next time you are in contact with them.

Neil

[Tony Ristola]

C'est très bien!

Super work... it's like taking a deep breath of fresh air after escaping a stuffy room for ages. Adds all manner of beauty, color contrast, visual interest. The contours come alive after being smothered under vegetation.

[Frank Pont]

Neil,

I will try to find out through my French speaking partner if AM ever did anything at Le Touquet. In any case it would have been at Le Foret, since in 1922 Lam Mer did not exist yet.

[Frank Pont]

Sean,

only 5 original greens remain (holes 2,7,8,9,10,17), and 13 greens have been modified or are completely new greens in new locations. That is the reverse of R Hague where 13 greens were original and only 5 greens were changed.

Of the changed greens three are quite good and could fool people as original Colt greens (holes 1, 4 and 18), the orthers are quite obvious modern greens.

At the moment agronomists are looking into if the greens need to be renovated from an agronomical point of view. If that is the case then we need to redo all the greens, faithfully restoring the 5 originals and creating Colt like greens for the other holes.
If the greens do not need agronomical renovating, then we can focus on changing the non original greens.

In any case there are likely to be significant changes in the greens over the next few years.
Goal will be to change the new greens that do not fit into a more Colt style.

[Neil_Crafter]

Thanks Frank, this would be much appreciated. I was not aware of the timing and that on his visit he would have only seen the Le Foret course. Good luck with your future endeavours there.

[Ben Stephens]

Frank,

The course looks stunning now like a Phoenix rising out of the ashes!

Previously I was not that keen to play La Mer as the course looked tired and bland having looked at Scott Warren's photo tour. Now it is completely different and much more attractive to play. The 2nd is now an absolute gem. Well done on your work so far and I am sure it will be a success!

Hope you can restore the other holes as well. Maybe we should have an additional European GCA event (BUDA is UK/Ireland) and the 1st one at Le Touquet and Hardelot after restoration and you could give a talk or a tour.  

Cheers
Ben

[Mark Pearce]

Maybe we should have an additional European GCA event (BUDA is UK/Ireland) and the 1st one at Le Touquet and Hardelot after restoration and you could give a talk or a tour.  

Ben,

Who says BUDA is UK/Ireland?  There has already been talk of a possible Benelux BUDA.

[Ben Stephens]

Maybe we should have an additional European GCA event (BUDA is UK/Ireland) and the 1st one at Le Touquet and Hardelot after restoration and you could give a talk or a tour.  

Ben,

Who says BUDA is UK/Ireland?  There has already been talk of a possible Benelux BUDA.

Mark,

I know BUDA is anywhere in Europe. It has been in UK/Ireland most of the time and in Sept. When was the last time it was in Europe?

It would be nice to have an April GCA event in Europe as the weather is nicer there 

Cheers
Ben

[Mark Pearce]

Ben,

As you know, BUDA has, to date, always been in the UK.  It isn't always (or even mostly) in September, though it has been the last couple of years.  The Lundin BUDA, for instance, coincided with the US Open, which was my first plan this year, until it became clear that that would mean losing a number of regular attendees.  There is talk of next year moving to Ireland and I don't see any reason why we couldn't go to Benelux (or France) in 2014.

[Mark Chaplin]

Mark and Ben as you know Buda goes where someone sticks their head above the parapet, offers some good golf and makes the arrangements. I see no reason why a Shinnecock/National or Cypress/Pebble BUDA wouldn't work 

[Patrick Kiser]

I wonder how much of this can be driven by maintenance and/or conditions over time (e.g. rain washouts, etc.) to switch to grassed in faces.

[Frank Pont]

I wonder how much of this can be driven by maintenance and/or conditions over time (e.g. rain washouts, etc.) to switch to grassed in faces.

Patrick,

work is about the same.

Sand faces have washouts and balls can get plugged in the snadface. In general once you have established a firm face it requires very little maintenance, often it is even better to touch it as little as possible. If the sand cover is thin enough it will also not plug balls.

Grass faces require frequent flymowing by hand, something that is notorious to cause back injuries, and can still plug balls. They are also prone to droughts and grass having trouble especially if the is a lot of sand splash.

Often switch was caused by advice of golf architects, and agronomists. There was a time (80-90's) when it was very fashionable to switch to gras faces. Trend at the moment seems to be back to sand faces.

[Tom MacWood]

Frank
If you can restore the old open rough and tumble look to the course you will be doing a great thing. Its a shame the old clubhouse did not survive...it was a beauty.

[Frank Pont]

Frank
If you can restore the old open rough and tumble look to the course you will be doing a great thing. Its a shame the old clubhouse did not survive...it was a beauty.

Tom,

A new club house might be built for La Mer, unclear yet where it will be built, but the location could be that of the old clubhouse, the foundations and the old stairs of the terrace are still visible from the current 3rd hole

[Patrick Kiser]

Bump...


I was wondering if Frank could provide an update to this effort at Le Touquet.


It's been a few years and I was wondering if the work is complete now.


Thanks!

[David Davis]

Bump...


I was wondering if Frank could provide an update to this effort at Le Touquet.


It's been a few years and I was wondering if the work is complete now.


Thanks!

Patrick, I'm sure Frank will chime in here. I was able to visit the course this summer together with Frank's partner on the project Patrice Bousins. They did complete the renovation phase they were working on and they did a wonderful job of bringing 90% of Colt's routing back. I believe a ton of trees were removed, vistas opened up and holes brought back to life. I really enjoyed the course and the routing, playing firm and fast as a links should. They still have work to do on the 17th hole to bring it back to the way Colt had designed it but that will take a long time as there are some issues with the land originally used and the current hole (not my favorite) plays as a par 5 with a steep up hill finish to the original greens site that was played to from a completely different angle.


It's worth  visit for sure and perfectly combined with Hardelot Les Pins which is another course right there they renovated as well. Also finished and a wonderful Simpson routing.

[John Mayhugh]

Patrice Boissonnas & Frank Pont have done wonderful work at Touquet.  It's fun following both on Twitter and keeping up with some of the improvements.  I really hope I can get back over there in the next couple of years.

[Frank Pont]

Sorry guys, I've been busy doing work....


As requested some pics of late this summer at La Mer.


Hole 2





More hole 2









Hole 7









Hole 9









Hole 9 looking back









Hole 10













Hole 13









Green hole 13









Green hole 13 looking back









Hole 14









Hole 14 zoomed









Looking back at hole 15







Hole 16 subdued









Hole 16 bright light

[Frank Pont]

Two older pics of hole 2, to show you the trees....










and the now...

[Adam Lawrence]

Frank, any news on 17?

[Frank Pont]

No I think that will be another year or two with permitting etc...

[Thomas Dai]

Frank,


The 2 old and the 'now' photos of the 2nd hole are terrific. A picture says a thousands words and all that.


With regard to trees and shrubbery generally, it's easy to forget that grass is cut just about every day of its life but trees and shrubs, either planted ones or self-seeders, never get cut and after a few years they're huge (and then a hassle).


Atb