During the hot Summer of 2016 we travelled about in France and I got to visit three very nice clubs. Haven’t looked at these photos again until now, so excuse me if memory is a little shaky
Golf de Granville claims to be the only authentic links course in France. Certainly Chiberta moves further from the sea and I’ve yet to visit le Touquet so this may well be correct. Harry Colt laid the course out in 1912 and the website also mentions Alison as involved. Colt was busy in France that year, also at Hardelot and St Cloud, Paris. The Club was very receptive to drop in guests and I expect it gets a lot of extra income in July and August.
A word about the turf.
I understand that because of its location the use of pesticides is forbidden, that and the natural irrigation which had been absent for a few weeks meant we were playing an entirely natural course. If the prospect of your ball sitting in a divot or on a weed horrifies you then drive on by. I enjoyed this change of conditioning but equally understand why a local members of such a club might prefer to have irrigation available. For the rest of us a real chance to see how links golf courses used to play in hot summers. The greens are irrigated and were perfectly fine.
The scorecard uses Metres and I’ve added 10% to the scorecard to show hole lengths in yards. ON a few holes there are tiger tees bringing the course to nearly 7000 yards, SSS 73.7 Slope 138. Visitors will likely play 6200 71/130. On some holes therefore I’ve given the Black and the Yellow distances
First 480 Par 5 480 yards
Relatively gentle ‘Colt’ style opener
Bunker on left is 20 yrds short of green
2nd is a par 3 175 yards
looking back
3rd Par 4 340 yards
4th L-R dogleg. Play to the outside: Must be a beast off the tips 450 yards, dailies 100 yards shorter.
Approach
5th is 400 yards R-L dogleg.
Views towards St Malo and off screen to the left, Mont St Michel.
‘The brother’ lets rip!
6 430/385 yards
From the photo’s its apparent that a good no of holes play along corridors in the low Dunes – but not all do and it was not obvious or repetitive. It all felt very natural and enjoyable. Many fairways were flatish but there are interesting greensites. The lack of focus for the drives on the overall low lying ground and the angles off the tees adds interest.
Next up my favourite hole, Lucky 7. The fairway wasn’t that obvious from the tee.
Par 2! 375 yards
Lovely raised green shaped to gather – if you can hit it. Did it’s job very well!
8 380/370 Slight dog leg R-L. yet another appealing hole. Turns around a pair of bunkers.
There are 18 yards between the bunker and the front of the green, a disguise feature seen a few times here.
9 Par 5 heads back towards the house, 530/511yards
Its fairly narrow and well bunkered. OOB to the right protects a practice area.
Original routing
9 is now gone but looks like it’s the practice green today.
