Le Touquet La Mer restoration work - pictures

[Frank Pont]

I have been asked by various people to post some of the work Patrice Boissonnas and I have been doing at Colt's Le Touquet La Mer links.

It is part of a multi year effort to bring the course back to its original state, both in terms of the layout, its bunker style and its playing characteristics. Most of the work in this first phase has focussed on tree and shrub removal and bunker restoration. In later stages we will restore some of the "lost holes" in the routing and restore some of the greens that are not original anymore (Bill Baker redid a number of the greens in the 1990's) back to more of a Colt style.

Hole 9


Before


After bunker restoration work autumn 2011


After tree and shrub removal begin 2012. Notice that hole 10 is visible behind the green of 9.


Hole 2


Before


After bunker restoration and tree and shrub removal autumn 2011. Still needs shrub removal right of the hole which is ongoing


Hole 7


Before


After bunker restoration and creation of blow sand erosion area right of the green


Hole 10


Before


After bunker restoration and tree and shrub removal autumn 2011. Bunker is large, but this is what we found on old pictures of the hole

[Joel_Stewart]

Nice work Frank.

Are you doing the same type of work at Tyneside?

[Patrick Kiser]

Frank,

Thank you very much for posting.  I really appreciate this, as I've been really interested in learning more about Colt's La Mer course at Le Touquet.

If you don't mind, I have a question with regards to the bunkers.

I'm only partially familiar with some of Colt's style of bunkering or at least what appears to be one of his styles.  I've seen the old Kennemer pics that would lead one to believe he might have employed different styles depending on circumstances.  However, as best as I can describe this ... it seems more often than not he employed a style whereby the bunkers would have rather wide openings (gathering?) with shallow entrances that would gradually lead to a cresting face with a level or peaking leading furry rough edge.

In the "Creating Classics: The Golf Courses of Harry Colt" by Peter Pugh, in the France section of the book there's an old photo of one of the holes (original 1st in '31 and now 4th) at Le Touquet that would seem to support this kind of style.

The pictures you are showing here would lead me to think perhaps the bunkering was different throughout the course?  Here I'm seeing steeper entrances or could it be that some comprising was necessary as part of a maintenance or client requirement?  Or maybe the photos are somewhat misleading?  Or maybe it's still growing in?  It's tough to say, but I thought I'd ask the question.

I'm not sure if it's possible to post any old photos, but it would be great to see those.

Any insights or thoughts to this would be greatly appreciated.  

[Frank Pont]

Patrick,

I include several old pictures of Le Touquet La Mer bunkers. Most of the pictures are from around the club hourse and show rather large sand faced bunkers with fairly smooth edges. WE used that as our model. For depth we found that in excavating old closed bunkers (ie the first bunker left in the pictures of hole 9) that they were fairly deep based on where the old bunker sand reappeared.

The pictures of old Touquet bunkers are courtesy of Christoph Meister and Jean-Bernard Kazmierczak and cannot be re-used without their permission.


Aerial view of part of La Mer with Old clubhouse (only foundations of it are still there left of current hole 3, was destroyed in WWII)


Bunkers in front of old clubhouse

[Frank Pont]

Looking at what is now hole 10 with the old bridge on the right. Notice how big the green size bunker is.


Looking back over hole 10, notice how barren the dunes landscape is in the mid 1930's

[Frank Pont]

Aerial picture of La Mer (missing current holes 5 and 6) of 1936. Again notice how open the course is.


Old layout drawn on the current Google Earth picture of the course. Notice how the layout was rebuilt differently after the war, especially holes 12-17

[Frank Pont]

Nice work Frank.

Are you doing the same type of work at Tyneside?

Joel, yes the work at Tyneside is also bunker restoration, tree removal and shrub clearance, but also includes making the green surrounds easier to mow short.

[Jud_T]

Frank,

Thanks for posting.  The difference in the before and after pictures is startling.  How far will they let you go with the tree and shrub cutting?  That barren look from the 30s photo is fantastic.  If all goes according to plan when do you anticipate the original holes and greens will be fully restored?  Congrats on what looks to be a very well done, important job...

[Bart Bradley]

Frank:

Congratulations.     Your work is stunningly good.  The before and after pictures show amazing improvement. 

Add another place to my "must see" list. 

Thanks so much for posting..  We are lacking in new content around here and I am surprised that you could get this far without one of our group having posted about this course work.  Perhaps we have been too busy posting about Tiger Woods  .

In a different thread, Ed Oden talked about what started the "restoration rage". 
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,50985.0.html

Can you tell us how you got started doing restorations? 

Thanks,

Bart

[Scott Warren]

A full set of "before" pics here: http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,46128.0.html

Frank,

Those examples look fantastic and really bring the holes to life.

The native vegetation did choke a few holes too much, 10 among them.

Some improved bunkering could also raise the likes of 4, 5 and 15 a notch to remove unfortunate flat spots.

My memory is that 6 and 8 were the real disappointments -- what is planned for those holes.

Hardelot and Le Touquet were already a wonderful duo when I played them in Sep. 2010, seeing what you are doing to them really makes me keen to return. Likely I will be back that way in late summer 2013, how advanced will the work on each course be by then?

[Frank Pont]

Guys,

thanks for the kind words, both Le Touquet and Hardelot are great places for someone like me who loves the classics to work...

On cutting trees and shrubs we can do a lot, since enviromentally we are doing the right thing in bringing it back to the original dunes vergetation and landscape. Also the client, Open Golf, is very supportive and sees that the course is becoming much more of a links course, which commercially is not a bad thing. Members so far have in large majority been very positive about the changes.

Le Touquet La Mer, rerouted, restored, openend up, and in a true link setup belongs in the European top 10-15, not on spot 48 (Golf World)where it is now.

Timings on Le Touquet La Mer will depend on if we need to redo all the greens or not, a decission which is studied by the agronomists at the momentwhich we will know before the summer. If not it could be all done in 2-3 years, otherwise it might be 4-5 years.

[Frank Pont]

Frank this is brilliant stuff. I am glad we are not going there later this year as I am keen to see the finished job. It is amazing how tree removal transforms courses like these. Also looking forward to seeing the finished job at Tandridge...

Brian,

will post seperately later on Tandrdige progression. Holes 1 to 9 are done, and this winter we did most of 10, 11,12 and 13. Also the new tees of 14 and 18 have been done. Once ready hole 18 might be the most spectacular finishing hole in Surrey....

[Frank Pont]

Can you tell us how you got started doing restorations? 

Thanks,

Bart

HI Bart,

best to read my feature interview with Ran, and if that doesn't answer all your questions let me know

[Ian Andrew]

Frank,

I'm really enjoying the work that your doing.
Opening up these corridors is wonderful.

Is the plan to change the vegitation over in these areas, or will the native grasses re-establish and avoid the future encroachment of the woody plants.

[Mark McKeever]

Frank,

The restoration work looks fantastic.  Job well done!

Mark

[Frank Pont]

Frank,

Is the plan to change the vegitation over in these areas, or will the native grasses re-establish and avoid the future encroachment of the woody plants.

Ian,

at the moment we are just letting the native grasses reestablish, in some areas helping it with some marram grass planting.

The reason so much growth has happened is that there is more nutrition in the rain than say 100 years ago. Another reason is the fact that some of the irrigation heads were quite inaccurate and watering parts of the rough. The second we can remidy, the first is here to stay unfortunately, an effect I am seeing on the other linkscourses I am working such as R Hague and Kennemer. That means that we will need to establish a constant program of tree/shrub management, a bit like the painting of the Golden Gate bridge.....




However I'm afraid we will have to keep cuttimng

[Ian Andrew]

Frank,

We have the same Issue at highland links, the undergrowth comes up immediately after the trees are removed.  It's become almost a two stage process to get the area back to grasses.

[Gene Greco]

Francois:

     Magnifique! Some of the best work I've ever seen on this website in the last 12 years.

               Gene

[Frank Pont]

Frank,

We have the same Issue at highland links, the undergrowth comes up immediately after the trees are removed.  It's become almost a two stage process to get the area back to grasses.

Ian,

that must also be a great course to work on, one of the must see courses if I ever find the time to come to East Canada......

[Patrick Kiser]

Wow! 

Great stuff Frank and I hope everyone respects your request to not reuse these old photos.

This is really an eye opener.  The photo showing the 10th looking back is wonderful. 

I echo everyone's comments in saying this is pretty impressive work.

I would not be surprised a tree/shrub management program would need to be adopted.  This seems to be par for the course (no pun intended).

Couple of last questions...

Were there any "ah ha" moments for you given your knowledge of Colt?  Any surprises that you would not have expected?  As an example, I wonder if in recovering the lost holes if you discovered anything.

Thanks again for sharing.  This is what can make GCA great.

[Niall C]

Frank,

Is the plan to change the vegitation over in these areas, or will the native grasses re-establish and avoid the future encroachment of the woody plants.

Ian,

at the moment we are just letting the native grasses reestablish, in some areas helping it with some marram grass planting.

The reason so much growth has happened is that there is more nutrition in the rain than say 100 years ago. Another reason is the fact that some of the irrigation heads were quite inaccurate and watering parts of the rough. The second we can remidy, the first is here to stay unfortunately, an effect I am seeing on the other linkscourses I am working such as R Hague and Kennemer. That means that we will need to establish a constant program of tree/shrub management, a bit like the painting of the Golden Gate bridge.....




However I'm afraid we will have to keep cuttimng

Frank

Firstly congratualtions on a job very well done even if you are only part of the way through. Also thanks for posting those old photo's which I can't get enough of. As others have said, its amazing how open all those old coureses were back then. Would part of the reaon for that also be down to grazing ?

How far are you going to go with reverting back to the old routing ?

Niall

[Frank Pont]

Were there any "ah ha" moments for you given your knowledge of Colt?  Any surprises that you would not have expected?  As an example, I wonder if in recovering the lost holes if you discovered anything.

Patrick,

Surprises were:

- the fact that we discovered that hole 17 used to be a right dogleg instead of the current left dogleg.
- and that virtually the whole old fairway is still there, ready to be re-used
- the fact that hole 3 uesed to have alternative fairways
- that the fairways indeed were much wider than they are now
- that the undulation in the right side of fairway of hole 16 indeed was the old green of hole 15
- that we found the old tee of hole 14 in the middle of the tick shrubs right where the old aerial picture showed it
- that holes 8 and 9 had a shared fairway where the irrigation pond is now, which was the spot where you wanted to land your ball preferably

(numbers used is new routing, old routing started on hole 4 and ended on hole 3)

[Frank Pont]

Would part of the reaon for that also be down to grazing ?

How far are you going to go with reverting back to the old routing ?

Niall

Niall,

not sure about grazing, no cows/sheep on any old pics....

Patrice and I are discussing a proposed plan at the moment with management of Open Golf which follows the old old routing pretty much except for holes 11, 12 and 13. I expect that management will go along with most of our proposals, but then it will be a matter of getting planning permission since some of these "lost" holes now lie in designated nature areas, and it is not clear yet if we will get permission to go in there. This is something ecologists will be studying for the next 6-12 months....

[Niall C]

Frank

Presumably the plan would be a straight swap of giving the existing holes for nature to get the old ones back in play. Any idea why the old hole corridors were left abandoned in the first place ?

Niall

[Frank Pont]

Niall,

That is the plan indeed, and hopefully the sum ecologically of that swap will be positive, which I expect

The course part close to the sea was destroyed during WWII. After the war they played 4 holes on the Foret course, and 14 holes of the La Mer course. These were holes 1-12, then 17 played from behind the green of 12 (this is probably why the new dogleg left came in play rather than the old dogleg right) and 18.

In the 1990's golf architect Bill Baker redid the course as best as he could remeber, and got most of it right except for holes 15 and 16, and hole 17.

Holes 15 and 16 were a par 5 and par 3 and were changed in a par 3 and a par 4. My partner Patrice was the first to notice this discepancy, and going back to the old situation is one of our big priorities.

Another reason is that in the new Baker routing the holes 12-17 follow the bottom of the dune valleys more, so was probably easier to build?