Gents,
Aesthetically outstanding but in terms of further tree removal and fairway lines, would you not like to be able to open the course up still further?
Pushing the fairway lines further out it also part of the plan.
In essence, we want to bring back all the elements of the original architecture : less trees, larger putting surfaces with shortly mown runoff areas, bigger bunkers in typical Simpson lace edged style and of course wider fairways.
Interestingly, widening the fairways could be one of our most controversial change.
With only 5900 meters from the tips, Hardelot is not always considered a stern test of golf and we hear comments that wide fairways would make it even less difficult. We believe on the contrary that wide fairways help reveal the subtelties of the architecture, yielding to strategic choices for the better player and less lost balls for the higher handicaps. The renovated hole 15 is a great example of that: so many places to aim at from the tee, but where is the ideal landing area?
More generally speaking, Hardelot is a much more challenging course than it looks on the scorecard. Hole 8 is a perfect illustration of the false feeling of comfort you can experience on the course: 310 meters max, downwind, no green bunker, but trust me, 4 is a very good score on this hole.
For 2013 PQ1 (qualifications for the European Tour), the winner was only at -12 after 4 rounds and anybody in the par would be in the top 25 and qualify for PQ2. FYI, the course played as a par 71 for PQ1.
Faster and firmer soil will only bring more difficulty (although making the course play slightly shorter).
On top of that, we brought the original par 73 down to 71 by converting holes 2 and 16 into par 4s (Simpson's routing had no less than 6 par 5s!) For major events like PQ1, officials are considering to lower the par to 70 with hole 10 being played as a par 4.