Golf courses in Brittany

Play golf under the spray of the raging seas of Brittany 

From Saint-Malo to La Baule, the Breton golf courses have found refuge on the hundreds of kilometers of jagged coastline bathed by the stormy waters of the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. 

And Couesnon in its madness put the Mount in Normandy ”. This saying is proclaimed when the bridge over the river separating Brittany and the Normandy makes the Bretons laugh yellow. Without this whim of nature or the administrative division decreed by technocrats, Mont Saint-Michel. would be attached to Brittany which would have, suddenly, added this architectural masterpiece to its catalog of wonders. In the south, Brittany was also administratively cut off by Nantes, yet the seat of the Dukes of Brittany from the XNUMXth to the XNUMXth century. Nantes became by default the capital of the region of Pays de la Loire.

For a handful of kilometers therefore, the Couesnon put the Mont in Normandy. The eyes of the proud Bretons then turned towards the port of Saint Malo, the embodiment of its long maritime history. From this fortified port located at the mouth of the Rance, left the ocean runners, free, without ties except for honor and money. Proud privateers like Surcouf or great explorers like Jacques Cartier. Intrepid fishermen who set sail for long months to bring Newfoundland cod back to their holds. Today it is further south, in the port of the Trinité-sur-MerNear Carnac, that we find this pool of intrepid sailors, more peaceful but always in search of new exploits.

History and Tradition at Golf de Dinard 

On the west bank of the Rance, the Dinard golf course gives himself an air of England. In this oldest seaside resort in northern Brittany, the windows are hung and the golf course is a links. Like in the UK. At the end of the 1890th century, holidaymakers with an Oxford accent founded one of the first tennis clubs in France there before building a golf course. Otherwise, they were doomed to mortal boredom, as this passage from Volume IV of the 1891-XNUMX edition of the Golfing Annual recalls: " Two years ago, the tourist could say that the only occupations for the English staying in Dinard were tennis and dancing… and one thing more impossible than the impossible was to find a suitable ground for golf…  »The choice of the site is delicate and the course has its holes of Dinard in Saint-Lunaire before finally beaching on the dunes of Saint Briac. More than seven kilometers from Dinard, just after the tip of the Guard Guérin. However, the golf course still bears the name of Dinard, much to the chagrin of Brice Lalonde, former mayor of the town and former minister of the Fifth Republic. 

The 18 holes moved, remodeled, renamed from Tom Dunn's first layout hug the jagged cliffs of the eastern tip of the Emerald Coast. At its peaks, two wooden benches, donated by the club president and his son, impose a beneficial stop between two swings. Facing the panorama on Lancieux bay and its chains of islands. The prospect is so beautiful that the golf course had to defend itself against unscrupulous property developers. Also, the grounds as well as the clubhouse, a small marvel of the 20s, have been protected. Golf was saved but what a headache for its leaders who must now refer to the administration, even for the simple removal of a bunker.

Inside the one-story clubhouse, the railing of the staircase leading down to the changing rooms, an interlacing of wrought-iron golf clubs, and the trophy cases could also be registered in the national golf heritage. Because Dinard is to Brittany what Chantaco or La Nivelle are to the Basque Country. Incubators of little geniuses of the little white ball. To show their gratitude to the club which cradled their youth, the baby champions who have grown up have deposited their precious trophies there. In the windows shines the most prestigious, the Espirito Trophy, awarded to the winning team of the World Amateur Team Championship. A donation from Claudine Cros-Chatrier, member of the 1964 French team with Catherine Lacoste, president of Chantaco… Other children of Dinard have their names engraved in the dark wood of the honor roll: Sven Boinet, winner of the Spain international in 1975 or Philippe Ploujoux, hero of the British amateur in 1981 which earned him the honor of playing, the two following years, the first two rounds of the Masters, in Augusta (United States), with the grandissime Arnold Palmer.

Play golf in Côtes d'Armor at Pléneuf-Val-André

On the cliffs of the town of Pleneuf-le-Val-Andre about Côtes d'Armor, the course designed by the French architect Alain Prat is not yet old enough to tap into his memories and sink into nostalgia.

Too young for that. The tradition will be for later. Because the seaside resort only lives in the summer months and, for a long time, the practice of golf was limited to games of miniature golf on grass in the garden of the municipal casino. This eighteen holes for children with its windmills, its bridges and its castles ... aroused the vocations of golfer, including that of the author of this book, but was unfortunately covered with a coat of asphalt to turn into a parking lot . Pity! 

When the young Val André golf course this time, a real eighteen hole - replaced the algécos by a hard clubhouse, the clients took care to orient the bay windows of the dining room towards the Verdelet, an islet which stands like a pyramid in open sea, behind the port of Piégu. Bird reserve, the Verdelet can only be visited during high tides when the sea recedes sufficiently and leaves a path uncovered. For just a few hours.

In front of the restaurant, the backtee of 10, a par 4 which begins the short sequence of the sea. At the drive, you have to aim for Nantua beach, straight ahead to reach the blind fairway from which a green below attacks. This hole looks like the 11 of Spirona, in Corsica. 

The following is the signature of Pleneuf Val-Andre. The one who goes around Europe on glossy magazines before setting off on a journey around the world in the imagination of golfers. To fully enjoy the layout of this par 5, do not hesitate to climb up to the tiny rocky platform that serves as a tee for very good players. Yellow balls, white balls, black balls, the colors here don't matter anymore. Even if it means losing a ball, or even two! Regardless, the spectacle is more important than a golf ball. On the left, fifty meters below, the beach of Vallées extended by the immense beach of Nantua. 

To the right of this long strip of immaculate sand, the fairway which leads to a tormented green. A small house in ruins, windows open to the four winds, and two lodgepole pines to the left of the entrance to the fairway mark the landmarks to correct its alignment. Like buoys or beacons for a sailor. Reaching the grass requires a range of the ball that is close to one hundred and eighty meters. Afraid to abstain! And those who could not brave the vertigo of this spectacular start will stop for a few minutes on the green of this par 5 to admire this hole in reverse; from the green to the tee. Unforgettable at sunset! 

Play golf in the in Morbihan 

It is south in the Morbihan that stand menhirs and dolmens, cairns and tumuli, vestiges of the fourth millennium BC Carved in granite, these giant stones erected, lying, piled up form alignments or circles which still cause much ink to flow. All the hypotheses have been put forward, no scientific truth has imposed itself. Each inhabitant of this region has his own reasoning. Like this manager of a golf course in Morbihan who explains that all the menhirs form gigantic circles, the center of which is the large menhir and the Table des Marchands of Locmariaquer. 

These stones erected in the moor, dear to Obelix, are today threatened and are the object of attentive care. Thus, in Carnac, the Mecca of these megaliths, the alignments are surrounded by fences in order to let nature regain its vigor and allow the re-rooting of these thousand-year-old stones weighing hundreds of kilos. Like the standing stones of Carnac, the golf courses of Morbihan form a circle passing through Ploemeur Ocean in Lorient and Sauzon on Beautiful island. With at their center, the Saint-Laurent golf course, a few kilometers from Carnac.

But the latter does not contain any megalithic treasure. Neither menhir nor dolmen. In the United States, promoters would have played with this symbolism. Not in France. Maybe because Saint-Laurent looks like a golf course in the Landes. With pines, more pines and more pines. The fairways are fairly flat on the outward and hilly on the return, the greens are narrow and the bunkers never penalize a shot that is too short. A pure example of the English course (its architect is Michael Fenn). 

To find the Brittany of long-haul sailors, a trip to Belle Ile is a must. At its western tip, the 9, 10 or 13 holes of beautiful Sauzon Island golf course -it is according to the years- built on the cliff invite to meditate on the unleashing of the elements. Moreover, Sauzon has already lost a few holes during famous storms. And the salt-laden spray is responsible for reducing men's efforts forever. In the meantime, whether the golf course is lying at the foot of the cliffs or whether it returns to fallow, it is necessary to dare to challenge the green of hole n ° 2 with its green in the sea, defended like a fortified castle. To be taken by air only.

Bretesche golf course Domaine de la Bretesche, Missillac

Impossible to close this Breton journey sounds like evoking the "border" golf courses of the Bretesche as well as The Baule. Because Missillac, on the road to Valves, is only a few kilometers from Morbihan. A few pars 5 of Brittany to which the hearts of the inhabitants of this small village located on the Nantes-Vannes expressway clings to. A road once defended by the crenellated towers of the Bretesche castle. 

Today, this castle surrounded by a moat no longer inspires any fear. Transformed into apartments, it discreetly watches over the two hundred hectares of the estate and the 18-hole course which stretches out its fairways under its loopholes. One of his tenants, Gérard Métairie, looks shockingly at his cherished journey in the morning. Twenty years ago, this real estate developer, tapped by his omissions, decided to build a golf course.  To design the course, we whisper the name of Henry Cotton, the great English champion of the 30s and 40s and triple winner of the British Open. The latter goes to Missillac, makes some sketches and sends his estimate. "Too expensive", replies the promoter who sees an English skinner, Bill Baker, land. He is a hunter like Gérard Métairie. 

This common passion creates links. Between two gunshots, the two men refine the project and Bill Baker removes the case. With its resolutely "British" cottages and its hotel fitted out in the outbuildings and stables, the Bretesche golf course turns to golf-trotters in love with old stones. Because even if the castle whose access is protected by a drawbridge was renovated in the XNUMXth century by Eugène Violletle-Duc, it gives the impression of coming straight out of a swashbuckling film where clubs would be replaced by long blades and visor caps by large feathered hats. 

La Baule, a must-see golf course in the Brittany region 

Au La Baule golf course, it was a leap into the future that were invited to the members of the club who felt cramped on the old route initiated by François André, a locomotive of the Roaring Twenties. Indeed, this chic seaside resort north-west of Nantes, whose eight-kilometer beach is unique in Europe, wanted a golf course that lived up to its reputation. With the Lucien Barrière group at the helm, owner of the New Golf de Deauville, this new golf course offers tourism and prestige. 

Two years after its inauguration, La Baule is hosting the 1978 French Open. A great promotional and communication campaign to publicize this true French-style "resort" made up of its twenty-seven holes designed by Dave Thomas and Peter Alliss then remodeled by Michel Gayon, and a hotel whose windows open onto the vast five-hectare body of water, a nod to Brière, this marshy region that stretches from Saint-Nazaire to Missillac. 

La Baule is only about thirty kilometers from Morbihan, but the traditions of historic Brittany do not encompass the borders drawn with a scalpel in Parisian cabinets. 

Some anecdotes and quotes from golf courses in Brittany. Did you know ? 

• The clubhouse of Dinard is an architectural model of the 20s.
• You just have to step over the modest barrier that runs along the hole n ° 6 of Dinard to set foot on the beach of Garde Guérin.
• The Dinard links are over a century old. Its holes hug the jagged cliffs of the Emerald Coast.
• The 18-hole Pléneuf-Val André is a true masterpiece. From hole n ° 9 and its green which seems to merge with the sea, it is the apotheosis
• Hole n ° 11 at Pléneuf-Val André is one of the finest par 5s in France. To play absolutely back starts
• Le Bretesche golf course nestles around the moat of this XNUMXth century castle.
• le Plœmeur-Océan golf course is the most beautiful links of Morbihan, even of Brittany
• The outbuildings of the Château de la Bretesche have been transformed into a clubhouse and a hotel.
• Feeling cramped in their old walls, the members of La Baule chose to emigrate eight kilometers from the beach.
• The Châtelain Yvonnic de la Chesnois transformed his vast Domaine des Ormes in 18-hole golf course and… in the campsite.
• Le Baden golf course, in Morbihan, dominates the estuary of the Auray river where sailboats come to anchor.
• At Belle Île, the number of holes varies from year to year. Twelve or thirteen, it is according to the whims of the high tides.