Golf courses in Normandy

From Granville to Étretat I will go golfing in Normandy 

Between the sea and the countryside, the Norman golf courses have naturally found their place on the green and tender meadows. From Granville to Etretat, the grass is dense and the showers coming from the west make this region a paradise for greenkeepers.

The three syllables of the Nor-man-die conjure up a string of images: cider, apple trees in blossom, dairy cows, cheeses with strong scents and plump meadows. On this land that stretches from the cliffs of Dieppe at Mont Saint-Michel, bathed in the temperate waters of the Channel, the grass is dense and very green. On these pastures, the golf courses have naturally found refuge. Here, there is no need for fertilizer or fertilizer, the rains brought by the westerly winds make the grass grow like quackgrass. It is on the coast that golf has taken its anchor. Along the immense sandy beaches of Granville or perched suspended on the high white limestone cliffs of Dieppe andEtretat. Thus, the birth of Norman golf followed the fashions of seaside resorts, vacation spots for wealthy Parisian vacationers. Dieppe, Etretat, Cabourg, Granville and Deauville that the inhabitants of this small town of Calvados consider it to be the twenty-first arrondissement of Paris.

Dieppe More than a century of golf 

Today, Dieppe whose golf course extends its fairways on the road to Pourville used to be less frequented. The greats of this world have deserted it and the big hotels along the seafront no longer welcome personalities from the political, sporting and cultural world. Dieppe lost its status as a chic resort in the 40s. It has never regained its former glory. In its phase of reconquest, the Dieppe golf course took advantage of its centenary celebrations to display its new logo: a vessel with three masts, two crossed irons and the dates 1897- 1997. This golf course in Dieppe has indeed joined the very exclusive club of centennial clubs which has only eight members in France.

Unlike the dean, the Pau golf course, in the Atlantic Pyrenees, which has retained a good part of its layout from the last century, golfers in Bermuda shorts today no longer tread the same fairways as their elders in white crinoline and large hats adorned with ribbons. The first nine holes, designed by the English architect Willie Park, ran along the cliff, on the right of the road leading to the village of Pourville. Over XNUMX meters above the beach, the course was the most spectacular in France at the time.

The first French golf magazine, Tennis et Golf, founded by Marcel Daninos in 1914, recounts in its August 1922 edition how spectacular the game was: “ the Dieppe links ran through narrow gorges in the middle of gorse fields and offered a series of admirable views over the entire coast. Picturesque as they were, these holes were not without danger. It takes brazen nerves and a certain sense of mountaineering to drive up the steep hills with impunity. The void exerted on the balls a most unfortunate seduction and an incredible number of them disappeared in the direction of the strike under the eyes of their frightened owners… ”

From this fin de siècle golf course, only a few yellowed postcards remain. With the erosion of the cliffs, nearly fifty centimeters per year, the holes slipped towards the shore. Over time. This is the reason why, Dieppe golf course whose extension had been entrusted in 1912 to the great English architect, Tom Simpson, genius designer of Whipped Cream, Chiberta ou Fontainebleau, was deployed on the other side of the road on a vast plateau from which, from hole n ° 9, emerges the steeple of the church of Varengeville.

The cliffs of the golf course of Etretat: The Dream and the nightmare of all golfers 

The cliffs of Etretat also have their history. This seaside resort is nestled between high white cliffs. On his right stands the monument to the aviators Nungesser and Coli; on its left, the Aiguille Creuse, adventure ground for the gentleman-burglar, Arsène Lupine, creation of the Norman writer, Maurice Leblanc. 

The golf course of Étretat looms on these white cliffs that the sea tirelessly hollows out with each tide to form natural arches Here, we drive up to seagulls. More than a hundred meters above the waves. If the layout of this 18-hole course is not exceptional, its location makes it one of the most spectacular in Europe. And its hole n ° 10, a double dogleg in par 5 while climbing, attracts even Sunday walkers. With their hands entangled in the windbreaks, they can see golfers struggling to pull their carts or to send out big, straight shots.

Like all seaside golf courses, Etretat must be played with the wind. On this bare plateau, dotted with meager groves of trees, the wind blows unrestrained and undoes the unsteady swings. On the greens, the flags are small and their metal poles twist under the gusts. When the elements are unleashed, the Etretat golf course becomes exciting and very inventive. In this game, the British who land in Dieppe are very strong. On the limestone cliffs of Sussex, on the other side of the English Channel, they live the game every day under the assaults of Aeolus. It is characteristic of seaside golf. The view is often breathtaking, the air is pure and invigorating, but playing golf can be a real torture.

Granville golf course, Grands Vents, La Manche and its Links courses

On the links of Granville Dunes course, in the department of Manche, the sea is invisible. But she sniffs herself, the spray smells strong, she hears, she listens. The Granville links, one of the purest of France is like a beach at low tide. Fairways burnt as far as the eye can see, undulations of the land revealing a few sand traps and as many circles of green grass as there are greens. When the wind sets in, the fine grasses of the roughs wave in waves and play with the light. Like a beach at high tide.

The Manche department is the land of links and nine holes. With the exception of the twenty-seven hole complex of Granville golf course and the eighteen-hole extension of Agon-Coutainville, the Cotentin golf courses are all nine holes. Natural, rustic, authentic. Little gems for those who love unfussy golf, who love these Scottish-style golf courses. Like a Brehal, south of Coutances and its nine unpretentious holes from which, after each strong gust of wind, you have to chase away the sand which has transformed the starting tees into a real bunker. Of a crazy charm. Far from the more sophisticated courses of the Calvados nearby, a department whose concentration of eighteen holes is similar to that of the departments of the Côte d'Azur. 

Golf around Deauville

Between Caen and Deauville, there are seven eighteen holes over forty kilometers. Four are located less than ten kilometers around Deauville: New Deauville Golf, Saint-Julien golf course, Saint-Gatien golf course and Admiralty golf course. A real resort in the land of Livarot and Calvados. Between Pays d'Auge and Côte Fleurie. Where golfers compete with thoroughbreds for the lush meadows at the foot of manors and castles.

The Golf Barrière Deauville

On the New Golf de Deauville or Golf Barriere Deauville, the section of wall which stands at the start of 13 testifies to the historical past of the lands of Mont Canisy from where the view embraces Deauville and in the distance the town of Honfleur. " When you can't see Honfleur, it's raining, when you see Honfleur, it's going to rain soon“, Says a local saying. This wall, covered with weeds, is the ghost of the libertine nights which agitated the castle of the Marquis de Lassay in the XNUMXth century. Deauville has since drawn a line on this story.

Because according to the official brochures, the life of this seaside resort did not begin until the XNUMXth century with the Duke of Morny, half-brother of Napoleon Ill and grandson of Tayllerand. Continues at the beginning of the XNUMXth century with Eugène Cornuché, builder of the Casino and Normandy hotels and Royal, and is completed with François André who, according to the legend, would have drawn with the tip of his umbrella in the snow the outlines of the Hôtel du Golf. Whose windows in the large living room were always opening and opening onto the fairways of Tom Simpson's course and in the distance onto the bay of Deauville.

Le Golf Barriere Deauville has the charm of its old courses. Not too long, not too difficult and planted many species of trees: oaks, elms, ash trees and the inevitable apple trees, symbols of the Pays d'Auge. On the boards of Deauville beach, we meet the jet-set and the emerging fortunes. In golf, some old members cultivate nostalgia for the flashes of Bobby Jones, Jimmy Demaret or Robert de Vicenzo.

Stopover in Cabourg 

In Cabourg, it is the ghost of Marcel Proust who haunts the great hotel. The great French writer never got his gaiters dirty Cabourg-le Home golf course, in Varaville. Too bad because a careful description in one of the volumes "D" In search of lost time "would have made it possible to understand this dune course with eleven par 3! Today, there are only six left. His most famous, the Camembert, a round green placed on a hill, was devoured by the excavators. And Cabourg-le-Home has become an almost ordinary golf course. Its par 3 of 16 fortunately saves appearances with, at the top of the dune, its golfing green seems to float in the westerly wind.

Golf and Traditions in Normandy 

Throughout its history, Normandy has been a land of conquest and reconquest. The most beautiful testimony of these great feats of arms can be found at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum. Over more than a hundred meters, a tapestry, a veritable embroidered comic strip, recounts the epic of William the Conqueror, crushing the English at the battle of Hastings in 1066. A few kilometers from the capital of Bessin, the museums in full The air and the military cemeteries recall the heroic landing of the Allied troops on June 6, 1944. 

Le Omaha Beach golf course, code name of a beach of the greatest military operation of all time, also paid homage to the liberators by attributing to each hole of the course of the Sea and the Bocage, the name of one of the heroes of June 6 . Commemorative plaques with the names of Einsenhower, De Gaulle, Leclerc…. unveiled to the shrill sounds of the bagpipes of Bill Millin, the Scottish infantryman who was the first to cross at dawn on June 6, 1944 the iron bridge of Ouistreham under fire from German machine guns. From the green of hole 6 of the course of the Sea, a formidable par 4 when the wind blows from the sea, we can see the remains of the artificial port of Arromanches where hundreds of warships docked during the month of June 1944. 

A thousand years ago, the Battlefield Golf, in Neubourg in the Eure, was the ground of confrontation of two powerful armies which killed each other for the possession of the Duchy of Normandy. On this historic site, gorged with the blood of these soldiers from another age, rose in 1650 the castle of the Battlefield. In this area where formal gardens sit alongside forests of hundred-year-old trees, a golf course has been drawn up, the eighteen holes of which cross a valley of rhododendrons, jump over waterfalls and ponds, avoid a sand quarry and play with the gardens perfectly. ordered which lead back to the clubhouse fitted out in the old stables of the castle. There, where, in the past, thoroughbreds came to rest after long rides through the Normandy countryside. On these tender meadows which have become a paradise for golfers and greenkeepers. 

Some anecdotes and quotes on golf courses in Normandy. Did you know ? 

• Le Granville clubhouse, a typical Norman architecture and is the delight of all photographers 
• Green velvet greens of Etretat on the background of white chalk cliffs. In Etretat, we putt above the flight of the seagulls.
• The rocky island of Mont Saint-Michel celebrated its millennium in 1966. At high tide, the sea rises over the sand at the speed of a galloping horse.
• Friendliness and good food are the "udders" of Saint Gatien golf course.
• With ubiquitous water hazards, the Admiralty golf course has kept the remains of the marshes on which it was built.
• At the Admiralty, nine holes are lit at night. 
• Au New Deauville Golf, the players putt under the windows of the Grand Hotel.
• From the castle of the Marquis de Lassay, only a section of the wall remains on the New Golf de Deauville.
• At the Lucien Barrière golf course, the putting green revolves around a well covered with flowers. A must to get acquainted with the subtle slopes of Tom Simpson's greens. 
• When the rhododendrons bloom, the Battlefield golf course is adorned with a thousand colors.