Golf courses in Center-Val de Loire
Discover the detailed guide to all the golf courses located in the Center-Val de Loire region. You can leave a comment, a vote or an anecdote on all the golf courses in the golf directory
Where to play golf in Centre-Val de Loire? The detailed guide to all the golf courses in the region
The Loire Valley Center golf courses by Department - Golf courses & Hotels - Golf breaks
From one renaissance to another, play golf on the banks of the Loire.
From Sologne to Touraine, the banks of the Loire are a veritable open-air museum of the Renaissance. The castles and golf courses that follow one another compete in beauty and architectural daring. And in the heart of its forests, where game abounds, nestles the Bordes course, one of the most beautiful golf courses in France. A work comparable to Chambord, François 1er's hunting lodge.
From Orleans to Saumur, the valley formed by the Loire is called the Valley of the Kings. From the Capetian dynasty to François 1st, the Kings of France chose it as their home. In this region of forests and ponds where game abounds, Italian architects competed in creativity to build castles and hunting lodges. Even when the King and the court chose Paris as their capital, the construction of these princely residences which dominate the Loire never ceased. In the XNUMXth century, it was the turn of the bourgeoisie to compete in neo-Gothic and neoclassical architecture for their homes nestled in the heart of Sologne.
This Valley of the Kings, cradle of the Renaissance, which attracted the greatest foreign artists of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, was able to seduce in the XNUMXth century the great names of English and American golf architecture. Like Cabell Robinson in Orléans-Limère, Michael Fenn in golf course of Touraine et master Robert Van Hagge at Les Bordes.
The Bordes golf course: The flagship course on the banks of the Loire
The Lecoingolf Golf Guide talks about Bordes golf course and ranks it among the most beautiful courses in Europe. This exceptional course in the heart of Sologne shares points with sixteen other long-established masterpieces such as Valderrama in Spain, Royal County Down and Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, Muirfield and Carnoustie in Scotland, Royal Birkdale and Royal Lytham St Annes in England… -
Sixteen clubs which have all received prestigious tournaments: British Open, Ryder Cup, Walker Cup… The Bordes golf course is an exception. In accordance with the wishes of Baron Marcel Bich, a man who built his fortune on the invention of the ballpoint pen that he marketed under his name, and his partner the Japanese Mr. Sakuraï, this championship course with a terrible reputation n 'welcomes however that players of "Sunday" come to confront the monster. Too bad, because, with its 6412 meters from the rear tees, it would be a great test for great professional players.
Since its inauguration in 1987, the Bordes have inspired respect. Those who have walked its fairways admire it, those who dream of taking up the challenge dread it. However, the hardness of the course is now softened thanks to a cleaning of the undergrowth and a modulation of the departures which make it .., more affordable. Of Edges, even the par is earned. So what about the birdie! Golfers who make it their second home say it is wise to bogey every hole. A defensive strategy which prohibits attempting at each stroke the greens in regulation, in search of an impossible feat.
Birdie hunting at Golf International les Bordes
Because in this region of hunting with hounds, the birdie or the eagle flee from the first drive, like the deer tracked by hounds. In the evening, golfers usually come home empty-handed, the game bag empty of triumphant scores, the swing destroyed and the heart heavy. At Les Bordes international golf course, we lose our vanity in water obstacles and we learn humility.
When the Bordes golf course opened its doors, golfers discovered the work of an architect unknown in France, Robert Van Hagge. Since then, he has spread his creations in France: Seignosse, Kempferhof, Courson Monteloup, Golf National ... All unanimously recognized as great courses even if the critics criticize him for designs a little too complicated and an expensive cost to maintain its fairways sometimes tortuous.
Golf for everyone
Lucid on the golfing quality of French players, Baron Marcel Bich decided, a few years later, to build another course near Les Bordes. Easy to play and affordable golf for all budgets. Six years after its opening, the Prieuré de Ganay golf course is still holding its own. Annual fees and inexpensive green fees on weekdays and weekends have won over the golfers of the Loir-et-Cher and the Parisians who came to adjust their swing in Ganay before attacking the neighboring monster. To achieve this 27-hole course, increased to 36 in 2000, Baron Bich found his man, Jim Shirley, Robert Van Hagge's assistant.
The philosophy of this American pro who has taken up residence in France for fourteen years has won over the Baron: "Golf should be fun, fast and easy to play". Van Hagge's antithesis. The mission entrusted to him by Baron Bich seemed insurmountable: a course playable by all, without excessive loss of balls, and whose cost of construction and maintenance is reduced to its simplest expression. Jim Shirley has a budget of three million francs for each 9-hole course. It is little but sufficient for the Texan. With all the wisdom of a sixty-year-old, he made the first slice, the red, which looked like links, then the blue, a 9-hole course drawn in birch trees and yellow, a compromise between the first two courses.
The last one, which opened in the fall of 2000, winds through an oak forest. At the Priory of Ganay, you can leave the sandwedge in the trunk of your car, the twenty-seven holes have only sixteen bunkers! A record. On the red course, you have to wait for the fifth hole to find traces of sand. "The edges of the green are treated in a slight grassy depression which could eventually receive sand", explains its creator. To compensate for this lack of obstacle, the greens are small, tortured and raised ("the best in the region", insist the regulars). Thus, the Priory of Ganay can bravely defend its par 36 on each 9 holes.
A castle life for golfers
Going down the Loire from Chambord to Tours, the Renaissance châteaux raise their turrets around the meanders of the longest river in France. Amboise, Chaumont-sur-Loire, Chenonceau, Azay-le-Rideau… Few of these buildings with Italian-inspired architecture are still inhabited by private individuals as the maintenance costs are now extremely high. Also, families who have been keen to preserve their family heritage open their doors a few hours a day to visitors. At Cheverny castle, the Marquis Charles-Antoine de Sigalas Hurault de Vibray is working hard to bring life to this estate, which the family has owned for five centuries. Sound and light, hunting with hounds, opening to the public (Cheverny was, in 1922, the first private castle visited) allow the Marquis to maintain the estate.
The many tintinophiles also make the pilgrimage to Cheverny, the designer Hergé having used as a model this vast residence completed in 1634 to sketch Moulinsart, the castle of Captain Haddock. The rental of the land in front of the castle where today the Cheverny golf course is a further source of income for the Marquis. This 18 hole that revolves around the Rousseliere, a forty-two hectare pond, does not however have any perspective on the castle. Conscious of the advantage that fairways going up towards this “princely residence” could constitute, the owners are considering an extension of the golf course. A project that should inspire Tintin fans dressed in golf pants, like their hero. And the height of happiness for these comics fans, Snowy of all kinds are allowed on the course.
On the other hand, the golf courses of Tours have integrated the castles into their site. Pretty uninhabited mansion on the Ardrée golf course, one of the flagships of the Blue Green chain, castle-hotel with seven neo-Gothic style towers on the golf course of the same name, around which extends a very flat course of questionable golfing interest and a beautiful XNUMXth century bourgeois residence or golf course of Touraine overlooking a splendid beautifully wooded course.
Golf de Touraine a paradise for golfers
It was in 1973 that golfers from Touraine, driven out by the construction of the motorway, emigrated to Ballon-Miré, on the Domaine de la Touche and create the golf course of Touraine. On a small surface, the English architect Michael Fenn built an eighteen snail-shaped holes while respecting the magnificent trees of the property: pedunculate oaks, white poplars, sequoias, Judea trees, junipers, Algerian firs … A true paradise for budding botanists who never fail to admire before driving the par 3 of 16, the majestic oak with five hundred springs which extends its imposing bronchi to the left of the starting tee. In Che private golf course with a warm welcome, children are kings. On Sundays, they crowd the 800 m2 putting green sown on an old vegetable patch for approach and putting competitions. These fun training sessions are bearing fruit, the golf course of Touraine won the French club championship, dethroning the Racing Club de France and its team of stars. Far from the spirit of Parisian clubs, the Juniors of the Golf de Touraine represent the future of French golf, if not its renaissance.
Some anecdotes, information and quotes from golf courses in the Pays de la Loire and Center Val de Loire region… Did you know?
- In Orléans-Limère, the reception is nestled in a glass tower.
- From the first hole of the Bordes golf course, the stage is set. The greens are targets and the bunkers are real beaches
- Inspired by Robert Trent Jones of whom he was the assistant, Cabell Robinson poses on the fairways of Orleans Limère his jagged greens.
- Catherine de Médicis, Diane de Poitiers and Madame de Staël resided at the castle of Chaumont-sur-Loire
- Creation of Cabell Robinson, Orléans-Limère is the gateway to golf courses on the Loire Valley castles
- Near Les Bordes, Jim Shirley built, at the Priory of Ganay, an economical golf course where the green bunkers are replaced by grassy depressions
- Les Bordes: Baron Bich wanted world-class golf. Rober Van Hagge has satisfied his wishes. On this diabolical course in Loir-et-Cher, the bunkers are as wide as the fairways, the greens are island-style and the Clubhouse is extremely comfortable despite its apparent simplicity.
- In the shade of the crenellated towers of the Château des Sept Tours, Michael Fenn's wide course allows the use of the drive in complete safety. At the chateau, the table for dinner is very stylish. It is the chic bourgeois à la française. The Château des Sept Tours is now a golf hotel. And the chapel has been turned into a clubhouse
- The Tours Ardrée golf course is one of the two golf courses in the Center region of the Blue Green chain.
- The Golf de Touraine took root in 1973 on the Domaine de la Touche. Botanists love this course which has preserved its hundred-year-old trees.