Golf courses in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté

Golf course in Rhônes Alpes: Swing from the south of Burgundy to the snow-capped peaks of the Alps.

Golf in the mountains 

In the Rhône-Alpes region, architects have also used their imaginations to design routes in the mountains. On slopes that skiers and snowboarders descend, in winter, quite schuss, without thinking for a single moment that their acrobatic figures are supported on the fleshy lips of a bunker covered with a thick white coat.

Building a golf course on these steep slopes might seem like an impossible task. The first in France to take up the challenge was the Englishman Henry Cotton who created the Mont d'Arbois golf course in 1923. At an altitude bordering on 1300 meters. Then it was the turn, sixty years later, of Robert Trent Jones to realize the Chamonix golf course in the grandiose setting of Mont Blanc massifs and Aiguilles Rouges.

The bet was daring and still is given the very short period of time to complete the work (from June to October) and make the installations profitable (at best three months in the year). Unlike Méribel, the Chamonix golf course is relatively flat, the course serving as cross-country ski trails in winter. Despite these constraints, mountain golf courses have multiplied. Indeed, there are eleven in the departments ofIsère, Savoy and Haute-Savoie. For resorts that have always lived on the only winter months, golf and new leisure activities like mountain biking, rafting or paragliding have allowed them to diversify income from tourism and live two seasons instead of a. It is not uncommon to find a field steward putting on skis in winter and taking on the combination of ski instructors. Two seasons, two jobs.

Golf at altitude 

Golfers have also discovered a new way to practice their passion. Because we do not play in the mountains as in the plains. The driver is not the most used club in the bag, we prefer irons starts, more precise and easier to control. The ball flies higher and longer, an important parameter in the choice of the club. The slopes also play a significant role in the game strategy and, on the greens, the slopes always spin towards the valley. In the mountains, you have to let go of your certainties. Here, the score is less important than the pleasure. Because the concentration is undermined by the decoration of these immaculate landscapes. In the mountains, we take our time. The fairways of these golf courses that some qualify with a touch of irony as "goat courses" being too steep to run to the ball.

The highest golf course… a real Challenge!

For the sake of communication and fierce competition, the stations embarked on a race for altitude. In 1984, the Arcs open their 18-hole course at an altitude of 1850m. Never mind, two years later, Robert Berthet realizes the Flaine golf course at 2m. The record seems unbeatable. But in 000, opened the golf course of Tignes at 2m, record broken. The following year, Isola 100, in the Alpes-Maritimes, equal Tignes. Since then, no golf course has reached this high.

Near Grenoble, the courses have found refuge at medium altitudes. Like that of Grenoble-Bresson, a beautiful achievement by Robert Trent Jones Jr, whose highest point is measured at only 400m above sea level. But from the top of its fairways, we play in front of the Belledone chain, at Chartreuse massif and Vercors. And, on hole n ° 9, a long downhill par 5, Grenoble appears in a wide gap of trees. The second shot to the green becomes striking.

The Golf de Saint Etienne Green lung in the heart of the city

It is not enough to give an architect a mountain backdrop to give free rein to his creativity. At Saint-Etienne golf course, it is a landfill that Thierry Sprecher has rehabilitated to transform it into a green hole in the heart of the old mining town. “When I was brought to the site, it was full of stones. Dogs howled at the death, it was a real trash ", says the architect. As workers' history is part of the heritage of Saint Etienne, a stele was installed at the back of the green of 2, testimony of firedamp from the Chana well which killed a hundred miners in 1942. The green is placed on the entrance to this well, forever closing the pages of a painful history.

The Golf of Lyon

In Lyon, capital of the Gauls, Villette d'Anthon golf course or Lyon golf club was the pioneer in the Rhône department. Built in 1965 in an area of ​​two hundred hectares, along the river, the two courses designed by Hugues Lambert are tributes to game. The championship course, the Sangliers, displays back-tees with an unusual length of 6m, and was the scene of the 727 French Open and the Lyon Open until 1979. The second 1994 holes, bears the name of Brocards, from the name of the one-year-old deer that frolic with their mothers in the undergrowth. These two courses with numerous water obstacles are also home to wild swans, gray herons, little egrets and black kites. A real Noah's Ark, a few kilometers from the famous Lyon “bouchons”.

History, golf and traditions

Less than three hours drive from the Mediterranean and Italy, two hours from Switzerland, and one hour from winter sports resorts, the third largest city in France occupies a privileged location in France. When the weekend comes, the people of Lyon are spoiled for choice. Because near the Swiss border, golf courses abound and the Lyonnais meet there on weekends the Genevans who only have the border to cross. White House, Esery, Bossey et Evian are the four favorite courses of the Rhone and the Swiss.

Golf d'Évian Evian Resort Golf Club

But the Evian golf course is one step ahead of its competitors. Because this city of water on the shores of Lake Geneva also offers a casino to the appetite of players on a green carpet and two international class hotels, the Royal, a palace open since 1909, and the Hermitage with more Savoyard charm. . At the start of the 1904th century, celebrities flocked to the Royal's large salons. On the promenade along Lake Geneva, Isadora Duncan, Countess Anna de Noailles, Princess de Hohenlohe showed off their dresses while princes, Maharajahs and finance barons chatted while smoking cigars in the smokehouse. Little looking at expenses, the Aga Khan reserved the honorary apartment in the west wing of the palace every summer. For more than forty years, the spiritual leader of the Ismailis would animate the evenings of Evian and the afternoons of the golf course, the first course of which dates back to XNUMX.

This 18-hole course on Lake Geneva was rustic. At that time, we were far from modern standards. It was not until the renovation undertaken, from 1988 to 1990, by the former assistant of Robert Trent Jones, Cabell Robinson, that the Royal Club Evian reached the level of quality demanded by the customers of the two big hotels. Then, at the instigation of Groupe Danone, owner of the luxury facilities of this Savoy spa town, a major women's tournament was created in 1994: The Evian Masters. Thanks or dynonism of Antoine Riboud then of his son, Frank, the tournament has become the unmissable event on the European women's circuit. Since the creation of the tournament, the endowment has gained altitude, the course has been embellished and has recently been adorned with waterfalls and rivers to magnify the elegant swing of these balls from the greens. During the four days of the competition, these young women are treated like queens. As was in their time the dancer, Isadora Duncan, or the poet, Anno de Noailles, companion of Gabriele D'Annunzio. From the lascivious fairways of Mâcon-la-Salle to the gala evenings of the dinner of the champions of Evian, it is the story of the eternal feminine that is being written. A subject all in curves and delicacy.

Some quotes and anecdotes from golf courses in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Burgundy region. Did you know ?

• Green-foot and toe-bunkers at the Mâcon-la-Salle golf course… A golf course with human shapes
• A Chamonix, Robert Trent Jones paved the way for other mountain golf courses. This relatively flat course winds between the streams and L ”Arve.
• The castle of Breuil welcomes in its outbuildings the clubhouse of Governor's golf course
• At the foot of the Vercors, the Grenoble Bresson route offers immersion in nature. However, we are only fifteen minutes from the capital of Isère
• The White House golf course gives the illusion of being a flat course. The very hilly return holes correct this impression and the score card
• Le Divonne golf course is one of the most curious routes in France. Its 18 holes are divided into as many par 3, par 4 and par 5.
• On weekends, the Swiss cross the border to compete against the well-protected greens of the Maison Blanche golf course.
• In summer, the resort of Gets. is the meeting place for hikers and golfers who have only four months to enjoy this course in the heart of the Alps.