All golf courses have some sort of backstory because their creation requires various combinations of determination, effort and creativity. But some have a good deal more than others, and that is often true of the elite of Continental Europe. One of the most intriguing is surely Terre Blanche.
Its story begins in the late 18th Century when the estate was bought by aristocrat Charles Bouge – an imperial colonel in the Napoleonic armies. An interesting start to the tale, but brace yourself because it gets better.
It remained in his family for two centuries until 1979 when it was sold to… Sean Connery. That got your attention didn’t it. What’s more, legend has it that 007 won the estate in a game of cards. Of course he did.
Irrespective of how Connery came to own this magnificent forested land to the west of Nice, he immediately fell in love with it.
Connery already had an attachment to the area in south-east France – the resort is situated near the town of Tourrettes – because his second wife Micheline, who he met at Royal Mohammedia Golf Club in Morocco, is from the region.
Famously keen golfer Connery fell in love with the area as well as his wife and resolved to build a golf resort there. He began clearing the trees in order to route the course but didn’t ever put a spade in the ground. Instead, he sold it to a developer but they also failed to make much headway, so it was then acquired by billionaire businessman Dietmar Hopp.
Hopp had made his money through the software firm SAP and, like 007, was both a golfer and had been beguiled by the area in the the 1990s.
“Amidst the magnificent scenery of Provence, I have fulfilled a dream: the dream of 300 days of sun; the dream of tranquility and the dream of golf,” he says. “Both golf courses are so well embedded in the landscape they seem to have always been there. Terre Blanche is like an oasis which is soothing to the soul.”
The Château begins with the warm handshake of a gentle par 5 in dense woodland and continues in that character for three further holes that include the fabulous 3rd that snakes beautifully between the pines.
The end to the journey to this oasis is the start of the jaw-dropping experience; the twisting drive from from the motorway that runs along the bottom of France up into the hills is a breathtaking one, complete with views of the awesome Saint-Cassien lake.
Terre Blanche is more like a village than a resort, with accommodation, restaurants, a spa and leisure facilities sprawled out on the hillside in low-rise form. The golf courses – there is also the very pleasant Le Riou as a No.2 – are a key part of its appeal.
The Château was designed by Dave Thomas on often steeply undulating terrain populated by mature trees and shrubs which give the course a mature feel that belies its age.
So what can you expect at one of France’s famed venues?
A course that flits in and out of woodland as it ascends and descends hillsides, crosses ravines and encounters lakes.
A course that asks questions off the tee by the number of huge white-sand drive bunkers and the mature trees or in locating small greens.
A course that is beautifully presented, from its slick, flawless greens to its laser-levelled tees and its neatly tended borders to the shrubs that add dashes of colour and smell.
The Château begins with the warm handshake of a gentle par 5 in dense woodland and continues in that character for three further holes that include the fabulous 3rd that snakes beautifully between the pines.
Coming home, the 16th is a highlight, the best par 3 on the course; it plays downhill between tall pines and over a ravine to a small green cuddled by a stone wall.
But then there is less of a claustrophobic feel from the 4th green and this stretch includes the water-dominated risk-reward par-5 6th which begins with a drive towards the château that was the Bouges’ residence, its elegant roof peeping beyond towering ancient oak and pine trees.
The front nine closes in a more enclosed setting and the second half begins with arguably the course’s best stretch, a sweeping left-to-right hole around the corner of the lake being followed by the stellar 11th and sporty downhill 12th.
Coming home, the 16th is a highlight, and the best par 3 on the course; it plays downhill between tall pines and over a ravine to a small green cuddled by a stone wall.
A buggy is probably necessary to cover the course’s hilly nature but this is otherwise as pleasant and tranquil an inland experience as one could imagine away from the heathlands of the Netherlands, Paris and Germany. Chris Bertram
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