In-demand Gil Hanse to build second course at Les Bordes in France

According to reports on the Golf Course Architecture website, American golf course designer Gil Hanse has been appointed by Les Bordes Golf Club in France to design its second 18-hole golf course.

Designed by Robert von Hagge in the 1980s, the original Les Bordes course is ranked among Planet Golf’s Top 20 courses of mainland Europe, and well regarded locally thanks to its pristine, peaceful setting and heroic American style of design. The Hanse course partly occupies a disused golfing area adjacent the existing course, and will have a Morfontaine flavor thanks to its subtle, sandy landforms, forest setting and distinctive local heather.

Hanse told Golf Course Architecture, “We visited the site and fell in love with the entire property and it all worked out.”

“I’ve always been a fan of Morfontaine, although I haven’t visited in a long time. When I visited this site, that was the first thing that came to mind. Then we found some heather locally, not a lot, but enough to let us know that it’ll grow there, so we started developing the design and concept around that – it was wonderful. It will be very different stylistically and playability-wise to the original, which I think, and from the owner’s perspective, is a positive, as their members will have two very different golfing experiences.”

In terms of the original playing corridors, Hanse told the magazine that these areas will be significantly wider than before and that the beautiful indigenous plants removed for golf will be translocated to provide character and maturity across the course.

From the Golf Course Architecture website:

Golf course architect Gil Hanse has been chosen as the designer of a new 18-hole course at Les Bordes Golf International in Saint-Laurent-Nouan, France.

Hanse has designed a 7,365-yard layout to the west of the club’s existing Robert von Hagge course, on an area of land where there has previously been 27 holes of golf.

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According to Bill Longmuir, head of golf at Les Bordes, the land is relatively flat, but has a beautiful roll to it and a sandy subsoil, which lends itself perfectly to a heathland layout.

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The project is Hanse’s first time working in Continental Europe. He often relocates to the site of courses that he works on, as he did with the recently re-opened No. 4 course at Pinehurst, as well as the Olympic course in Rio de Janeiro.

“I have fallen in love with the property. If the timing of the project goes as we anticipate with construction next year, my wife Tracey and I will relocate and probably spend two to three months living at Les Bordes before we start commuting. We have other projects that will be on the go that I will have to commute to. It’s a long commute but a good one!

“We’re excited, there’s a beautiful farmhouse on the property that they’re going to renovate, and we’ll stay there. If the timing goes well, we’ll probably stay there February through May, which should give us a lot of time to do a very good start on the feature construction and also establish the template for the look and for the style that we’re going for,” continued Hanse.

Construction is scheduled to start in January 2019 with the possibility that the course could be playable by early 2020.

 

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