By Claude Granveaud Vallat
Guérande, a thousand year old city that prospered in the time of Anne de Bretagne… And yet, its golf course is not even twenty years old! Born at the beginning of the 21st century from a family passion, the Guérande golf course has undergone an evolution in its quality, its drainage, its cosmetics, and welcome aesthetic and technical changes since 2015.
Two years later, the acquisition of ten hectares allowed the course to be extended. In 2018, Stuart Hallett began work on the first holes, starting with the 16th and the greens of the 10th and 18th. The work, at the rate of one hole per year – from the tees to the green, including the drainage system and the surroundings – remains a long-term project undertaken with great care. At the gates of the Brière marshes, set back from the Atlantic beaches, while enjoying the iodine air from the open sea, the Guérande course is sheltered in a forest of oaks, pines, birches, chestnut trees, maples, willows and eucalyptus – a species well adapted to the Loire climate. Trees that quiver in the breeze from the sea.
Crossed by the Moranne, a stream linking several ponds, the course benefits from a few water hazards. The approach to the 14th, a par 4 played on the left dogleg, is the most significant as the river is treacherous in front of the green. Looking back, Eric Lebreton and his father Jacques can be proud of this club which does not lack salt. Where nothing was won in advance, they have succeeded in their gamble, in the land of white gold!
Golf de Guérande
Route de Bréhadour
44350 Guérande
Tél. : 02 40 66 43 21.
www.golfdeguerande.com
18T, par 69, 5176 m.
Création : 2004
Architectes : Jacques Lebreton & Stuart Hallett
