By Claude Granveaud Vallat,
Inaugurated in 1997 after a complicated gestation period, the Golf Collection de Haute-Auvergne, a design by Lucien Roux – the father of the Volcans golf course – looks good on 130 hectares of forest valleys. Between gentle slopes modelled on the top of the puys in sight on the horizon, well-defined fairways, a few pieces of water, a design alternating long holes with more technical ones – often dogleg – and the deer stroll in the evening in the cool of the day, there is no shortage of arguments within this family club.
Nicolas Matière, the third generation at the helm after Marcel and Philippe, has chosen to widen the fairways, clean up the undergrowth, and simplify the game, making it more fluid and more fun. But it is enough to let the roughs grow for the course to regain its character between the groves of oaks, beeches, birches and firs, trees that did not wait for the golf course to grow in the good air of the Cantal.
Par 3s are solid, played downhill, uphill, over water, towards a double-deck… offering a nice variety of shots. Par 5s are fun, like the 3rd and 14th where the 2nd shot is decisive.
There is no time to get bored in the heart of this forest ending with a majestic driveway leading up to the 18th green and a clubhouse where the modular reception structures imposed by the region are no longer a surprise. The essential is elsewhere, in the greenery, on the course, facing the puys!
Useful information
Golf de Haute-Auvergne
2, route du Golf
15130 Sansac-de-Marmiesse
Tél. : 04 71 47 73 75.
Email : contact@golfdehauteauvergne.com
Site : www.golfdehauteauvergne.fr
Architecte : Lucien Roux (1997).
18T, 6208 mètres, par 72.