La Tempête Golf Club

La Tempête Golf Club: Top-quality golf courses around Québec City are not in overly abundant supply. But any shortfall in quantity is compensated by the quality of the area's standard bearer, La Tempête (in English The Storm or Tempest). You'll find this modern and mainly links-style layout tucked away in a quiet rural setting, just a few miles south of Quebec City across the St Lawrence River.

The originally flat terrain at La Tempête has been stylishly contoured and mounded to create an easy-walking big dimension course. It's a predominantly open championship layout that big hitters will enjoy, providing care is taken on the occasions when water threatens. This is certainly the case on the lake-hugging opening and closing duo on the back-nine. The short doglegging par-4 4th and 8th holes also bring ponds into play.

In the middle section of each nine-hole loop, a tree-lined environment replaces the more customary open linksy terrain. The par-4 6th introduces the tree-lined holes (two on the front-nine, four on the back). On this testing hole a meandering stream is in play both from the tee and on your approach to the green. What is supposedly a two-shotter (to the green), has been known to require one or two more than that.

Integral to the layout's handsome features, the good-width nicely rolling fairways are flanked by attractive and plentiful bunkering. Good-size stylish sand traps are also significantly in play around the large fast sloping greens.

Among a nicely varied collection of par-3s, the strongly bunker-defended 15th enjoys an attractive backdrop of tall pines. At the 11th and 17th, played in the open terrain, just a single bunker is needed at each hole, but water most definitely provides the real danger.