Le Golf du Stade Français Courson

Le Golf du Stade Français Courson: 36 excellent and challenging holes of golf await the visitor to Courson, a golf facility operated under the umbrella of France's largest sports club, Le Stade Français. The Vert and Noir nines are generally regarded as Courson's best combination, versus the Orange or Lilas nines ... but any differences are not significant.

The Vert-Noir course, inland "links-style" in many regards, is a relatively open and modern design, with plenty of interesting features. Penal rough is allowed to creep down the "dune-like" mounds, getting quite close to the fairways and requiring accuracy from the tee as your first priority. Next up, you'll need to stay out of an abundance of grass hollows and opulently large sand bunkers, while also avoiding several water hazards. In typical Von Hagge style, the layout's many challenges and hazards come thick and fast. On the par-3s, you'll need to respect the yardages rather than the optics, otherwise it's easy to underclub.

The ever present rough, carried along on the fairway-hugging earth mounds, provides good definition to the holes. Any trouble is generally clear to see, although there is a blind drive at the opening hole on the Orange-nine. The ox-bow double-green at the 5th and 9th on the Noir-nine is surely one of the longest greens in world golf!

Many holes provide a view over surroundings wooded hills and farmland. From others you can admire the eclectic collection of buildings that make up the clubhouse ... the wonderfully agèd Ferme (farm) de la Gloriette.