Saint Endreol Golf & Spa Resort

Saint Endreol Golf & Spa Resort: Beautiful rural landscapes, medieval hillside villages, the undulating pre-Alps and vines ripening in the summer sun may all come to mind when you think of Provence. Blending into this rural French idyll, the region boasts several excellent golf courses. Saint Endreol is one of the quietest and most natural. Quintessential Provence!

The Provencal-styled clubhouse and hotel look down onto a wonderfully scenic and testing golf course that combines open-spaces and tree-lined holes in equal measure. Elevation changes play their full part here, creating a few blind tee-shots, while water hazards are limited to just a few holes.

Unencumbered by roads or real estate, and surrounded by forested hills and captivating rock formations, the golfing challenges of St Endreol include many tightish fairways lined by an array of pines, other tree varieties and thick vegetation. Good fairway and greenside bunkering also makes its presence felt, though not excessively so.

Pick of the holes: St Endreol's signature 13th hole spectacularly combines elevation change and water. This longish par-3 (frighteningly long at 224 metres from the crow's nest back-tee) plunges downhill to a green surrounded on three sides by a good-sized lake (created by the passing L'Endre River). The long, uphill par-4 17th presents one of the more strenuous climbs, but like many other holes, rewards your efforts with a panoramic view over the delightful Provence hills.