france Von Hagge's French Kiss

Golf World says Les Bordes International Golf Club is the home of Europe’s number-one golf course, the late Robert Von Hagge’s “piece de resistance.” So will the club’s second course improve on the original or pale in comparison?

We won’t know for sure until 2013, when the new course is expected to open. Until then, we’ll have to take our cues from Tony Jimenez, the chairman of Les Bordes Holdings, who says the forthcoming track, co-designed by Von Hagge and Rick Baril, will be “on a par with all the quality and competitiveness the existing Les Bordes course has to offer.” He believes it’ll eventually be recognized as “one of the great courses of the world.”

No pressure, though.

Les Bordes is located in Saint-Laurent-Nouan, a town about 20 miles southwest of Orleans, in the Loire Valley of central France. The club’s first course was built by Baron Marcel Bich, whose goal was to create “the Augusta National of Europe.” The 7,062-yard, target-style track is without question a bear, difficult even for touring pros. For a decade after it opened, in 1986, the course record (held by Jean Van de Velde) was a one-under 71.

The new course will be more forgiving than the existing layout, with wider fairways and less treacherous bunkers. Baril is overseeing the construction, which is scheduled to begin next year.

Bich, as you may know, was the founder of Societe Bic, the company that makes Bic pens. When he died, in 1994, Les Bordes turned over to one of his business partners, Yoshiaki Sakurai. Jimenez, a former vice president of player development for Newcastle United, the British soccer club, formed an investment group that bought the club in 2008. Mark Vickery is the group’s managing director.

In addition to the new course, Les Bordes Holdings plans to build some houses and a five-star hotel. The group had once planned to build a third course as well, but they’ve iced that idea, at least for now.