france Doak’s Sip of Bordeaux

     This summer, Tom Doak will add a fifth course to his foreign portfolio. The Traverse City, Michigan-based designer expects to open the first nine holes of a long-percolating course in France, at Domaine Golfique du Grand Saint-Emilionnias.
     “We didn’t want to get involved in Europe until we found a project that felt right for us to do,” Doak explained in a promotional video for the club, “and that means something where you don’t have to tear up the world to build a golf course and the land is pretty much sitting there ready to go.”
     The 6,865-yard layout is in Saint Emilion, in the heart of the Bordeaux wine region, and it’s being developed by Gaëtan Mourgue D’Algue and his son, André, members of what is arguably France’s most prominent golf family.
     In the video, André gave a hint of how the course will play: “We are happy to do what they call real golf, where you can play fast, where it’s not too difficult, where you can enjoy and have a good time, a good experience, on the golf course.”
     The Algues haven’t yet announced when the second nine will open.

     The original version of the previous post first appeared in the May 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.