Arcangues - South West France - France

A bit like Royan, this is a physically demanding course. In terms of design, I think Arcangues is a better course. Green entrances are often quite narrow even if greens are not small by any means. Good conditioning and a great club house. Not my favorite kind of course, too hilly in places, but very much worth playing nonetheless.

Often you encounter a surprise course on a 4 or 5-day golf trip involving more than half a dozen layouts and this was it on a recent venture into the southwest corner of France. Quite frankly, it would have been overlooked if the advice of a tour operator has not been taken so it always pays to listen to those with local knowledge.

Thirty-five lots for housing were sold to finance the project and these buildings are scattered around the property at a very discreet distance from the golfing action.

I expected a decent track as it was designed when American architect Ron Fream was with Golfplan and he was involved in many high quality golf projects around the world. What I didn’t anticipate was just how well appointed the course would be, nor how well maintained it looked.

On the front nine, I especially liked the par three 6th. It’s not the longest of the four short holes but it plays across a little valley and uphill to a severely sloping green so I can fully understand why it attracts a strong stroke index rating of 10.

On the back nine, there’s a lovely little 3-hole loop from the 13th to the 15th, accessed via a tunnel, routing a section of the course around the ancestral Châteaux d’Arcangues and it ends with one of the strangest sights I’ve ever seen on a course: an old tree bent over the 15th green at a weird angle, with its drooping trunk supported by a big wooden post!

This course currently lurks at the tail end of the Top 100 for France but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it make a positive upward move when the chart is next re-ranked.

Jim McCann