Cannes-Mandelieu (Old) - South East France - France
Route de Golf,
Mandelieu-la-Napoule,
06210 Cote D’Azur,
France
+33 (0) 492 973 200
2 miles S of the Cannes-Mandelieu airport
Welcome anytime, book in advance
Jean-Dominique Camerini
Jean-Stephane Camerini
Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia founded one of the oldest golfing layouts in France, the Old course at Cannes-Mandelieu in 1891. Subsequently altered by Harry Colt, the layout here is the doyen of golf courses in the region, a venerable old institution that has stood the test of time superbly well.
“The sea is quite close at hand,” wrote Bernard Darwin in an article for The Times in 1913, republished in 2015 by Dormy House Press, titled: The Riviera Golf Courses, “although we have comparatively few glimpses of it during the round… We might legitimately wish for a little more sea, but that is the only possible complaint, for there is every other conceivable form of loveliness… there is a river, and there are pine trees – not stupid little Christmas trees, but beautiful, shapely and spreading. And all these pretty things are so arranged, as if by a benevolent kaleidoscope, that we see now one of them and now another as we move from glade to glade in the woods.”
The Old course is laid out on a flat landscape, close to where the River Siagne meets the sea, and the fairways weave through a small forest of Mediterranean parasol pine trees. Unusually, once golfers have completed the opening two holes, they use a small pontoon ferry beside the railway bridge to access the next ten holes across the river before returning by the same means to complete the round at holes 13 to18.
The course is not that long, measuring 6,319 yards from the back tees, but the tree-lined, doglegged fairways of the Old lead to subtly sloping greens protected by trademark Colt bunkers where low scoring is never guaranteed, despite a low slope rating for the course that might indicate otherwise.Reviews for Cannes-Mandelieu (Old)
Johnathan hubbard
This is the home course of Victor Dubuisson. We received a very friendly welcome and had great food in the clubhouse after our round. The setting is lovely, the pine trees very impressive throughout the course but are 
stopping the grass growing on some tee boxes and overhang fairways. A short river crossing on a raft between the 2nd and 3rd was original. The course is short. 5 par 3´s and two very short par 4 's of 250 and 270m and a par 5 of 416m. The greens are great. The bunkers huge and largely uninteresting and poorly kept. The rakes look like they had come from a garden shop. The fairways and rough are poorly maintained, although I accept it is early season. The weather was warm. I can imagine how wonderful this course would have been in quiet seclusion one hundred years ago. We enjoyed our round, but today there are many superior courses in the area and I would not place this in my top 15 for the region from a golfing perspective.
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Andy Newmarch
The course is very tree-lined with 100 year old umbrella pines all around. The course is crossed by the river Siagne with eight holes on the clubhouse side and to reach the other ten holes, a ferry will take you the sixty-yard journey to continue your round (your crossing happens after the 2nd and 12th holes). The 9th is a fun short par-4; only around 330 yards with a great bunker short and right of the green. The 13th is a left to right par-5 and it is at the green where you are closest to the marina where the rich folk moor their yachts. My favourite par-3 is at the 16th, just a short iron but plenty of sand and overhanging trees make it a tough par. Although the 18th is not a particularly great finishing hole, it is a nice walk with the clubhouse and terrace on the right side… I hope to visit Cannes again if I do I will play the Old course again.
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