Le Touquet (La Forêt) - North East France - France

After playing La Mer in the morning, I tackled La Forêt in the afternoon. It’s laid out on pretty flat ground close to the old clubhouse (now the hotel Le Manoir) so it’s not too taxing a walk, with holes arranged in two returning loops of nine around the clubhouse.

Unfortunately, when playing the two 18-hole Le Touquet courses in that order, it’s a case of “after the Lord Mayor’s show” when teeing it up here because La Forêt doesn’t have the same exciting landforms of its sibling, though four of its holes (I don’t know which ones, actually) were used when the French Open was hosted by the club in the past.

It’s pleasant parkland all the way then on La Forêt. Many of the greens are raised, bunkering is very neat and tidy, and it plays to just over 6,000 yards from the regular tees. Holes 1-3 and 18 surround the short 9-hole Manoir course and it was great to see so many families out together at the weekend playing on this layout.

Favourite holes on La Forêt included the doglegging par five 5th, the slightly downhill par three 8th and the par five 16th, where the fairway narrows considerably as it gets nearer the green. My pulse was never in danger of racing too fast during the round but it was nonetheless an agreeable experience which complemented the main event on La Mer next door very nicely.

Jim McCann

This is a nice course played through the forest. Small and tricky greens are the order of the day but there are some very good holes here that make the course worth playing.

The first five holes are little more ordinary, played in between the holes of the lesser 9 hole course - these holes certainly lack the charm and character of the later holes.

6 is a strong hole. Played from an elevated tee in the trees, this is a long and tight par 5 with trees close in on either side. 8 and 9 are lovely holes - 8 doglegs left to a very narrow green and 9 doglegs the other way. Both are set beautifully in the trees and this is where the course really starts to get going.

The next few holes are great to play. Beautiful amongst the trees and tough, you need to be hitting it straight here. 17 is a lovely little par 3 played from an elevated tee and 18 is a cracking finish. Dogleg left with OB all the way down the right, you need to shape your tee shot here. Once managed, the green is quite large and gives you a good chance to walk off the course with a smile on your face.

Overall, a really nice course that is beautiful after a slow start and is worth playing if in this part of France.

This is definitely the lesser of the two courses but a nice round anyway. We have just finished 8 rounds in 8 days and of the courses we played I would rate this behind Wimereux, Belle Dune, the Hardelot courses and Touquet La Mer but ahead of Dunkirk and St Omer.

The course was in good condition and while there are some nice holes the start of the course 1-5 is a bit of a let down.

Additionally while we only ended up with a 4:15 round it took 20 minutes to play the first hole.

If you have one course to play in the area this is not it, but if you are away for a few rounds this makes for a nice opener.

Le Foret has improved markedly during the past couple of years and is very much under-estimated, compared to its illustrious sibling Le Mer. In 2013 I would not have recommended it but now I would say it is a must play when visiting the area. It was presented in top-class condition, with greens running fast and true (putting Le Mer to shame! and way ahead of the very scruffy Hardelot Dunes). It provides a great mix of challenges - accuracy and finesse on holes like 2 and 8, strategy on 11 and 14 and power on 12 and 13. The finish too is very strong with 15,16,17 and 18 testing all parts of your game. When the clubhouse is finished, 18 will be a treat.

May favourite course on the Cote d'opale. The fairways are immaculate, the greens are fantastic and the layout of the course is challenging despite the perceived short distance. This course makes you think and you need to put the ball in the right place of the tee and on the green. Downhill putts can get away from you if you don't pay attention. If you want somewhere to stay, we recommend the Les Jumeaux Villa that backs onto the 11th green! 16 berth villa for a good group of golfers!

La Touquet is an easy to get to destination for golfers in the south of England so this course gets a lot of UK visitors, I played here on a fairly busy Saturday in April. As Cedric says it's not the most challenging course, but there's a good amount of variety, wide fairways and although it's a bit flat it's enjoyable enough. I especially enjoyed the 11th a par 5 with a very narrow approach opening into a dell like setting for the green and and the 15th a par 3 surrounded by trees My admiration was slightly diminished because I'd played Hardelot (Les Pins) the day before and was very impressed by the whole experience, if I'd played them the other way around I'd probably have enjoyed it more.

I must say I’d heard pretty bad reviews about this course before I played it last september. I decided to go anyway as it was the last course on this stretch of coast that I hadn’t played. How right was I! This is not the longest course in the world, it is pretty wide so you can let go the big stick without too many worries, so don’t expect a big test there. But it is such a fun course! And very beautiful too… Rather small greens in the first few holes and all of them very undulating, here is the challenge as length will not pose any problem to most of the players. The members I played with told me that the green keeping staff had changed a couple of years ago and found a huge difference since then. And indeed the course is very tidy despite the amount of (pine) trees that would tend to leave their leaves all around and “eat” balls, what a difference when all this is taken care of. I wrote it somewhere else but I will repeat it here again. If you are looking for a double bill, chose Le Touquet over Hardelot anytime when traveling in this area. La Mer is probably equivalent to the head course at Hardelot, les Pins… But La Forêt is so so much better than Les Dunes!!! (Or avoid les Dunes and play Belle Dune instead, certainly the best course in that area)…Back to La Forêt: if you are looking for a great walk in a beautiful forest and don’t want a too stressing test, this is your place! I’d play it anytime again. A very very pleasant surprise!! Cédric