Moliets (Forêt & Océan) - South West France - France

I can’t believe this place was actually listed as #3 in France when the first ranking chart for this country appeared on the Top 100 Golf Courses website (as pointed out by the last reviewer) in 2006! Thankfully, a semblance of sense has since prevailed and the course no longer occupies such an unjustifiable lofty perch in the Gallic Top 100.

It all starts so well on the Forêt nine at Moliets, where the pleasantly undulating tree-lined opening hole veers slightly right and up to a long, hourglass-shaped two-tier green, gaining top marks from me. The next three holes are also really decent, each following a different direction on a four-point compass, and these are followed by another trio of solid holes, the best of which is probably the uphill par three 6th.

Unfortunately, the short, semi-blind downhill 8th looks like it’s been tacked on after somebody counted how many holes had been built then realized they only had seventeen. It’s an absolutely dreadful par three which is played over a horrendous sandy waste area to a shallow green that runs away from front to back – and when the pin is placed about four paces from the front edge of the putting surface, you have virtually no hope of being able to hit and hold the green with your tee shot.

There’s then a couple of long journeys to get from the green to the next tee at the next few holes so perhaps there were permitting problems encountered after the initial routing was decided upon and things had to be altered – it’s a really disjointed section of the course which had me more than a little perplexed. Not that these golf holes were bad, mind you, as the 9th to the 12th is a good sequence but they’re then followed by another long haul to get to the 13th tee and the start of the 3-hole links section.

I’ve played the Cashen course at Ballybunion and wasn’t impressed with Robert Trent Jones Sr.’s attempt at designing that particular links layout. Similarly, the links holes designed here didn’t exactly thrill me either. In truth, the fairways looked like those at Maspalomas in Gran Canaria, where I was a few weeks ago, sitting right next to huge sandy dunes but never feeling as if they properly tie into their environment – like imposing holes on the landscape rather than having them blend seamlessly into their surroundings.

The final three holes on the Océan nine then head eastwards and back towards the clubhouse, reviving my spirits somewhat by the time I walked off the 18th green. Yet, for all the really good golf at the start and end of the round, there were just too many strange things going on between the 8th and 15th to make me think a lot more could have been made of these holes in the middle.

Jim McCann