Wimereux - North East France - France

We played Wimereux on a lovely warm day in June and the course was in great condition. The stand out part of the course were the greens which were quick without being lightening fast and ran very true. I thought as a rule the par 3s were great with the 2nd being my favourite.

There were two points however that stop me rating this a five 1. the bunkers have far too much sand in, it is like playing out of a kids sand pit and 2. The semi rough needs to be slightly wider and slightly longer. The course is a true links and therefore there are bounces on the mounds in the fairway that send the ball left and right, however the ball always then seems to go straight through the semi rough and into the really long stuff. If they sorted these two pieces then it is a bang on 5.

I did thoroughly enjoy the round though and would recommend it to any links lovers out there.

In the early 90s, the club had no irrigation, so playing it during a dry summer felt like going back to the early days of the game of golf. It is also a treasured personal memory, because it was here, at Wimereux, I got to appreciate the value of the ground game, of using the contours of the land to bring the ball close to the flag rather than artillery practice with short irons.

These days Route d’Ambleteuse has become Avenue Francois Mitterrand and the club has also moved with the times. What you still get is undiluted, fun links golf with no fuss whatsoever. Therefore, you could do a lot worse than putting Wimereux and Le Touquet La Mer at the top of the list for your next golf week-end. Could easily have given it 5 balls for sentimental reasons, but I feel that a strong 4-ball rating is definitely motivated.

First things first. Wimereux is the only real links course in that part of France and probably only 2 others in the country can qualify as such, Granville in Normandie and Chiberta near Biarritz (none of those 2 I’ve played though). Le Touquet has often been referred to one, but is not really. For a links lover like me, this is the closest destination if I don’t want to cross the Channel. I had played there 4 or 5 years ago and wasn’t really impressed. It looked scruffy in places, greens were slow, and I just didn’t feel like it was anything special. The clubhouse looked a bit outdated (still does) and practice range really basic. I gave it another chance this summer when I played at their Grand Prix, and this is the most fun I have had in a long time during a competition round, despite the very strong winds on the first day. The greens were really fast, the ball taking absolutely all the breaks, especially those you can’t see! It was real links golf, competition links golf should I say. Not overly long but tough in the prevailing winds, as all tough holes are in the wind, almost with no exception, and the easier ones down wind. 4th to 7th are especially tough, as well as 10th to 13th. It is not the manicured of courses, but when prepared for competition standards, it is great fun. I guess it can be a little hit and miss as I doubt they have this quality of greens all year long, as my previous visit tends to prove. Give it a try and find out for yourself. But Wimereux clearly is a nice addition to the more famous courses in the area. Cédric