Gil Hanse: Les Bordes New Course

Get to know our New Course even better below this Q&A with the designer Gil Hanse…

Which heathland would it most resemble – is it open heath like Walton Heath or Hankley Common or a bit more enclosed like parts of Sunningdale and The Berkshire?

It’s much more enclosed although we do have the diversity of the nines, with the front nine quite open and the back nine reasonably enclosed, which is good. We have got quite a bit of variety, with the front resembling the more open heathland courses and the back nine much more like Sunningdale, a tough golf course with mature wood lines, which is a nice characteristic to have, that we were able to be very protective of the natural wood lines so they added a tremendous amount of character versus us trying to establish wood lines from scratch. 

Can you pick out a couple of holes that you especially like and tell us a bit about them?

The 15th hole, a short-par four, would be one of them. There’s a lot of character and interest, when we were working on it we talked through the philosophy and then Jim Wagner shaped and executed it wonderfully and added some tremendous character to it. On the front nine, I’ve always liked the sixth hole, just the way it flows through the landscape and the different breaks. Trying to be reminiscent a little bit of Tom Simpson with segmented fairways and the way the green lays so simply on the ground.

15th Green

Where do you see Les Bordes sitting on the golf world stage as a facility?

I think that, with the two golf courses and the amenities that are already in place and the ones that are coming, I can’t see how Les Bordes won’t be considered one of the finest golfing destinations in Europe or in the world. You have all the cultural attractions around you, you’ve got the food and the wine, the quality of the amenities. It will be an idyllic place to spend time even if you weren’t playing golf, and then to have these two golf courses so different and varied in their challenges and their presentation really runs the full gamut. I don’t know where else in the world you could find that sort of variety.

What makes the landscape at Les Bordes so special? And what makes this golf estate unique?

The diversity of the plant materials is really something we have never encountered, with the broom and the bracken and the variety of trees throughout the property and the fescue grasses. Now they’ve also introduced heather so I think that there are all these great textures there that the golf course just seems to sit amongst. That’s what makes it unique, I can’t think of another golf landscape that looks and feels like the New Course at Les Bordes. There are so many different facets to heathland courses, which you can see in the courses just north of Paris like Morfontaine and Chantilly and the course much closer to where we live in Pine Valley, and I think there are all these different elements here that will create a unique experience at Les Bordes. 

When and how was this project initiated?

The first time I went there was in June 2018. The owner and I had some mutual friends and the conversation came up that the owners were hoping to build a new golf course. Driss (Benkirane) had said that he was really hoping to work with us on it, and that fact that we had mutual friends made that conversation easy to get initiated, and once I came to look at the property I was immediately sold on the potential of the ground, and then the hospitality that I was shown while I was there was amazing. Being able to stay on property and the wine and the food, I was treated very well.

What was it that attracted you about the site at Les Bordes?

The sand and the vegetation, and the reputation of the place. Obviously, we’ve heard of Les Bordes here, so the quality of the site itself and the commitment of the ownership as well, which is a big thing. When we’re considering the criteria of a project, Jim Wagner and I always ask ourselves ‘do we have the potential to do something exceptional’, and I think that, while the topography at Les Bordes is not the most outstanding we’ve ever worked with, it still has enough character to it, and the vegetation and the soil gave us the opportunity to do something exceptional. Secondly, we ask ourselves ‘are we going to have fun doing it’ and working with the ownership at Les Bordes, and if you can’t have fun in that part of the world and enjoy yourself then I think there’s something wrong with you. So I think the combination of all those really added up to that being a very attractive project for us. We’ve never built anything in continental Europe and we wanted to make sure that our first project there was going to be something special, and Les Bordes gave us that opportunity.

What can we expect from the New Course?

You can expect fun golf in a natural, perfect setting. We were given the opportunity from the ownership to build some interesting golf holes; stylistically, it was fun for all of us to focus on Tom Simpson and some of his beautiful creations and some of his inspired designs, not that we copied him stylistically or design-wise but we were certainly influenced by him and that was a treat for us.