147 - Golf la Cabre d'or

Location: Aix-en-Provence, France

Rating: 6.9

Firstly don’t trust google maps when you’re driving around Southern Europe trying to get into golf courses in the sticks. It took me down two separate roads that were both trail roads and closed at certain times of the day. Enter from the south side of the course, don’t attempt the roads to the north.

The course itself looks like it has some work ongoing but could be a really nice golf club in the future. I say in the future as the maintenance was below par for a top level golf course. The tee boxes were in pretty bad condition, often there were AstroTurf matts to hit off on some of the shorter holes which kind of gives you an indication of the course. The fairways were okay, quite weedy in some areas and whilst the greens actually ran quite well they weren’t all that pleasing on the eye with plenty of brown spots.

Apart from the condition it is actually a very interesting course to play with many different holes, dog-legs in both directions, uphill tee shots, downhill tee shots, forgiving in some areas and not so much in others so really gets you thinking. The views when you get to the top of the hill are stunning with vistas as far as the I can see but it does run through a village so on some holes you feel like you’re in someone’s back garden. The only reason I found I noticed the course is the Airbnb I stayed on backed onto one of the holes. The facilities are good, there’s a driving range and a practice bunker as well as putting greens.

I paid €40 for a late afternoon rate and had to play very quickly to finish just before sunset but the course was almost empty so it’s completely possible to achieve. To play earlier in the day it gets up to €65-70 which I probably wouldn’t pay.