Holein1
France |
Posted: Wednesday, January 5, 2022 @ 6:05:26 PM at |
IP Logged |
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A nice-looking course, with a beautiful lagoon, plenty of wide fairways, quite a few slightly-uphill holes, especially on the front 9, and with a back 9 more scenic, with water hazards, but, unfortunately, with some designing surprises that you will discover along the way... After the opening par-4 hole, with its tee shot between two small lakes and its elevated green, slightly to the right, your will see your first surprise after looking at the scorecard and realizing that this course is a par 70 (and not a par 72, as mentioned in the general info ! And you will see why, right after, as you get ready to tee off on the slightly-uphill par-4 2nd (instead of a par-5 in real life). The par-3 3rd hole is quite nice, with plenty of dirt on the left side and deep rough on the right in front of the tee box and ending midway, and with a green with a big elongated bunker on the left and a small round one on the right. If the par-4 4th hole is uphill all the way (but not as sharply to the right as the real one), it is somewhat spoiled by grainy patches beyond the green, guarded by a wide area on the right, filled with dirt and a few small bushes, as you hit your approach, unlike the par-4 5th (completely different from the real left dogleg par-4 !), as it is slightly downhill (with trees on the left) and quite bare all the way to the short (around 310 yards) green. The par-4 6th, facing the lagoon and slightly-downhill (with trees all the way on the left and a tee shot over some deep rough), is another hole with, unfortunately, grainy patches between the green and the lagoon, unlike the par-5 7th hole, very pretty, with trees on the left of the tee box, more trees further to the right of the uphill fairway, and with a downhill slope to the green, with a big elongated pond to watch for on the left. Then, after the downhill par-3 8th, facing the lagoon, with plenty of dirt all the way to the green with a stream behind and a few ponds further to the right (but with grainy patches again !), you will reach my favorite hole, the beautiful and short (around 340 yards) par-4 9th, with a little stream on the right of the tee box and two elongated lakes, left and right of the fairway, very narrow as you get close to the green. The back 9 has more water hazards, starting with the pretty par-4 10th hole, slightly to the right, with a tee shot over a big lake and mounds filled with medium weeds after (on the right), and a meandering creek and trees behind the green, and continues with the par-4 11th, with a tee shot over another meandering creek and a big lake and elongated bunker on the right of the slightly-to-the-right green (with more grainy patches further back !). After the par-4 12th hole, with a tee shot over another creek landing near two bunkers on both sides of the fairway and a slightly-uphill green (slightly to the left), you will move on to the pretty par-3 13th, with a tee shot over an elongated lake, with a few palm trees on its edge on the left, before heading for the left dogleg par-4 14th (par-5 in real life) with, strangely, a lone tall palm tree (unseen in the original course) in the middle of the fairway (near some trees on the right) and quite a few bunkers diagonally in front of the green. The par-3 15th hole is another scenic hole, with plenty of trees on the right side and only dirt between the tee box and the green, and is followed by the left dogleg par-4 16th, with plenty of trees all along on the right side of the fairway, and quite a few bunkers, lined up further to the left. You will finish with two wide-open holes, the right dogleg par-4 17th, with a tee shot over a big dirt area and with an elevated green, and the very scenic left dogleg par-5 18th, with a few palm trees and bunkers around the corner on both sides of the fairway, halfway, and a long approach to the green, with a big lake on the left. Overall, if this Mauritius Open 2015 course looks nice, with its scenery, its grainy patches on quite a few holes "spoiled" my round somewhat, not to mention those two or three holes, looking totally different from the real course...
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