L’Albatros (The Albatross) Venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup
What better way to provide Golf Aficionado readers with a preview of L’Albatros, the golf course hosting the 2018 Ryder Cup than to go play it!
So this past August my thirteen-year-old son and I traveled to France and spent a day at Le Golf National getting familiar with the 2018 Ryder Cup venue. We flew into Paris, and spent 2 nights at Hôtel Ritz Paris, five-star accommodations on par with our golfing destination! Le Golf National is located about 20 miles outside of Paris and like so much of Europe, is easily accessible by public transportation. Your best bet for transportation is going to be public transportation. The easiest and fastest route is by train, once you arrive at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines station, it’s a quick taxi ride over to Le Golf National. If you’re headed to the Ryder Cup, they’ll be offering free shuttles from the train station to the golf course.
The stage is set for the 2018 Ryder Cup
From the moment we arrived at Le Golf National on an early Saturday morning, we were greeted with an ore of magnificence, dare I say it was very French and sophisticated. When you walk up from the car park to the clubhouse, it’s apparent you’ve arrived at the 2018 Ryder Cup venue. Immediately, you notice the construction at a fever pitch as final preparations were underway in setting up all the grandstands and corporate hospitality suites for the event. Outside the clubhouse, sat two golf carts both prepared for the Ryder Cup, Team Europe and Team USA colors providing for a perfect photo opportunity.
As you make your way into the clubhouse you’ll find a fabulous modern design featuring large floor to ceiling windows throughout the entire building. Explore the clubhouse and find your way into the pro shop, you’ll notice that for such a young course circa 1990, it has a strong presence and provides that feeling of being somewhere special. Traditional yet modern, the pro shop is well equipped and the staff are both extremely professional and welcoming. The staff understood English, which was a big help to me but I noticed they were also fluent in other languages as well. That day, the course welcomed visitors from all over the world from as far away as Germany, Japan, England, and of course the United States. As you can imagine, Le Golf National is currently the capital of the international golf world, one of the many benefits of hosting a Ryder Cup.
Le Golf National is the home of three courses. L’Albatros translated The Albatross in English, is the championship course (Par 72 and 7331 yards) and the course that the Ryder Cup will be played on, L’Aigle The Eagle (Par 71 and 6224 yards) and The Birdie L’Oislet which is a short 9 hole course.
Construction began in July 1987 and Le Golf National opened their doors nearly three years later in October 1990. Since opening, Le Golf National has been no stranger to hosting major competitions. In fact, Le Golf National is a regular on the European Tour hosting ‘Open De France’ which was first played at Le Golf National in 1991 and has been played there ever since except on two occasions.
As we approached the first tee of L’Albatros, I was taken back by how beautiful the course looked. On the first tee, be sure to take a chance to appreciate the moment, a little shiver ran down my spine knowing that in just a few weeks’ time the likes of Tiger, Rory and Rose would all be standing here staring down the first and battling it out on the world stage.
The first hole sets the precedence for a challenging 18 holes of golf. A blind drive around a dogleg right corner with plenty of sloped rough embankments on the right side make you think about playing it safe off the tee, however, if you’re like me, you just take your driver out of the bag aim right and hope you clear the rough. I mean, I didn’t travel all the way to France to layup. Fortunately, with a bit of luck, I found the edge of the fairway but then faced a long approach shot to the green over water onto what seemed to be a slick sheet of ice known as the green. As I walked off the green, happy with a bogey, I took a deep breath when I looked over to the second hole and realized that it wasn’t going to get any easier, up next a long par 3 with plenty of water defending the green. It just kept getting better!
During the round, you’ll definitely use every club in your bag, and a lot of thought goes into attacking each hole. Before the round, the pro asked me to come back and be sure to tell him what I thought of the last four holes. After playing them, I understood why he asked. The final four holes of L’Albatros provide for one of the best finishing stretches in the world. Surrounded by water, the holes offer up a high level of difficulty and demand accuracy or you’ll pay a steep price. One of the most challenging stretches of holes I have ever played, there is no doubt that the final four holes will make for some great drama during the Ryder Cup.
The next time you’re in Pairs, make time to visit Le Golf National. L’Albatros is certainly a course that you need to put on your bucket list and don’t go to Pairs without playing it, golf by day and romance by night. Le Golf National provides a beautiful setting, its ideal location makes it easy to slip away from the city and play a round of golf. No need to take your clubs on the trip, you’ll find all the latest equipment available to rent.
If you plan to make Le Golf National the center of our trip to Pairs, check out Novotel hotel. A modern age hotel, Novotel offers great accommodations and is only a short walk to the clubhouse, fairly priced should you choose to stay and savor the entire Le Golf National experience.
To complete our visit, we finished our round with an outstanding gourmet burger, fries, and a cold French beer.
I cannot wait to return to Le Golf National, it is definitely up there with the nicest courses I have played on my travels and a huge thank you to Maxence Boireau, the events liaison officer and the entire team at Le Golf National for making my trip to Le Golf National with my son one that we will cherish forever. To book your experience please visit the Le Golf National website.