Château de Taulane

Overview: Château de Taulane is an 18-hole mountain resort course in the Var, positioned at roughly 1,000 metres between the Côte d'Azur, the Gorges du Verdon and the Lac de Sainte-Croix. Gary Player designed the course to work with a broad estate landscape of mature trees, rolling ground and open alpine views. The official course page describes approximately 120 hectares, nearly 6,300 metres of golf and seven lakes, giving the routing a varied rhythm rather than a single repeated hazard. The elevation changes the feel of the round, while the wooded corridors and water features require clear decisions from tee to green. It is a course where the surrounding mountains and the quieter interior setting are part of the architecture, not merely a backdrop to a resort.

History: An earlier golf project at Taulane began around 1980 and reached thirteen playable holes before the development stalled. Mario Contini revived the estate project, and the Domaine de Taulane opened in 1992 with a new 18-hole Gary Player course alongside the restored château and hotel. The course was Player's first realisation in France. Its design used the existing landform and altitude to create a very different experience from a lowland park course, while the estate's history gave the golf development a strong sense of place. The property later received recognition as Golf Course of the Year in 1993.

Did You Know? Taulane's present course replaced an incomplete earlier scheme rather than simply extending it. The first project had reached thirteen holes, but Gary Player's later design created a new 18-hole routing that the estate could develop as a complete course. That change of plan is an unusual part of the site's golf history and helps explain why the finished layout has its own coherent identity.