Granville Golf Club (Links)

Overview: Golf Club de Granville's Links is an 18-hole par 72 course on the Normandy coast, set among natural dunes with views towards Granville, the Chausey archipelago and the sea. The course is listed at 6,600 yards and carries the direct, wind-shaped character of a traditional seaside links. Its strategy comes from the land rather than heavy construction: uneven lies, sandy ground, irregular dune forms and the changing wind influence both the tee shot and the approach. The club describes the Links as an authentic course comparable in spirit to older Irish and Scottish layouts. Harry Colt's approach to routing is visible in the way the holes use the existing dunes, vary the bunker shapes and create a sequence of different lines through the landscape. The result is a stern but natural course that rewards imagination and a willingness to use the ground.

History: Granville's Links was created in 1912, with the design entrusted to Harry Shapland Colt and the course's architectural lineage also associated with Charles Alison. The club's own history explains Colt's philosophy of working with natural features, reproducing the irregular forms of seaside dunes and using two loops of nine holes to create a coherent walk. Granville now operates as a 27-hole facility, with the separate nine-hole Dunes course created in 1986 by Martin Hawtree, but the ranked target here is the original 18-hole Links. A post-war history document records the disruption caused by requisition and military installations during the Second World War; the current course retains the identity of the original Colt and Alison links.

Did You Know? Granville's nine-hole Dunes course is a separate layout from the ranked Links. It was created in 1986 by Martin Hawtree and is par 33, while the historic Colt and Alison Links remains the 18-hole par 72 course opened in 1912.