Golf de Belle Dune

Widely recognized as one of the finest links courses in Northern France, located in Nord/Pas-de-Calais, Golf de Belle Dune is a tough, uncompromising dunes/links style course and is only 35 minutes drive from Le Touquet in an area known as Côte d’Opale close to Baie d’Autie in the Somme area.

It’s a young course that opened for play in 1992 and Jean-Manuel Rossi designed it. Belle Dune nestles perfectly within some of the finest dune land in Europe, a stone’s throw away from the sea. It is a fair and accessible course, which measures 5,883 meters from the back tees and par is set at 71.

The first few holes wind through green maritime pine trees and tend to give confidence to the players. The next holes wander through poplars and silver birch bent by the breeze where a sideways glance reveals hedgerows of buckhorn, sparkling with orange berries. At the turn the vista changes to immense golden sand dunes covered with marram grasses. Some of them will make you want to come back year after year.

The short Par 3 twelfth hole is castled by 30 foot dunes and is an exceptional hole. The long walk to stroke index 1 should be enjoyed as you are about to play one of the toughest holes in Northern France. This par 5 plays over 500 yards and I dare you to go for the green in two.

The trick to play Belle Dune is to keep the ball on the fairway as anything that strays will be either lost or punished. The greens are fast, the fairways lush, and the experience will last forever. Golf de Belle Dune was ranked amongst the 10 finest French courses by “Golf Magazine” in 2003.