Going for Golf

Rhône-Alpes - Meet the Guv’nor

Gouverneur

Just outside this fascinating city, at Monthieux, is Golf du Gouverneur, a three-star hotel with two golf courses – and access to nearby Golf de la Bresse. Set around a 14th century chateau – formerly the home of the area’s governor, hence the name – the main course, the Breuil, and a second 18-hole set-up, the Montaplan, together represent a challenging but enjoyable test.

The 53-bedroom hotel itself is comfortable, friendly and with a good restaurant serving traditional local dishes. It’s a convenient stop-off for a couple of days if you’re heading for the Alps, or on your way south to the Côte d’Azur … and a short-break destination in its own right. Lyon is easy to get to from the UK – the flight from London Gatwick lasted only 80 minutes – and it’s a short transfer to the resort.

The complex is an interesting blend of old and new. During peak season the clubhouse and changing rooms are based in the former governor’s residence, but for my stay – in early March – I simply changed in my room and used the excellent bar and restaurant facilities in the hotel. My room, accessed via the old hotel entrance, was inside a glass-fronted cube-like block and offered superb views over the first and last holes of the Montaplan.

Supposedly the easier of the two courses, it’s certainly shorter, but no walk in the park. The front nine eases you in, while on the way back you’ll encounter lots of water, particularly on the last, where a lake runs pretty much the length of the hole towards a well-protected green. The lake is, in fact, the target area of the driving range – where four-times French ladies’ champion Corinne Soules offers lessons – and there’s also a nine-hole training course.

We were blessed with wonderful weather for three whole days – even the wind dropped on day two, when I played the Breuil, which, in October will once again host the European Challenge Tour. The Breuil is a step up – the kind of course that makes a good first impression … then steadily grows on you some more. The ninth, for example, features a mature copse at the side of the green, with poplar trees towering some 50ft over the green.

Fourteen, the hardest hole on the course, is skirted by a huge lake, and water also features heavily on 15, a devilishly tough par-five, and 16, a par-three requiring steady nerve to reach the green. The lakes and ponds that cover much of this area – known as Les Dombes – were made to collect rainwater in the impervious clay soil, meaning fishing was a lucrative business for hundreds of years, even this far inland, between the Alps and Beaujolais country.