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National Golf Club - Albatros Course
About
Designed by Robert Von Hagge and Hubert Chesneau, the Albatros Course at Le Golf National just outside of Paris, combines features of a Scottish links design with American target-style golf. Opened in 1990, it's also a stadium course, much in the vein of a TPC course, and it has been selected to host the 2018 Ryder Cup. The golf course features slick greens and wide undulating fairways, dotted with scores of bunkers, water hazards and a few trees. Thick fescue roughs border the fairways.
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5 Stars
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3 Stars
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5 Stars
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Conditions4.7
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Value4.3
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Layout4.7
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Friendliness5.0
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Pace5.0
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Amenities4.7
Golfer Reviews
Top Quality Golf Course
I played this Ryder Cup course and it is very challenging. Although no crowd or grandstands, it still has very much a Ryder Cup feel with banks surrounding all holes. Many holes have water and accuracy is required throughout...none more so than on the closing stretch with a couple of what are essentially island greens. Miss the fairway at Le Golf National at your peril
The one
What to say.... it was created to host the best international tournaments.... Ryder Cup included.
Better to have plenty of balls in your bag. Not an average course...... a VERY challenging one, always in perfect conditions, it can get into a monster in case of wind and/or rain. The best way to realize the level difference between the 7 hcp golfer I am and European Tour members.
Is your game ready for the "Bethpage Black" of Europe?
Take Bethpage Black - one of the most fearsome tests in golf - and overload it with bulk-headed water hazards and mounding like the Players Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass. What have you got? A Frankenstein's monster of a golf course that will cause nightmares for most players.
Maybe they should call the Albatross course at Le Golf National the 'Double Bogey' course at Le Golf National instead. Didn't Pete Dye consult on the course design at the annual host of the French Open and the future 2018 Ryder Cup venue? It sure feels like it.
Granted, my game was in the dumps when I rushed to the first tee, but I'm not ashamed to admit I lost a personal-record 10 balls. Our threesome played the day after the Paris Legends Championship, a European Senior Tour event headlined by John Daly and Ian Woosnam. The rough was longer than a hippy's hair and the pins were still tucked in their Sunday spots. The wind was up, and when I lost decent approach shots to the first and second greens in the same pond, I knew it was going to be one of those days.
The good news is the course has never looked better. Fresh off an eight-month renovation to renovate bunkers, add cart paths, a new irrigation system and more tournament infrastructure, it is ready to host golf's biggest event and traveling golfers from around the world. All that water - especially on the four-hole finish stretch - should create some serious drama in 2018. All my golf balls will be fished out of the ponds and resold by then.
