A golf course in the Gironde: Teynac

After Paris, Bordeaux is the best-known French city in the world. In Tokyo or Houston, people don't always know that Bordeaux is also a tourist destination. This is hardly surprising, since they are also unaware that the city of Gironde and its immediate surroundings offer 6 golf courses.

For this first issue of 2021, we invite you to discover the Teynac golf course in Guyenne, "a moor of clay and pebbles, spiky with pine trees, streaked with vines, downy with corn", as François Mauriac described it. It's located just 20 minutes from the city center of Bordeaux, near the Bordeaux-Libourne freeway.

Covid obliges, and it's in a room adjoining the restaurant that Vincent Dubois, the masked owner, welcomes me on this wintry day to talk about the genesis of his thirty-year career. "My father, a farmer, retired in 1988. There were around sixty hectares here, 40 of them in one piece, on a rather bumpy terrain. Originally, my family worked vines until 1970, then cereals on clay-limestone soils ".

" Back in the eighties, I was a horse-rider and wanted to set up a riding school, but after a quick market survey, I realized that there were already two or three within a ten-kilometer radius. So why not a golf course?" adds Vincent. "The Cameyrac golf course wasn't very far from Teynac, and neither was the Bordeaux-Lac course, but I wanted to offer a natural, economically-maintained course at a green fee that everyone could afford.

By 1990, nine holes had been opened and green-fees sold at the bar.

Three years later, with success in hand, Robert Mars, a golf instructor from Gironde, arrived in Teynac and helped Vincent Dubois build nine additional holes, which were opened in 2002. He also contributed some modelling work, which cost €23,000, including earthworks for the greens and tees, as well as the purchase of second-hand mowing equipment. Meanwhile, in 1997, a 220 m2 clubhouse was built in the former barrel cellar, offering reception, pro-shop, bar and restaurant.

Today, an 18-hole course and 14 practice bays are available to the 500 members who pay a €740 green fee. In addition, 7,000 green-fees are sold during normal periods. " There are no barriers here, so new players come spontaneously," adds Vincent, whose son Edouard, a Challenge Tour professional, will be taking over in two or three years' time, if he doesn't make it back to the European Tour, where he has played twice. For golfing tourists, 5 guest rooms (€59 to €73) and two 2-bedroom gîtes (€310 to €460 per week) are available.

The route

Teynac's 40-hectare, 4,714-metre (yellow tees), par 68 course offers excellent value for money: €35 per green for a layout that's sparsely wooded but undulating, with some highly technical holes. The fairways, which are wide and somewhat undulating, present doglegs that are difficult for the casual player to grasp, such as those on 5 and 7. The greens, which are lightly defended but small and sloping, are often difficult to read. Varied and complete, this course offers a few technical challenges, especially on the return (tighter doglegs and water on the ^16th hole, a long 168-meter par 3).

The most difficult hole is 5, a 342-meter dog-leg par 4, with a stream (the rû de Lafitte) running the length of the fairway and bordering the two communes of Caillau and Salleboeuf, where you need to place your tee shot correctly to have the opening to the green for a perfect second shot. The final hole, an uphill par 4, is difficult to negotiate, but the clubhouse awaits golfers in need of a rest and refreshment...

Ten holes face the clubhouse, two are on the plateau and six are on the other side, with the clubhouse acting as an observatory. As for Vincent Dubois, he remains lucid about the main function of the Teynac golf course: training new golfers in a very friendly environment... Since we're on the subject of the environment, Vincent is thinking of fencing off the course because of the numerous wild boars ploughing up the forelands...

A 14-station driving range and putting green complete the facilities, where instructors Patrick Serrano and Jean-Charles Thoreux are on hand for lessons and courses.

The warmth and conviviality of the "Le Teynac" restaurant, where the chef concocts a number of tasty dishes (golfers' menu at €16).

Three more holes?

In order to replace the three par 3s (1, 2 and 3) and transform them into a "school course", Vincent is considering acquiring an additional plot of land to build three new holes. "But it won't be for tomorrow," he points out mischievously...

Although he had to put his 6 restaurant employees on short-time working, Vincent Dubois is nonetheless satisfied with this "covidian period": " Golf is an outdoor activity, and it is taking full advantage of the current health constraints to go on the offensive and win over a new public, as I was able to see at Teynac. It's one of the few authorized sports, and for those who have ever wanted to try it, this has clearly been the right time."

GOLF DE TEYNAC

33750 BEYCHAC ET CAILLAU

Tel 05 56 72 85 62

Mail: golfdeteynac@wanadoo.fr

Boarding: www.golf.teynac.com