What you see is what you get at Golf Grande Bastide
At La Grande Bastide you get what you see – 18 good golf holes with no blind shots. The course is a well-maintained parkland course and is fun to play with tricky greens that are well protected by numerous sand bunkers throughout.

The biggest challenge is the heat and 7-8 water hazards on the southern part of the facility.

Attention …!
French people speak French and preferably nothing but French. But on the golf course, they have adopted a single international word: FORE. If you’re having a bad day on this compact course, you’ll probably need to shout it a few times, as many fairways are close together. Conversely, on this course you have an honest chance of playing all 18 holes with the same ball, as there are few opportunities to lose it.

The opening hole is one of those opportunities where a big right-handed hook can land in the water, but otherwise it’s a straightforward par-4 hole with a small right-dogleg. After that, a good handful of holes are played dry before you again have wet penalty areas to the right and left midway between tee and green on holes 8 and 9.

Note that you don’t turn at the clubhouse after the front 9, in fact you only get close to it after hole 15, which is the most difficult hole on the course with a narrow landing area in a dogleg between two lakes. A short and controlled tee shot followed by a somewhat longer shot to the green seems to be the best solution to avoid wet balls.

Golf in the countryside
If you translate La Grande Bastide directly, the meaning is The Great Country House, and the entire neighborhood around the railway station also bears the mark of being former farmland. There are still some small country houses and light industry in the area, but more land is being developed into residential areas close to both Grasse and Cannes, which can be reached in 30 minutes by car.

The track is flat and relatively compactBut course architect Cabell Robinson has still managed to create a beautiful course that measures 5,416 meters from the yellow tee. Clearly inspired by Robert Trent Jones, with whom he worked before La Grande Bastide was built in 1990, he has created a course with modern characteristics in an open landscape where you can see most of the course between the young trees from the small elevations.

The wide fairways usually lead to well-protected greens, and during the warm-up before the round, it pays to spend a few extra minutes getting to grips with the difference in speed between putting in the grass and the counter grass.

South of France delivers skilled golfers
One of France’s most successful golfers, Victor Dubuisson, was born in Cannes in 1990, making him exactly the same age as La Grande Bastide. It is said that he holds the course record of 68 strokes, which he set before turning professional in 2010. On this classic par-72 course, where you face a par-3 hole 4 times and as many par-5 holes, while the remaining 10 holes are par-4, a course record of -4 doesn’t sound flashy, but perhaps it’s the difficult greens that prevent a lower score.

Today, Victor Dubuisson is a fixture on the European Tour, and he also played on the winning European Ryder Cup team in 2014 in Gleneagles, Scotland, together with Danish Thomas Bjørn and others.

Overview map “Plan Général” of La Grande Bastide

Bliss on hole 19
Good food and drink is always a deserved and tasty end to a round of golf in the hinterland of the French Riviera, where the weather is golf weather most of the year. And already at the end of hole 15, you risk getting extra thirsty when you putt out onto the green right in front of the clubhouse’s shaded terrace. But from there it’s on to hole 16, which is a short par 3 followed by the final two par 4 holes, which should only cause problems if you drive the tee shot on hole 18 too far into the dogleg.

Unfortunately, the course can get a little brown and sweaty – but still playable – during the summer months when adequate watering is an expensive pleasure. On the other hand, the club restaurant’s prices are moderate and you can have a decent meal accompanied by a cold beer or a glass of locally brewed wine without pocket pain.

Green fees vary somewhat in price between approximately 40 and 85 euros depending on the season and time of day, but the club is part of the Open Golf Club concept, where it is possible to buy green fees at several courses for a better overall price.

The pro shop also rents out buggies and clubs, but I personally prefer to play this course on foot and with my own equipment. Remember to invest in a course guide “Carnet de Parcours” before you go out and enjoy this affordable course in the hinterland of the French Riviera.

By Mikael Mortensen – 2020.