Our professional players, those of the French teams, the federal groups and the Leagues have a new setting at the Golf National, in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines: a modern training center, practicable all year round, covering the almost all of the shots and reproducing the maintenance conditions found in tournaments. Designed by Martin Grant Hawtree to the left of hole 14 of the Albatross over 5 hectares, it includes 5 greens (2m²), 800 bunkers (8m²), 360 artificial line tees (for 6 to 6 players each), 8 tees artificial circulars, 4 natural departures to simulate pars 3 of different distances as well as a driving platform. For the purists, the greens are built to USGA standards, hitting between 3 and 110 on the Clegg Impact Soil Tester all year round.

The players will be able to polish their putting thanks to a flat green of 266m² ideal for mechanical training and various ranges, and a profiled green of 634m² on several plateaus to work on the reading of the slopes and the dosage. A bunker green (586m²), a pitching green (698m²) and a chipping green (611m²) are devoted to small games. Areas of meadow rough and rough near the chipping, on the edges of the fairway and behind the pitching allow a great variety. shots.

In true Hawtree style

The pitching green, 40 meters deep, is slightly downhill and offers shots between 120 meters and 160 meters from tee line 1. All other distances can be played from the fairway to the green which is slightly raised. in pure Hawtree style with a few bumps on the back of the green, then a steep descent behind. The two bunkers that protect this green are 1,2 meters and 1,5 meters deep. The pre-green stretches for 45 meters with some undulations and a hollow 10 meters from the entrance offering difficult raised green chips if the flag is set short. A bunker is located 105 meters from the middle of the pitching green. It offers shots from 90 to 120 meters towards the pitching green or from 50 to 75 meters towards the chipping green.

The bunker green is surrounded by five bunkers with depths varying between 1,6 meters and 80 centimeters, including a very steep “pot bunker”. These bunkers are located at different distances from the edge of the green (from very close to 15 meters) and allow a range of exits ranging from 5 to 55 meters. The bunkers are designed with three different sands, different bearing capacities, grain sizes and densities to train in all the conditions encountered in the tournament. The edges of this green are very wavy and also offer a wide variety of chips.

A very wide variety of possible shots

This green can also be played from anywhere on the fairway. From the tee lines, it offers shots from 150 to 190 meters from tee line 1, from 105 to 135 meters from tee line 2, from 60 to 90 meters from tee line 3. The circular departures (4.5 meters in diameter) from the middle of the stadium allow calibration to wedging, standardized and flat over 28 distances staggered from 40 to 110 meters towards this green.

The slightly raised chipping green is more severely wavy than the pitching and the bunker green to create the requirement and variety of the different bounces on the green. The slopes and lees near the green are more accentuated on a front green with a width varying between 5 and 10 meters. It can obviously be played from the fairway area backing up to 60 meters, and from the circular tees as well.

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