It is a golf course like no other, camouflaged by a small forest of the Oise isolated in the open fields, an hour's drive north of Paris. Designed in 1988, this very technical par 70 winds its way between the trees and the multiple water hazards, present on 14 of the 18 holes, all under the benevolent shade of a 17th century castle.^e century which closely monitors the green of 3. "It's a very varied course, no hole is alike, underlines its director, Baptiste Labaigt. Here, we use all the clubs in the bag, but rarely the driver. "

Hole n ° 1, the easiest if we trust the score card, is also misleading. Relatively wide, it is a drivable par 4 for heavy hitters, the water feature close to the green, however, making the company a bit reckless. Apart from the first shot, there won't be many other opportunities to take out the heavy artillery. "In a team match, when we see our opponents spending their time at the driving range sending missiles to the driving, we are already licking our chops", laughs Philippe, one of the club members.

Besides the fact that our beautiful walk with clubs in hand takes place in the middle of the forest, the very rolling and sometimes sloping fairways as well as the many streams and ponds built under Louis XIV will dissuade you from playing suicide bombers too often. Without a bad pun, the Château d'Humières golf course, which for ten years belonged to the Japanese “pink billionaire” Masako Ohya, renowned for his eccentric outfits, his helicopter and his pink Rolls-Royce which dropped her off at the foot of the course. The clubhouse is also installed in its former home.

@DR

The layout of this short course of 5607 meters (which has recently been improved by flattening of the departures and drainage of the fairways), where you will have understood the precision largely takes precedence over the power, gives it a real flavor, playful and spicy. Because at Château d'Humières, you never get bored, almost anything is possible at every hole, birdie as well as triple. The record (68, -2), recently held by the vice-president of the federation Pascal Grizot, also shows that the beast is certainly not very big, but that it knows how to defend itself.

To hope not to stain your scorecard too much, you will have to challenge certain particularly tortuous greens - but which hold the roll perfectly - and especially to pass without hindrance the terrible par 4 of 2, its fairway which narrows visibly and its A raised green that two-digit indexes may “prefer” to reach in three. The long par 4 of 9, roughly overhanging and blocked halfway by an imposing tree will also give you some cold sweats, just like the par 5 of 12, as straight as the Champs-Élysées or the 5^e avenue, but much narrower, a stream on each side acting here as a sidewalk. A par 5 handicap 1, we do not see it every day. And if you are still breathing, you will have to bravely face the long par 4s of 16 and 18 to hope to deliver the princess in her dungeon… but here we get lost a bit.

In short, the Château d'Humières golf course, an exhilarating adventure. With or without driver.

Frank Crudo

https://www.golf-chateau-monchy-humieres.com/plants