Dir17 Wallonia by IAGTO

Wallonia

A feature from the IAGTO Directory

2017

Wallonia

Wallonia Play golf in Belgium’s French-speaking region and feel inspired The southern region of Belgium, Wallonia, is a jewel of a destination that sparkles with centuries of history, glorious nature, fascinating culture, wonderful gastronomy, beautiful cities, towns and villages, and a smiling welcome as warm as you will find anywhere. For golfers, there is the added bonus of 35 golf courses, from the classic designs of its venerable royal golf clubs to modern, contoured layouts, several by noted architects.

Royal Golf Club du Hainaut

Celebrated names to have added stardust to Wallonia’s fairways include Tom Simpson (Royal Golf Club des Fagnes, Royal Golf Club du Sart Tilman and the first two nine-hole layouts at Royal Golf Club du Hainaut), Robert Trent Jones Sr (Golf du Bercuit, his only design in Belgium), father and son golf architects Fred and Martin Hawtree (Fred: Royal Waterloo Golf Club’s La Marache layout, Royal Golf Club du Hainaut’s Les Etangs nine and Golf de Durbuy; and Naxhelet Golf Club and Golf Chateau de la Tournette’s English Course among Martin’s designs), and South African golf legend Gary Player (Five Nations Golf Club).

Wallonia’s golf clubs all welcome visitors, from golfing groups to couples, families and ladies, although some members’ clubs have limited tee time availability for non-members at weekends.

Wallonia

Besides its 18-hole facilities, Wallonia has a number of excellent nine-hole courses that offer players a challenge in settings just as aesthetic as their bigger siblings. Among them are Royal Waterloo Golf Club’s wooded and undulating Le Bois Heros, a par 32 designed by Fred Hawtree and renovated in 2003 by his son, Martin, plus par-34 courses at Avernas Golf Atop Waterloo’s Lion Mound Club, Golf de Liege – Bernalmont, Florennes Avia Golf Club and Andenne Golf Club. All require handicap certificates.

This part of Europe has been fought over time and again, and reminders of key battles from the Napoleonic era to World War II can be found across Wallonia in the form of memorials, battlefield sites and museums, often close to delightful golf courses.

Golf in Wallonia is also great value for the great quality on offer, with green fees ranging from 35-125 euros, particularly if you factor in the outstanding food in clubhouse restaurants.

Easy access Wherever you stay you will find a golf course within a short drive. The region is so compact that getting around takes no time at all, either in your own car or in a rented vehicle, thanks to its network of toll-free motorways and N-designated national roads. No two golf destinations in Wallonia are more than two hours apart, while its towns and cities are easy to drive to from other countries. Getting to Wallonia is effortless, too. Flights go to Brussels Airport and Charleroi’s Brussels South Airport, in Wallonia, from capitals and secondary cities throughout Europe. There are fast roads from its four neighbouring countries as well as cross-Channel and North Sea ferry ports and the Channel Tunnel from the UK. Brussels is two hours by Eurostar from London and connected by high-speed rail services from several European cities, and a good domestic rail network links Wallonia’s cities with Brussels.

Naxhelet Golf Club 57

Wallonia

Short city golf breaks Wallonia’s courses are mainly clustered around its cities, so a short break that mixes golf with a city stay is an enticing option. Not only can you discover their rich tapestry of architecture, art, music and traditions but you can also sample the region’s varied cuisine, its beers and spirits a stroll away from your hotel. Alternatively, stay at golf courses with on-site hotels and travel in to the cities after a round. These are cities that lend themselves to short breaks with golf: Mons European Capital of Culture in 2015, Hainaut provincial capital Mons packs a lot into its hilly, cobbled streets, including two UNESCO World Heritage Sites as well as museums, art galleries and other historic edifices to visit. Another four UNESCO sites are within 25km of the city. Courses:

Royal Club du Hainaut and Mont Garni Golf Club are a short drive from the city centre. Golf Club Enghien is half an hour’s drive.

Mont Garni Golf Club

Liege Liege is perfect to explore on foot on a city break, boasting Europe’s largest pedestrian precinct and with many sights and attractions in its historic centre. Long a crossroads between some of Europe’s key cities, it is split by the River Meuse, along which you can take boat tours.

Courses:

International Gomze Golf Club

Royal Golf Club du Sart Tilman and the nine-hole Golf Club de Liege-Bernalmont are both only 10 minutes from the city centre and International Gomze Golf Club is just 15 minutes away, with several others within a half-hour drive. Golf Club Mergelhof and Golf & Hotel Henri-Chapelle, close to the Dutch border, are less than a 40-minute drive from Liege.

Namur Wallonia’s capital lies at the confluence of the Meuse and Sambre rivers, the point at which they meet overlooked by the imposing Namur Citadel, one of the largest citadels in Europe. The city has a pedestrianised heart with historic buildings and plenty of restaurants. Courses:

Golf & Hotel de Falnuee, Golf de Rougemont and the nine-hole Andenne Golf Club are all less than 20 minutes from Namur, while Golf la Bruyere, Golf Club de Louvain-la-Neuve and Golf de Rigenee are among others 30 minutes or less from the city centre.

Golf & Hotel de Falnuee

Wallonia

L’Empereur Relais Golf & Country Club

Spa There’s no better place to soak away your post-round aches than in the thermal spring waters of the town that gave its name to health and wellness centres. The world’s first health resort, Spa has been attracting visitors – among them England’s King Henry VIII and Charles II, and Russia’s Peter the Great – for its mineral spring waters for almost five centuries. The Royal Golf Club elegant town, situated in the forested Ardennes, still des Fagnes welcomes tourists from far and wide today. As well as its Thermes de Spa thermal baths, Spa’s other attractions include its opulent Casino, several museums and parks and nearby Spa-Francorchamps race track. Courses:

Royal Golf Club des Fagnes and nine-hole Golf du Haras lie just outside the town and other courses are within 30 minutes’ drive.

Waterloo A name that resonates for the famous defeat of Napoleon, this charming town is worth lingering over as a base for golf and to visit the museums and sites that vividly portray events before and during the decisive battle. Among them are the new, underground Memorial 1815 museum, built alongside the towering Lion Mound memorial that overlooks the battlefield, and the newly-renovated Wellington Museum, an inn when the Duke of Wellington established his HQ. Courses close to Waterloo include Royal Waterloo Golf Club, Sept Fontaines Golf Club, L’Empereur Relais Golf & Country Club, Golf Chateau de la Tournette, Golf du Chateau de la Bawette, Golf Club d’Hulencourt, Golf du Bercuit and Golf Club de Louvain-La-Neuve.

Durbuy Tiny in terms of its size and population – it proclaims itself as the world’s smallest city – Durbuy is huge in what it offers visitors. This picture-postcard little town nestles on the banks of the River Ourthe in the heart of the Ardennes and ancient stone buildings housing restaurants, cafes and shops line its cobbled streets. Courses:

Golf de Durbuy and Five Nations Golf Club are both a short distance from Durbuy.

Golf Chateau de la Tournette

Courses:

Golf de Durbuy 59

Wallonia

Royal golf courses Golf has a long association with Wallonia, the game making its first appearance in the region more than 120 years ago. All golf courses in Belgium that are more than 50 years old now carry the royal prefix. Of the 11 royal courses throughout the country, five of them are in Wallonia – Royal Golf Club du Chateau Royal d’Ardenne, near Dinant (founded in 1895), Royal Golf Club des Fagnes, near Spa (1930), Royal Golf Club du Hainaut, near Mons (1933), Royal Golf Club du Sart Tilman, near Liege (1939) and Royal Waterloo Golf Club (established in its present location in 1961 but with its origins in 1923). All exude a sense of history and tradition.

Royal Golf Club des Fagnes

Excellent clubhouse facilities Wallonia’s clubhouses come in many forms, from the rustic, thatched-roof clubhouse at Royal Golf Club du Hainaut to stately examples, such as the Leopold Tower of the Royal Golf Club du Chateau d’Ardennes, the chateau of Sept Fontaines Golf Club and Mont Garni Golf Club’s Anglo-Norman edifice. Some clubhouses are sleek and modern, as in the clubhouse at Royal Golf Club du Sart Tilman, while others have been converted from historic fermeschateaux (fortified castle farms), among them the 16th century Golf Chateau de la Tournette and those at Golf & Hotel de Falnuee, Golf de Pierpont, Five Nations Golf Club, Naxhelet Golf Club and L’Empereur Relais Golf & Country Club.

Golf du Chateau de la Bawette

Yet despite their different styles, they all offer superb facilities, whether it’s high-class cuisine, relaxing lounges and welcoming bars or wellstocked pro shops offering rental equipment (often with both men’s and ladies’ clubs and with graphite or steel shafts) and locker rooms with showers.

Golf Chateau de la Tournette

Wallonia

Royal Golf Club du Sart Tilman

Golf and nature Nature abounds in Wallonia, both on and around its golf courses, with the spectacular, mountainous Ardennes its crowning glory. Explore ancient forests, scenic rivers, beautiful lakes, rushing waterfalls and stalactite-filled caves. Play golf in Wallonia and you are surrounded by nature. Its courses may be easy to reach from its major towns and cities but there are so many forests and so much countryside even close to conurbations that you always feel you are a world away from the hubbub. Despite being on the fringes of bustling Liege, Wallonia’s second-largest city, Royal Golf Club du Sart Tilman is flanked by thick forest of the University of Liege and has electric fences on its boundary to keep out wild boars. You can see deer, squirrels, hares and birds aplenty on many courses, but Golf de Durbuy even has beavers! Several of the protected mammals are residents in ponds on the course and the golf club has to spray trees on the course with a special liquid to deter them from gnawing at the trunks. The club also has some rare wild orchids endemic to the area.

Naxhelet Golf Club

Golf Club Enghien is laid out alongside the thickly-wooded 17th century park of Enghien Castle, north of Mons, at the centre of which is an octagonal formal garden surrounding a baroque pavilion, glimpses of which can be seen from the course. The region’s royal golf courses all have fairways threading through majestic, ancient trees. Royal Golf Club du Chateau Royal d’Ardenne, near Dinant, was laid out in the park of the Castle d’Ardenne and Golf du Chateau de la Bawette lies in a wooded estate near Wavre.

Golf Club Enghien

Naxhelet Golf Club, which opened in 2014 near Huy, works with renowned bioagronomist consultant and master greenkeeper Ian Macmillan to keep its course as environmentally-friendly as possible. The course, which has fairways lined by carpets of daisies and other wild flowers, uses no fungicides at all and only sprays pesticide on its fairways and tall rough to keep out invasive species such as thistle. It recently became the first golf course in Wallonia to become GEO Certified by the Golf Environment Organization.

Wherever you play golf and whatever else you do, feel inspired in Wallonia. By Peter Ellegard

For more information, visit www.belgium-tourism.co.uk 61

Cover Photo: Horseshoe Bay Resor t â&#x20AC;˘ www.hsbresor t.com

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