Ile aux Cerfs – Golf Course Review

Golfer’s Tips

• As the caddies rightly tell you before starting, this is a short course that demands accuracy, not length – for mid to long hitters your driver may well stay in the bag for the vast majority of the round. 200 yards to the middle of the curving fairways is often the play.
• Hole nine is a par five that curves left to right, making a c-shape with the green at the top. It is possible for longer hitters to make the green with two well struck irons, but the penalty for a miss-strike is water.
• On the quirky 18th, complete with two greens, the left option is deemed to be easier but is still not a simple approach given the sharp drop off and hazards front, back and right. Accurate clubbing to middle/left of the green is a great result.

Signature Holes

• 11th – an absolute standout hole on any course. A long par 5 that feels it’s way alongside the beautiful beach on the left, before an approach up to a raised table-top green with an incredible panoramic view across the water to the mainland and its towering mountains.
• 3rd – water is prominent across the property, but no more so than on this tricky little par three with an island green.

Review:

Ile aux Cerfs is a wonderful tropical course, designed by Bernhard Langer, that loops expertly around a private island with an altogether more natural and interesting feel than some of its peers.

The starting hole is very much a pace-setter, giving you the blueprint for many holes on the circuit. A tee shot over water to a fairway that turns right to left meaning that anything over 220 yards runs out of fairway, before an approach into a green that is perched above a large bunker right and drop offs on all sides. Two is also similar, but three changes up with a short par three into an island green with bunker short and all other extremities spelling a watery grave.

The playing surfaces at Ile aux Cerfs are excellent – the fairways are immaculate, and the rough is forgiving in its softness such that bad shots do not get worse and are generally findable before they reach the denser foliage, and the greens are very fast and run incredibly true.

Amongst many short to medium length par fours and some tricky par threes, Ile aux Cerfs is still a par 72 and does afford several long par fives. The fourth is an attractive driving hole, albeit with water left for the first 250 yards, and not long after is the 627 yard sixth hole which is a narrower tree-lined curve round to the right, with a very long sand area on the right of the fairway for the second half of the hole.

Hole nine is also a par five, but due to its c-shape around water it only plays its length if a safer route around the fairway is taken. Longer hitters can reach the green with two well struck irons, but the second shot over water will likely require over 180 yards of carry so the risk reward is worth consideration.

The best stretch of holes is undoubtedly in the early part of the back nine at the far corner of the island – complete with glimpses of sandy beaches and some incredible views of the surrounding ocean and Mauritian mainland. The golf is also excellent, the par five 11th is the best hole on the course – turning left to right, lined by palm trees with a stream that meanders the fairway, the approach is up to a table top infinity green with breathtaking views of the bay and mainland beyond. This is then followed by the excellent par four twelfth and picturesque par three thirteenth over water.

The finish is a quirky one – after two more shorter par fours at sixteen and seventeen that again feature carries over water before turning into more accessible greens, the eighteenth is another of similar length but has the unusual choice of two separate greens to complete your round. Right is a longer shot with a more intimidating carry over scrub and water, but even the easier shot into the left green must be navigated with caution – a narrow green with hazards front and back means that accurate distance control is paramount.

Overall Ile aux Cerfs is great experience – this is not a large, expansive man-made resort golf, instead it possesses a natural feeling and the routing across the island is set out expertly, with each hole holding its own identity being carved through dense tropical vegetation. A must play if you are lucky enough to be on Mauritius.

• “Top 100” Ranking: 4th (Mauritius), 35th (Africa)
• Golfer View Rating: 75%

https://www.ileauxcerfsgolfclub.com

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