Original architects Bill Coore and Rod Whitman have returned to Golf du Médoc in France to lead an ongoing programme of bunker renewal, plus the construction of a new academy facility.

Whitman, who served as project manager during the construction of Coore’s Chateau course back in the late 1980s and then built the Pines course to his own design, is in charge of the academy project. The facility is being built on a previously unused parcel of land between the first and third holes on the Vignes course.

Meanwhile, Coore & Crenshaw bunker specialist Quinn Thompson, under Coore’s supervision, has spent several weeks at the resort over each of the last few winters, rebuilding many of the bunkers on the Chateau course, which hosted the French Open in 1989. The project is concerned both with improving drainage from the bunkers – many of which have a puddling problem at the moment – and returning their aesthetic values to a more typical Coore style. Regeneration of the site’s native heather is next on the menu for the resort.

See the April issue of GCA for a more detailed article on our visit to Golf du Médoc along with architects Coore and Whitman.