Golf Course Architecture - Issue 70, October 2022

19 Heritage in Mauritius plans new course for 2023 Heritage Golf Club in Mauritius is planning for a new course, La Réserve Golf Links designed by golf course architect Peter Matkovich with Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, to open in December 2023. Featuring panoramic ocean views from every hole, La Réserve will join the resort’s other eighteen-hole layout, Le Château. The new course will feature elevated tees and greens to give plenty of vantage points to look over the country’s tropical bays and southern shores. “It’s a challenging course and not for the faint-hearted,” said Oosthuizen. “We’ve worked with the land to create a strategic, undulating course that plays in the traditional links style, with running fairways, pot bunkers and long grasses. The location is breathtakingly beautiful with incredible views of the Indian Ocean.” Matkovich said: “I have always had the desire to create a true links golf course, having played many famous venues in the United Kingdom and Ireland. We do not have the natural dunes of a traditional links at La Réserve, but we certainly have the natural shaping, a links feel, and it will require the strategies of playing a links course to score well. “We have also created six sets of tees on each hole, with the course extending over 7,300 yards from the back tee. There are no courses in Mauritius like La Réserve Golf Links and it will undoubtedly have huge appeal to international golf travellers.” The environment has been carefully considered for this project with La Réserve located alongside a Unesco Biosphere Reserve. Former sugar cane fields have been sensitively cultivated with native island grasses, creating new, species-rich grasslands, encouraging ecological diversity and valuable carbon sequestration. All work is also being monitored, with a view towards GEO Certified Development status. La Réserve will be reserved for members and Heritage residents only and the the club plans to host a DP World Tour tournament in 2023. TEE BOX A visualisation of the proposed eighteenth hole at La Réserve Image: Harris Kalinka

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=