92 HOLING OUT There is a long-standing relationship between golf courses and railways. Many of the earliest golf courses were built alongside railway lines so that they were accessible to travellers. But the relationship is not always so mutually beneficial, with golf courses often having to make adaptations for new rail developments. In Paris, France, the venue that staged the 2018 Ryder Cup, Le Golf National, has spent almost two years reshaping parts of its Albatros course to accommodate Line 18, a 35-kilometre railway connecting Paris-Orly Airport with Versailles as part of the French capital’s expanding transport network. The course is scheduled to reopen in September 2026, in time for the FedEx Open de France. The new railway cut through the edge of the property, affecting three holes on the championship course, most of the Oiselet short course, the Heritage short-game area and the Foulque practice ground. Golf course architect Russell Talley was tasked with redesigning holes four, five and six on the Albatros. He saw it as an opportunity to enhance the layout. “New holes were placed in areas that afforded improved hole design while taking into consideration flow, circulation, strategy, integration, safety and maintenance,” he said. One of the biggest challenges was the fourth hole, where a substantial protective mound was needed alongside the metro line and a public footpath was to be added. “This mound is on the right side of the fourth and required the fairway and green to shift to the left, which had a knock-on effect for the fifth and sixth holes,” Talley explained. The Oiselet short course also required a major rethink because the railway disappears underground beneath much of the site. Extensive excavation was needed to construct the concrete structure that will house the tracks. Meanwhile, the Heritage shortgame facility, beside Albatros’s fourteenth hole, has been relocated. New putting, chipping and bunker greens have been built just to the west, completing the rail-led redesign. Read an in-depth report on the project on the GCA website. When fairway meets railway Le Golf National has revamped its Albatros course, short layout and practice areas to make way for the Paris Metro. Photo: French Golf Federation
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