Putting with Birdies and Banyan Trees
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Source: The Daily Telegraph {Travel} Edition: Country: UK Date: Saturday 7, April 2018 Page: 12,13 Area: 1676 sq. cm Circulation: ABC 374719 Daily Ad data: page rate £46,000.00, scc rate £214.00 Phone: 020 7931 2000 Keyword: Seychelles GOLF HOLIDAYS Putting with birdies and banyan trees have alternative beaches of almost As the Masters hots up, comparable beauty closer to hand. Those beaches have loungers and waiters bearing cocktails. Anse Adam Ruck fnds Georgette has nothing. No café, no car park – a glorious absence of facilities. fairways to heaven It isn’t plagued by ants or sandfies, at least none that found me during a in the Seychelles research efort stretching to several hours and a repeat visit. It really is the stuf of tropical island dreams. and Mauritius There are three overland ways to approach it. The rugged coastal path nse Georgette is often from Anse Lazio – more than an hour described as the most each way – would be quite an beautiful beach in the undertaking in equatorial world. It’s a small heat. Or you can apply to sandy niche on the Lemuria to be one of the Seychelles island of two dozen non-residents Praslin, where allowed in each day. But A mountainous jungle the best approach is to drops steeply to the sea and pink stay at Lemuria, play its granite boulders frame a swathe of golf course and, after gossamer licked by milky-blue waves. completing the short 15th, The seabed is as soft as the beach – not down tools and wander always the case in this part of the through the woods to the world – and overhanging trees supply beach for a swim and a shade for the less mad-dog to lie in. pause before braving the Like all beaches in the Seychelles, horrors of the 16th, a Anse Georgette is a public space. But it fendishly narrow uphill doesn’t get crowded, because the land double dogleg par fve. behind belongs to a luxury hotel, There’s no hurry. Lemuria, whose pampered residents Lemuria doesn’t do fxed Reproduced by Gorkana under licence from the NLA (newspapers), CLA (magazines), FT (Financial Times/ft.com) or other copyright owner. No further copying (including printing of digital cuttings), digital reproduction/forwarding of the cutting is permitted except under licence from the copyright owner. All FT content is copyright The Financial Times Ltd. Article Page 1 of 8 419753755 - ROBSHE - A24436-14 - 136299896 Source: The Daily Telegraph {Travel} Edition: Country: UK Date: Saturday 7, April 2018 Page: 12,13 Area: 1676 sq. cm Circulation: ABC 374719 Daily Ad data: page rate £46,000.00, scc rate £214.00 Phone: 020 7931 2000 Keyword: Seychelles to arrange a picnic tee times, nor is it the sort of lunch. Start your course that chivvies the game around 10am golfer with notices saying: and you should “If you started more than reach the 15th in 56 minutes ago, you’re time to coincide with playing too slowly.” the arrival of a box of Residents enjoy the freedom fshy treats and a of the course, starting and chilled sauvignon fnishing when and wherever they blanc by South want and pausing at will. African golfer and If this fosters a carefree approach to winemaker the game, that will soon be dispelled David Frost. by the course itself, which although not long is hemmed in by an exotic Doze the afternoon away, with half assortment of problems including an eye open in case a hawksbill turtle palm trees, ponds, quagmires and emerges from the waves to bury her waste areas inhabited by crabs that eggs on the beach. Resume the contest steal golf balls and carry them down in fading light when enormous fruit their holes. I know this; I saw one do it. bats are on the wing, casting shadows Replace without penalty (Rule 18-1). over the serpentine 16th fairway. That’s on the fat part, holes one to Lemuria is the only 18-hole course 12. After that, the course heads for the in the Seychelles and the archipelago mountainous jungle zone, cutting a does not feature on the radar of golf steep swathe through forest and scrub. tourism. Golf is a bonus, on top of so The 15th is one of those vertiginous many other things to enjoy: a boat trip holes typical of holiday courses in hilly to a nearby island inhabited by places. It’s almost as high as it’s long. ground-nesting terns and giant The tee is a giddy perch 250ft above tortoises born in the Victorian era, Anse Georgette and the green. It often perhaps; or a bike ride to Praslin’s features on lists of the world’s most Vallée de Mai nature reserve, with its beautiful holes. After the challenges of the preceding 14 holes, this is one of black parrots and coco de mer trees, of the more straightforward shots on the the suggestively shaped nuts that are course. The ball hangs in the air for so relentlessly exploited to promote long moments of suspense before the Seychelles’ “Islands of Love” landing with a smack, if well directed, image. The greatest treat is doing or a splash in the stream at the back of nothing in the balmy seclusion of the green. On holes like this, it’s all Lemuria, keeping quiet with the lights about club selection. low, so as not to disturb the turtles. “People always take too much club Although BA has relaunched direct the frst time they play it,” Lemuria’s fights from the UK to the Seychelles, manager Bruno informs me, about half there’s every reason to twin Lemuria a minute later than would have been with a golfng stopover in Dubai or helpful. Bruno buses hotel guests to Mauritius. The latter involves more this belvedere for sundowners at six, fying but seemed to me the more pours the fzz and scatters hibiscus tempting destination, with its mix of petals on the tee to add to the romance French, Dutch and British infuences. Compared with an eagle or of the occasion for the honeymooners g, who choose Lemuria and wisely leave the golf for some other time. albatross, the fightless dodo In addition to their routine duties, may not be the most which include twisting towels into auspicious swing thought, elephant shapes and tending the palm ut Mauritius has taken of as a golf trees to make sure Lemuria doesn’t add bestination and now has luxury resort a golfer to the global dotels and at least a dozen courses by toll of 150 deaths a hig-name designers spread around its year caused by b falling coconuts, hotel staf are happy ii Reproduced by Gorkana under licence from the NLA (newspapers), CLA (magazines), FT (Financial Times/ft.com) or other copyright owner. No further copying (including printing of digital cuttings), digital reproduction/forwarding of the cutting is permitted except under licence from the copyright owner. All FT content is copyright The Financial Times Ltd. Article Page 2 of 8 419753755 - ROBSHE - A24436-14 - 136299896 Source: The Daily Telegraph {Travel} Edition: Country: UK Date: Saturday 7, April 2018 Page: 12,13 Area: 1676 sq. cm Circulation: ABC 374719 Daily Ad data: page rate £46,000.00, scc rate £214.00 Phone: 020 7931 2000 Keyword: Seychelles 200-mile (320km) coastline. who eagled the last to Barry’s birdie; After the reverential calm of leaving defending champion Colin Lemuria, the bustle of a golf resort in Montgomerie one shot further back. full swing is quite a shock. As well as having twice as many inmates, Belle “My wife and I have been coming Mare Plage is more open and sociable, since 1996,” Lane told the gallery at the with hawkers selling sarongs on the presentation. “Mauritius is the best beach and loud music in the air after place on earth.” supper. Conversation between For guests who want the golf strangers at breakfast is not unknown. without the party atmosphere, Belle Mare’s close neighbour and sister Golf is a great mixer, and my visit in hotel the Prince Maurice replaces early December has coincided with a disco boom with soft piano music and week when Belle Mare and its two ofers a step up in luxury, seclusion courses fll for a week of competitive and price: a Bond Street boutique to action and lively socialising. All the Belle Mare’s Oxford Street store. leading lights of the European Senior Tucked among banyan trees and Tour turn up for the last event on their mangroves, villas and suites on stilts calendar, the MCB Tour Championship, overlook the barachois, an estuary while amateurs play in the pro-am and lake with a foating restaurant and their own competition for prizes in cocktail bar. various handicap categories. With no sea turtles to worry At least one water hazard on every about, underwater lighting is hole, most of them visited, is my permissible here. A shark fitted lasting impression of Belle Mare’s in and out of view beneath our feet trophy course, Legend. I had a as we dined. sneaking preference for its junior Free golf for residents of Belle Mare partner, Links, a more undulating and Plage and the Prince Maurice is a varied layout with outcrops of black powerful incentive to stay put. Two lava and the stump of an old top-notch courses are enough for a watchtower beside the 18th green. short stay and my plan to research I’m not sure I’d choose it for a match some alternatives came to grief when of mixed singles, though.