Golf du Vert Parc

Could Patrice Simon have been right too early? When he decide to create the Vart-Parc course from scratch, near Illies, in the rich plains of Les Weppes, on perfectly flat beetroot fields, its proximity to Lille, Lens and Douai was one of his major considerations. Indeed, there was already a pool of players that would certainly welcome a course in the countryside that was both within easy reach but totally devoid of the features of urbanism. But there was the sadly infamous number-41 main road, a veritable torment for those coming to Illies from the Lille area, and which has been upgraded to a dual carriageway. The mere thought of the bottlenecks would be enough to discourage even the most enthusiastic players. A wrong…and all the more unpardonable now that "the way is free" for Patrice Simon has designed a truly interesting course, both from the golfing and the aesthetic point of views. In ten years, Nature has accomplished its task. Today vegetation abounds as does wildlife, which has naturally converged on a haven of tranquillity bordering on the largest of four lakes fed by rainwater recovered from the surrounding areas. The site now boast some twenty species of birds including herons, egrets, some rare species of ducks and wild swans, all of which nest here undisturbed. And indeed, it is around this lake and through a wood that the five most agreeable holes in Vert-Parc Golf Club are laid out. Water can be found in the vicinity of the tees -but not so much as to intimidate the average player- and often encircles the greens. On the other fairways the terrain is undulating, and in places undiguisedly so. Patrice Simon earnestly wanted to turn his back on the natural flatness of the site, to make it disappear: approximately one million cubic metre were displaced and fashioned! And although the plains extend for as far as the eye can see, the course is no longer really a part of that flat landscape!