Golf in paradise – Mauritius

Text: Mike Green. Article from the November 2014 issue of Compleat Golfer Magazine.

There is something in the air when you arrive in Mauritius, and it feels as if it is dusting you off ahead of a spring cleaning.

If you’re familiar with Mauritius, you’ll know I that the majority of the great resorts are in the northern half of the Indian Ocean island. The main tourism hub is around Grand Baie, with the highest concentration of hotels, beaches and entertainment. The east coast is the most familiar, with its celebrated hotels and beautiful white sand beaches, while the west coast, which has flatter, calmer waters, is favoured by families. The ‘green’ south is wilder, but arguably more interesting, with a clutch of hotels in the south-west, close to pounding surf and dramatic cliffs.

But there is more than enough of the stuff you expect from paradise in the south – and, if you’re a resident of Heritage Resorts, you can enjoy free unlimited golf on a wonderful Peter Matkovich-designed course during your stay.

Heritage Golf Club

Built                             1984

Designer                      Peter Matkovich

PAR                              72

Champ Tees                6 498m

Club Tees                    6 119m

Greenfees                    Free for hotel guests, otherwise €130

Arriving at the Le Telfair Hotel in the heart of the Domaine de Bel Ombre is like stepping into the past: the buildings are an invitation to wander along the alleys of time, back to when Mauritius was a strategic stopover along the sugar and spice routes. The hotel is designed with the character of former plantation houses, looking almost like a replica of an ancient painting.

The hotel is a tribute to the Irish botanist and naturalist, Charles Edward Telfair. Telfair and his wife, Annabella – whose name has been given to the hotel’s main restaurant – played an instrumental role in the development of the Domaine de Bel Ombre, where they lived in the 19th century.

At the Place du Moulin, erected on the site of the former Bel Ombre sugar factory, you can still see the remnants of a rich history dating back as far as 1765. That was the year when these lands were first granted to Simon Rémirac and Claude de la Roche du Ronzet.

The domaine was mentioned as early as 1773 by the author of the famous novel Paul et Virginie, the French writer Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, in his work Voyage à l’lsle de France, à I’lsle Bourbon, au Cap de Bonne-Espérance, par un officier du roi (Journey to Isle of France, Bourbon Island and the Cape of Good Hope, by an Officer of the King). It was visited by prominent personalities of the time, including the French botanist and agronomist Jean-Nicolas Céré in 1782 and the English navigator Matthew Flinders in 1803, after his journey of exploration to Australia.

Telfair acquired the rights over what he called “the small Eden of Bel Ombre” in 1816 and introduced many innovations, including farming tools and the first horizontal mill on the island in 1819. He also created vast orchards and vegetable gardens. He was a great defender of the cause of the slaves as evidenced by the school, the hospital and the choir he created for them at Bel Ombre.

After his death in 1833, the domaine was in the hands of various successive owners until its purchase in 1910 by James Albert Wilson, Eugène de Rosnay, Edouard Rouillard, Emile Sauzier and Oscar Pilot. This transaction led to the creation the same year of the Compagnie Sucrière de Bel Ombre.

The domaine expanded with the acquisition of neighbouring properties between 1910 and 1961 and today spans some 2500 hectares. With the interruption of sugar production on the domaine, tourism took over. This led to the development around the Chateau de Bel Ombre of the Heritage Golf Club layout in 2004 and the Heritage Awali Golf & Spa Resort and Heritage Le Telfair Golf & Spa Resort the following year. The Frederica Nature Reserve was opened to the public in 2006 and more recently, the C Beach Club was launched in 2011.

“It is so very obviously a Peter Matkovich course, with echoes of his best work at places like Arabella, Steenberg and Ebotse”

And there is plenty of good stuff remaining from the sugar industry: Some great rum and liqueurs can be discovered, and you can taste the Café de Chamarel from the village of the same name. It’s a 100-percent Mauritian brew which grows in the village and is roasted a little further down in Case Noyale.

Like most resorts of its kind, there is easy access for residents to a wide variety of water sports. The C Beach Club has all the usual: diving, waterskiing, snorkelling as well as a leisurely drift around in a glass-bottomed boat. All of that is available from a boathouse in the breathtaking beach and swimming pool surroundings with great restaurants and a bar.

Another wonderful aspect of the Heritage Resort is the presence of the Heritage Villas. An invitation to experience the traditional Mauritian veranda lifestyle, they provide luxury living with accommodation boasting spectacular panoramic views over the golf course to the ocean and unlimited access to the facilities of the other Heritage resorts.

A golf cart is available free of charge in each villa and, in addition, a host of services are available at an extra cost including in-villa delivery, private chefs to prepare meals, dry-cleaning and laundry, babysitting service, butler service and the organisation of parties. The staff can also organise car or helicopter transfers as well as various land and sea excursions.

The third accommodation option comes in the form of the Heritage Awali Golf & Spa Resort. The name is Swahili and the African nature of the place is visible in its architecture, decor and ambience – warm tones of ochre, tan, saffron and brown, dark wenge wood  doors and copper. Decorative pieces and furniture fashioned in Africa and Madagascar round off the picture.

But, of course, a big part of the reason for being in Domaine de Bel Ombre is to play at Heritage Golf Club. It is so very obviously a Peter Matkovich course, with echoes of his best work at places like Arabella, Steenberg and Ebotse familiar to us in South Africa.

While much of it doesn’t have sea views, like other courses in Mauritius, when you get them, they are breathtaking. It’s not a short course at 6 500 metres, and if the wind comes up – remember, even if you’re inland in Mauritius, you’re near enough to the coast for the wind to be a factor – then the course could become a monster.

The course is built with the idea of giving all levels of player a good experience: there are five tee possibilities on each hole and the fairways are wide and receptive, and while it’s possible to simply become engrossed in playing the course in front of you, there are moments where you can step back and lap up the details.

The 9th is a great hole, with water on either side of the fairway, which stretches out below you from a high tee. But, as you would expect from a resort course, it’s not overly intimidating, with a generous landing area and fairway bunkers that will make you think about your tee shot but not fear it. But, as is the case with all the holes, the out-of-play areas are brutal. The greens are quite undulating and tricky to read. They are paspalum, which is a bit grainy, and if there are unsympathetic pin positions, they could become very testing.

There is a great finishing stretch: 16 for the pros is a 420-metre par-four dogleg left; the 17th is a similar distance which plays into the prevailing wind; and then 18 is a good risk-and-reward par five with water to clear on your second shot if you’re going to go for the green in two – depending on where you’ve placed your tee shot.

The Heritage course will undoubtedly present a great challenge to the tour professionals when they tee it up in the tri-sanctioned AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open in May next year, particularly if the event organisers see fit to play from the tips and hide some pins away.

When you’re done with your round, the clubhouse offers a wide range of services: restaurant, bar, mobile catering on the course, fully equipped locker-rooms, golf carts, caddies, cleaning of your equipment, an academy for adults and children, and a pro shop for your purchases and equipment hire.

And if you’re not up to 18 holes, there is a nine-hole par-three course available for a little relaxation. Before you head back to the beach.

Getting there

Air Mauritius operates eight flights per week out of OR, Tambo International in Johannesburg. There are three flights per week out of Cape Town International, and two out of King Shaka International in Durban.