Golf d'Hardelot (Les Pins)

Overview: Les Pins is the older eighteen-hole course at Golf d'Hardelot, set among the dunes and pine forest of the Opal Coast near Neufchâtel-Hardelot. The official course page identifies the original 1934 routing with Tom Simpson and describes fairways that wind through the state forest and sandy dunes. The woodland setting provides shelter in places, but it does not remove the influence of sandy ground, uneven lies and the changing shape of the fairways. Simpson's design is read through the details: restrained green contours, carefully placed bunkers and holes that ask for a measured line rather than a single aggressive shot. At 6,423 yards and par 71, Les Pins is a strategic woodland course with a coastal foundation, distinct from Hardelot's newer Les Dunes course.

History: Hardelot's golf story began in 1905, when John Whitley created a nine-hole course close to the sea and forest. That first layout was replaced by another nine-hole course in 1921, and by the end of the 1920s the development had moved toward a new eighteen-hole project. Tom Simpson was chosen for the major course, and the current Les Pins page dates the original routing to 1934. The wider resort later added Les Dunes, designed by Paul Rollin and Jean-Claude Cornillot in 1988, but Les Pins retains the earlier Simpson identity. Recent restoration work has sought to recover the simple, subtle character associated with the original design.

Did You Know? The first tee of Hardelot's original 1905 nine-hole course was placed on top of one of the towers of Hardelot Castle. That unusual starting point belongs to the club's earliest chapter, long before the current Les Pins eighteen-hole routing was created.