Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club
| Golf Club Crans-sur-Sierre (Severiano Ballesteros) |
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|---|---|
 Hole 7 with a view of the Val d'Anniviers |
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| Place data | |
| Coordinates: | 601 881 / 127807 |
| Playable since: | 1906 |
| Architect: | Freemantle, Gedge |
| Extensions: | Harry Nicholson, Severiano Ballesteros |
| Par: | 72 |
| Length: | 6341 meters |
| CR / Slope : |
72.5 / 138 |
| Character: | Mountain place |
| Golf Club Crans-sur-Sierre (Jack Nicklaus) |
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|---|---|
 Green 5, behind it the Étang de la Moubra and the mountains below the Plaine Morte Glacier . |
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| Place data | |
| Coordinates: | 602651 / 128209 |
| Playable since: | 1951 |
| Architect: | |
| Extensions: | Jack Nicklaus (1988) |
| Par: | 35 |
| Length: | 2729 meters |
| CR / Slope : |
68.2 / 126 |
| Character: | Mountain place |
The Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club is one of the oldest golf courses in Switzerland and is located in Crans-Montana in the Valais Alps at an altitude of 1500 meters.
history
In 1905, hotelier Albert de Preux and British businessman Henry Lunn took over a bankrupt clinic in Crans and converted it into a luxury hotel. In order to meet the demands of British tourists, a golf course was commissioned from the British Freemantle and Gedge. The first nine holes opened in the following year and the second nine were completed in 1908.
For the local population, the golf course turned out to be a real economic factor within the general tourist boom. Before that, the population lived exclusively on agriculture and in relative poverty. Renting out the fields for the purpose of playing golf was much more lucrative than laboriously cultivating them. In addition, the young men could hire themselves as caddies , which soon became a tradition in Crans. Emile Bonvin and Géronce Barras founded a snack bar, which later became the golf hotel.
When British tourists stayed away during World War I, there was a general decline and the golf course became neglected. In 1917, the golf hotel was used to accommodate wounded soldiers and French prisoners of war. After the war, 9 holes were restored and in 1924 the golf club was officially founded. The first president was René Payot from Geneva, who two years later started a project to rebuild it to 18 holes. Finally the square was opened in July 1929, but shortly afterwards it was revised again by the Englishman Harry Nicholson. This layout was to last until 1997 under the name Plan-Bramois.
In the following decades a real golf culture developed in the population, with the Bonvin and Barras families in particular repeatedly producing top amateurs or professionals who started out as caddies and worked on their golf game after their work was done. In addition, the Swiss Open took place in Crans-Montana for the first time in 1939 and, after an interruption due to the war, it was resumed there in 1948 and has since taken place annually in September, now under the name Omega European Masters .
In 1951 an additional 9-hole course was built under the name Les Xirès, which in 1988 became the Jack Nicklaus course . After the European Masters in 1997 it became clear that the greens had to be renovated by Plan-Bramois and Severiano Ballesteros , who had been making minor changes to the course since 1995, was given this task. However, he did not stop at the greens, but also changed tees and obstacles, so that some holes got a completely different character. To take this fact into account, the course was renamed Parcours Severiano Ballesteros in 2002 .
There are now two more 9-hole courses that are operated by the Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club and are primarily intended for beginners. This is Super Crans , a 916 meter layout near the hotel of the same name in Montana-Vermala. Finally, in Chermignon d'en Bas, there is the Noas golf course with a length of 1365 meters.
Golf aspects
character
Both Ballesteros Square and Jack Nicklaus' Square are typical parkland layouts. The holes of the Jack Nicklaus Course are hilly, narrower and shorter than those of the 18-hole course, but otherwise they are quite comparable. Golf courses in the high mountains usually have to be spread out in a relatively small area, as they compete with hotels and other facilities for the limited space. Crans-Montana is an exception in that, on the one hand, it is located on a very large high plateau and, on the other hand, the areas for the golf course were secured before the onset of mass tourism.
For this reason, the tracks could be designed generously and rough could be dispensed with almost entirely. Forest even comes into play on some holes, for example at Ballestero's hole 6, which can be played entirely through a forest aisle. At holes 5 and 17, the green must be played over trees. Some cleverly placed ponds complete the parkland repertoire. Only Ballestero's hole 7 can claim a real high mountain character, which first drops steeply to the left, then climbs just as steeply to the right again to a green that seems to float in the air. But the other holes also have some peculiarities that make the course varied overall. Despite the fast and sometimes difficult-to-read greens, the holes can also be mastered by the average golfer, the course record on the Ballesteros Course is 60 strokes ( Baldovino Dassu 1971, Jamie Spence 1992).
Special landmarks
- Memorial plaque for Billy Casper
On the tee of hole 14, a par 5 that is very difficult to hit, there is a memorial plaque for Billy Casper , who scored an albatross here at the Swiss Open in 1971, that is, who pounded with two strokes. This is all the more remarkable as the topography of the hole (see illustration below) actually prevents the ball from rolling onto the green. A pass through the air is also hardly conceivable for the long, second shot on a par 5.
- Memorial plaque for Severiano Ballesteros
At hole 18, the final par 4, there is a memorial plaque for Severiano Ballesteros on the far right by the wall to the swimming pool . In the 1993 final round of what was then the Canon European Masters, today's Omega European Masters , Ballesteros' tee shot came under the fir trees near the wall. Caddy Billy Foster recommended chipping the ball conservatively onto the fairway and playing a par. But Ballesteros saw a plate-sized hole between the trees and the wall, pointing in the appropriate direction. With a miraculous break he played from the hopeless position close to the green and chipped the ball from there directly into the hole for the 6th birdie in a row. With the spectacular race to catch up, he and Miguel Ángel Jiménez secured second place, one stroke behind Barry Lane .
Galleries
Severiano Ballesteros course
General view of the golf course on the high plateau of Crans-Montana.
Hole 6, a short par 4 through a forest lane.
Hole 7. The area in front of the bunker landscape, cut into strips, looks inviting, but is hardly playable. The fairway runs to the left of it.
Billy Casper's Albatross Hole. The 14th green can only be played through the air, rolling balls run down the slope into the lake.
18. Green with clubhouse.
Jack Nicklaus course
Tee off from hole 1 downhill onto a fairway hanging to the right.
The 4th hole is the only par 5 on the course. The shot into the green leads steeply uphill.
The considerable depth of Green 6 cannot be seen from the tee shot (193 meters from white), so that a surprisingly long putt often remains.
literature
- Pierre Ducrey: Histoire du golf de Crans 1906-2006 .