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Golf and tourism has proved to be a marriage made in Heaven and nowhere has it been more joyfully celebrated than Tunisia. With fewer than a dozen courses in four resort areas strung along its Mediterranean coastline it can boast of a success story with few equals in a cut-throat market.
It’s not a wealthy country by most standards but it has developed a first rate infrastructure: a choice of hassle-free airports, good roads, dozens of top class hotels and soundly managed golf clubs that put more ostensibly sophisticated destinations to shame.
Those who haven’t seen it for some years would, like me, be pleasantly surprised at the improvements and by the quality and value on offer (green fees at under £20 for 18 holes you should complete in four hours and a bit? You cannot be serious…!).
Allied to a warm welcome that’s becoming equally rare, Tunisia gets my vote as the place to go for a golfing holiday.
The time factor is a pointer to the secret of their success, one that counters the common blight of golfing holidays in most places these days. You’ll read the signs in the golf clubs advising of it, and if you forget a marshal will come riding by to jog your memory – in the nicest possible way.
Most of the courses I last saw eight or so years ago were much as I recalled: they were in exemplary condition then and the standards haven’t declined. Indeed one of them, the Palm Links in Monastir, was the finest-conditioned course I have seen this year and comparable in its degree of challenge. It is a jewel.
At its opening back in 1994 I was impressed by the design and thought that with maturity and nurturing it could become the premier attraction in Tunisian golf. New owners have provided the nurturing and necessary investment and so it has proved.
It’s a happy combination, a strategic course par excellence and a resort course with challenge. You’ll use every club and invent a few shots in the process. With lush fairways dominated by stands of palm trees and some judicious bunkering, this is lay-up country and if you know anything of course management and have a short game worthy of the name you’ll win most bets.
The greens are generous but from a distance they don’t always appear so. All differ in configuration: some are long and narrow with tight entrances; others, just a few paces across, lie side-on; some are kidney-shaped, some almost circular, all are partly hidden by mounds or guardian bunkers.
Most are elevated just a touch, with up-slopes to check a shot lacking in authority. Hence the popularity of the lay-up, chip-up; it’s generally a good bet to Pencross bent greens as slick as marble.
There are five sets of tees of the first rank and you simply won’t believe the fairways. At first sight you’ll be loath to take a divot!
Although it runs alongside the beach Palm Links is more a seaside parkland than links. It is easy walking, and carts and trolleys are available; caddies, too, by prior arrangement. Add a golf academy with a nine hole short course, a sumptuous clubhouse (lunch on the terrace is addictive) and you have all the ingredients for a memorable holiday. Make tracks for Monastir and you’ll be hooked at first sight.
The other golfing attraction hereabouts is the Flamingo course, also designed by Ronald Fream and Chris Pitman. This is a quite different proposition, in character more like a British downland course, with marked changes in elevation bringing high tees and pulpit greens. This serves to stretch the course and exacerbate the challenge, particularly when there’s a breeze coming off the nearby salt marshes. You’ll need to drive it well here, particularly if you choose the back tees. Flamingo gives nothing away.
The course condition doesn’t match the benchmark set by Palm Links (few courses do) but the greens are commendably sound, the subject of a total up-grade completed during my recent visit, as are the bunkers and tees. The fairways are passably good, poor lies will be rare and, most importantly, improvement is constantly afoot. Flamingo is great fun and good value, too.
This is a popular course in the high season (November to April) but if you can tear yourself away from Palm Links in the shoulder seasons Flamingo will bring an agreeable counterpoint to your holiday.
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