EN - Magazine (Online Magazine) - Flipbook - Page 76
|GOLF
LA RESERVE
LINKS WITH
NATURE
Text: Martin Coulon • Illustrations: Caroline Martial
The construction of the reserve’s new golf course is well
underway. While the plans drawn up by Peter Matkovich
and Louis Oosthuizen are designed to provide an outstanding
golfing experience, they are particularly focused on the course’s full
integration within its surroundings.
The track leading there is not in very good shape. On a dirt track that just
seems to go on climbing, our four-by-four bounces all over the place. In the
bright sunshine, the Indian Ocean bursts into view in the rear-view mirrors.
In front lies the unspoilt greenery on the lush slopes of the Heritage Nature
Reserve. The outline of a first digger appears in the distance. Another set of
mechanical jaws looms as we reach the summit of the estate. The four-byfour grinds to a halt, and only the noise from the site’s machinery disturbs the
silence of the place.
A short walk along the course-to-be and an amazing spectacle appears. From
the platform which will form the starting point of the island’s new golfing
treasure, the view is breath-taking. There is an unbroken line of sight right
down to the distant ocean. The whole area of the Reserve’s future golf course
is a mass of greenery. There’s something truly spellbinding about the sheer
beauty of the landscape.
Peter Matkovich, the South African architect of the Reserve’s course-to-be,
gazes across the countryside with his hands on his hips. “It’s fantastic, isn’t it?”
he utters, a slight smile on his lips. “I never tire of the view even though I’ve
been working here for quite some time now.” It is indeed impossible not to
succumb to the raw charm of an area nestling between the hills and the sea,
linking pristine Mauritian forest land and a picture-postcard lagoon.
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