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Etretat Golf Club was founded in 1908, mainly at the initiative, like so many sea_side courses in France (Wimereux, Hardelot, Dieppe, Dinard, Biarritz), of British visitors coming to spend their summers on the French coasts. In fact, the first president of the golf club was Bernard Forbes, 8th earl of Granard, and other pairs of the Crown are counted among the very first honorary members of the club: Lord Denman, who was to become vice-governor of Australia, and Lord Wodehouse, baron of Kimberley.
The course, at first only 13 holes (it was necessary to replay the first 5 to complete 18 holes, over approximately 4300m) was designed by Julien Chantepie, architect of La Boulie near Paris, in collaboration with Arnaud Massy, a professional golfer who to this day is the only Frenchman to have won the Open (in 1907 at Hoylake) and who finished his career teaching in Etretat. |
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| Terrace of the club house about 1910 |
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On land rented from Mr.Dubosc, owner of the nearby château de Fréfossé, in Le Tilleul, soon rose an imposing pavilion, on the site of the current 11th green. You could only reach this first club-house by foot and the five o'clock tea could be enjoyed there, taking in the same spectacular views which enchant today's visitors. Cutting the grass in those days was left mainly to grazing sheep.
Many improvements were made after the Great War, under the impulse of the Société Foncière du Casino which, in order to attract more customers, took control of the Golf club but also of the Lawn-Tennis club (famous even before the Golf and founded more or less by the same persons). It is true that with the progress of transport, either by rail or by road, Étretat was just under 4 hours from Paris. |
During that period, a new club-house was built, directly above the Dormy House hôtel as it stands today (the old one was simply demolished), the course extended to 18 holes and access by automobile was arranged from the road to Le Havre. Following the bankruptcy of Société Foncière du Casino, the Association Sportive du Golf d'Etretat took over in 1937, with financial support from Mr. Dubosc, under the guidance of Jacques Compère and a few other "old pebbles", such as Albert Mouchet, Maxime Lindon, to mention only two.
The 1939-45 war could have sounded the end of the golf club, as its installations were ransacked and the grounds mined. It was without counting on the obstinacy of Mr. Compère, who succeeded in obtaining war damages and even the labour of prisoners of war who did the mine clearance. As it re-opened, in 1949, the club-house also welcomed the members of Le Havre GC, then deprived of their course … When Mr. Dubosc, untiring banker of the golf club, left the area in 1958, the members banded together to finance the re-purchase of the land … eventually carried out on better terms by the town of Étretat, in exchange for a long-term lease. This agreement, and with it the efforts of the Association to maintain and develop the club, have never faltered since.
Deeply modified in 1992, the course now stretches over 6 kilometres, offers a variety of play and landscapes apt to charm the amateurs, as well as a gourmet restaurant in its renovated club-house, accessible to all… except to our four legged friends. Through its twinning (since 1985) with the English club of Hockley, close to Winchester (Hockley Golf Club), Etretat golf club perpetuates the cross-Channel tradition of alliance which presided over its birth and to this day remains a living witness to the golden age of Etretat. |
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