Golf de Loudun-Roiffe

Played again this year. Course is looking and playing much better. Is made challenging by some long rough which penalises anything off the straight. Good fun to play and still remarkably quiet.

Oh dear! We've been playing this course every year for about five years now and my earlier comments have always applied. Sadly, this year the greens are deteriorating badly. They still run true and quite fast but they are clearly not being maintained and the surfaces are beginning to go. The fairways looked like the rough on my home course and clearly were being mowed only once a week (if that) and all around is the look of neglect. Where once there was a positive army of greenkeeping staff, this year there appear to be just three. It's all very sad. I understand the club is now in new hands and is linked with an expensive hotel in a nearby village. I hope they invest some money quickly into a recovery programme or I fear there will be no course to play on when we return next year.

Played this course four times last week while on holiday in the area. Did the same last year. Immensely enjoyable and incredibly quiet - often seemed to have the whole course to ourselves. Mostly open parkland but some wooded areas make the odd drive a bit tight - especially on the 1st. Best feature - the magnificent greens. Superb condition, well built on sand/grit and watered so that the ball stops on a sixpence (sorry, a Euro). If you can't put on these.... Fairways and tees are a little more agricultural, but all in all, this is a good course well worth a visit.