La Reserve Golf Links, Mauritius: I Hated It. Then I Loved It.
- Gunnar Kobin
- Mar 26
- 4 min read
Let me tell you about the caddie master at the La Reserve Golf
I arrived on what looked like a sunny morning at the Heritage Golf Club in Bel Ombre, ready to play the new La Reserve Links. The caddie master greeted me, looked at the sky with the expression of someone who knows something you don't, and suggested I might want to consider starting from the 6th tee. Something about rain up high. I didn't quite follow. I thanked him, nodded in the vague way you nod when you don't really understand what's been said, and got in the buggy.
By the time I reached the first tee I was inside a cloud.
The Arrival
La Reserve is exclusive to guests of Heritage Telfair and Heritage Awali in Bel Ombre. No day visitors, no outside bookings. The first tee is three kilometres from the clubhouse and the buggy ride takes fifteen to twenty minutes straight uphill. On a clear day this journey is spectacular — the terrain opens out, the ocean appears below and widens as you climb, and by the time you reach the top you feel like you've earned the view.
On my first visit, there was no view. There was a grey wet cloud and a starter offering what I believe was rum, possibly whisky — my memory of the specifics is affected by what followed — and the faint sound of the Indian Ocean somewhere far below in a different weather system entirely.
The drink helped. The round did not begin well.
The First Five Holes
La Réserve was designed by Louis Oosthuizen and Peter Matkovich and opened in December 2023. The course descends 190 metres from that first tee down to the clubhouse, playing across elevated former sugarcane fields that have been replanted with native grasses, pot bunkers positioned in inconvenient places, and infinity greens that tip toward the ocean when the visibility allows you to see them. Which it did not, on this occasion.
The 2nd hole is a par 4 that I found genuinely maddening. Narrow fairway, long enough that hitting an iron off the tee to find it is the sensible play, but the hole is then so long that an iron off the tee makes par essentially theoretical. You're choosing between a driver that might not find the fairway and an iron that definitely won't make the green in regulation. In a raincloud, in wind that's coming from a direction the hole wasn't designed for, hitting to a target you can't clearly see, this felt less like golf and more like something designed to specifically frustrate me.
The 3rd hole requires a tee shot aimed at the sky. Not metaphorically. The green is high above you and you're hitting up at it on a steep approach with the target somewhere near the clouds. In sunshine, with the ball flight visible against a blue sky, I understand this is dramatic and interesting. In an actual cloud, pointing a club roughly upwards and swinging, it is neither of those things.
By the time I reached the 5th tee I had said several things I won't repeat here. The caddie master's gentle suggestion about starting from the 6th suddenly made a great deal of sense.
Coming off the 5th and dropping toward lower ground, something shifted. The cloud thinned slightly. The wind eased for a moment. I could see the fairway. I started to calm down, the way you calm down when a situation that was genuinely bad starts to feel merely difficult.
Then came the 8th.
The 8th Hole
Split fairway, large waste area guarding the green, mounding that channels or rejects the ball depending entirely on the line you chose. In good conditions this is a proper strategic par 4 that asks a real question. In my first round it was another occasion for swearing. I went the wrong side, found the waste area, and walked off the green having taken a number that I won't disclose.
I finished the round. Barely. I was surprised to learn, afterwards, that this was an Oosthuizen design — the man who has one of the most controlled ball flights in professional golf apparently builds courses that reward exactly that and punish those of us who don't have it. It made a kind of sense once I'd stopped being annoyed.
The Second Round
A few days later, with sunshine from the very first tee, I played it again.
Same holes. Same fairways. Same pot bunkers. The 2nd was still narrow and the 3rd still aimed at the sky and the 8th still had the waste area in exactly the wrong place for the line I wanted to take. It was a completely different course.
The reason, I think, is visibility. Links golf — proper links golf — is designed to be read visually as much as anything else. You need to see where the slopes go, where the wind is taking the ball, where the ground will feed your approach. In a cloud you're playing the card and hoping. In sunshine at La Réserve you can see how the fairways funnel, why the bunkers are where they are, how the green on the 3rd is actually accessible if you hit the right shape. The 8th hole, which had infuriated me, revealed itself as a genuine risk-reward decision once I could see both options clearly. I loved it. Not in a polite, this-was-a-nice-round way. Properly loved it, in the way you love a course that gives you back exactly what you put in.
A Few Practical Notes
The rough is genuinely penal and not to be trifled with. The greens are fast with real movement and several are infinity-style — they appear to run off toward the ocean and the visual effect on downhill putts is unsettling in the best way. Choose your tees carefully; the championship yardage in wind is serious golf.
The clubhouse is excellent — volcanic stone design, terrace over the 18th, food that lives up to the surroundings. And do consider starting from the 6th if there's cloud up high and you don't have a second round in you. The caddie master knows what he's talking about.
Is It Worth It?
Yes. Emphatically. It's currently ranked number one in Mauritius by Top 100 Golf Courses, and after two rounds I understand why. The first round might not be enjoyable in any conventional sense, especially if the weather turns on you. The second one will make up for it.
Book it. Budget for two rounds. And listen to the caddie master.
Comments