From here the über-macho treats include a 236-yard carry over a tidal pool at the 5th to a handkerchief of fairway, followed immediately by a 661-yard par-five threaded with waste bunkers and another 600-yarder at the dogleg 11th, bordering the beach. Indeed, the lovely loop of 11, 12 and 13, where the course opens up with views of the sharp volcanic peaks of the Bambous Mountains, is the favourite stretch of one Ryder Cup prospect, Raphael Jacquelin, who raved eloquently after becoming the first European tour pro, post Langer, to sample the layout.
High-handicappers wisely disregarding both the championship (blue) and tournament (white) tees will find some solace in the red boxes which, while taking the total down to a mere 5,000 yards, are deliberately dubbed ‘forward’ – rather than ‘ladies’ – in order to appease the many male takers. And there’s no shame in this (so we’re told), for while the more gentle angles and carries take the heat off the tee shots, there’s no hiding from the course’s most intense examination: the exacting approach shots to eyewateringly small and proudly placed greens.
Langer’s putting surfaces are mostly refreshingly flat and relatively straightforward to negotiate – once you’re on them. But almost every one here is cunningly sited, with the architect’s obvious obsession with elevated greens ranging from delicate Dornochstyle run-offs (as at the 1st, 10th, 15th and 17th) through to precarious citadels (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th, 9th and 11th) that would have graced the mighty PGA West or Kiawah Island Ocean Course.
While the bump-and-run recovery is largely precluded by the fluffy Seashore Paspallum grass, Donald Ross and Pete Dye would have admired Langer’s philosophy of so firmly reinstating the pitching-wedge as the most important club in the bag.
This time it’s your sense of touch that needs to be aroused. Perhaps it was down to Langer’s love of links golf, or maybe a reaction to the soulless, mega-sized surfaces of the many mediocre resorts that he’s been forced to face on tour.
But whatever club is in your hands, the One&Only
Le Touessrok Golf Course represents an intriguing test of course management skills, with hole names like Cat And

Mouse and Split Decision betraying Langer’s own tactical approach to golf. The latter, the par-five 4th, is the first of several risk/reward options. A bold drive flirting with the left-hand lake helps to avoid the vertical bank protecting the right side of the green, but the timid will face a breakwater-length line of lava eating into the ‘safe’ side of the fairway at driving distance, beyond which a controversial (semi-hidden) lake lurks to devour a sliced second shot.
And so the journey continues, with pitches over marshy inlets and teasing backward-tilting putting surfaces to set up an exhilarating three-hole finish where, at each, do-or-die drives over the mangroves will have you quaking in your FootJoys.
It would be trite to say there are 18 signature holes but certainly two-thirds of them are strikingly memorable, as you move between the extremes of the steamy, swampy 7th through to the driveable par-four 14th on the hilly high ground that is almost Gleneagles-with-palm-trees. Only the following par three, a plain pitch to a tiny green in a non-descript clearing, is a relatively weak ‘make-up’ hole, and even this could be readily improved through landscaping.
Along with the island’s deliberately downbeat commercial façade, the extraordinarily natural feel of course is light years removed from the overblown, impersonal architecture of so many modern multi-million dollar developments. This was assisted by having the financing structured independently of the site, ensuring that there are no villa projects here – or indeed a building of any description (apart from the discrete clubhouse) anywhere to mar the view. This creates another conundrum given that, on paper at least, this extraordinary course is obviously a commercially conceived venture affiliated to a luxury hotel chain pitching for tourist dollars (or Mauritian rupees) in a highly competitive climate.
The mastermind emerges as Sol Kerzner, the force behind South Africa’s lavish Sun City and the founder of the Million Dollar Golf Challenge. But here, with his $10 million-dollar challenge (the surprisingly modest total build cost), and the ultra-upmarket One&Only resort brand that made it possible, he has moved into a more rarified atmosphere. The finished project was also, paradoxically, helped by a protracted planning debate that lasted a full five years before permission was finally granted and, only then, subject to a string of environmental conditions. The eco-friendly stipulations protecting the wetlands, beaches, indigenous trees and, most crucially, banning the dynamiting of the ubiquitous volcanic lava could have stopped the project dead in its tracks. But Langer has used this to his advantage, for example, at the short 3rd, where he boldly sited the green atop a 20-foot mound of rock that was prevented from being flattened.
Miss it at your peril.