Alsace Golf Club, Selestat, (67). (1925 - 1939)

The club was created in 1925, three quarters of a mile from Strasbourg. Lucien Desports was the professional at the time. The clubhouse was built in the art deco style.

 

Golf d’Alsace, Selestat, Golf Guide 1929.

Golf Club Guide 1929.

 

Golf d’Alsace, Selestat. The clubhouse.

The impressive clubhouse.

 

Thanks to Christoph Meister for the following text and pictures.

The golf club was founded at Sélestat in 1925. The long-forgotten course was situated 1.2 km south-west of Sélestat (German: Schlettstadt) city-centre, only 800m from the central railway station which was situated on the Basel – Strasbourg line.

When the prefect addressed the founders of Golf Club d’Alsace during the inauguration of the golf course at Sélestat-Galgenfeld on 2 May 1926 he stated that « Sélestat today deserves the title of a sport mecca envied by many larger and richer cities »

Thanks to its initiator, promoter and patron, Senator Lazare Weiller this became the first golf course in Alsace (that of Saint-Louis next to the Swiss boarder at Basel wasopened in 1927 only and run by the Swiss Basel Golf Club – see also in the Switzerland section of this website). Proof is given by a handwritten text from found 1948 in the guestbook of the Sélestat golf club, which is unsigned but very well informed, evokes the realization of the project : “Lazare Weiller and René Debrix were having lunch on 17 September 1924 at the table of the Marquise de Loÿs-Chandieu, at the Château de la Roberstau, in Strasbourg, when the senator (Lazarre Weiller) told his hostess about his wish to create a golf course in Alsace. This remark was received by Mr. Debrix, who was the director then president of the Société Générale Alsacienne de Banque, known as Sogenal, from 1919 to 1955), with enthusiasm.A project to create a public limited company for the purpose of developing a golf course was drawn up. On 14 March 1925, the Golf d'Alsace Real Estate Company was established at Sélestat."

During the inauguration, 300 people gathered for a lunch at the clubhouse, among which stood out several generals from Alsace, the prefect Borromée, many industrialistsfrom the region, like Schlumberger, the director of the Swiss Golf Association, as well as the Polish and British consuls

An individual stroke play was held the day before on the golf course, whereas the medal play to be held on Sunday was then interrupted by a storm.

In his opening speech, President Paul Lazare Weiller explained that he tended to a higher end than the mere personal pleasure of having a golf course at his disposal. The idea was to attract Anglo-Saxonstourists par excellence, not only for short stays, but in order to fix them for long stays. Additionally, he hoped that the railways of Alsace-Lorraine, in full agreement with the hotel industry of Alsace, will help to build one of these large hotels which are a necessary element for modern tourism.

On 36 hectares, the Sélestat golf course had nine holes plus three training holes (two par threes and one par four). It was planned to extend the course to 18 holes. The course had 80 hazards, scattered on the ground sufficiently undulated to spice up players' progress. The course had a scratch score of 37 and a bogey of 40 (for 9 holes) playing over 3,002m, Lucien Desportes was the first professional.

A source form 1931 states, that the earth dries up quickly, thanks to its grass and good drainage.

By 1931, the Golf Club d’Alsace at Sélestat had more than 150 members – this number decreased to less than sixty by 1939. The French revue « La Vie en Alsace » states in 1939 that - between Nancy and Basel, there was only one golf course at Sélestat very attractive but a little too far for tourists staying at Strasbourg as well as for golfers living there. Hence in 1935 the Strasbourg Golf Club, which still exists today, was set up at Illkirch-Graffenstaden. This was the beginning of the end of the golf course at Sélestat, which ceased to function in 1939.

The clubhouse is still around today, even though the Art-Deco elements have been eliminated. The current owner bought the house 30 years ago and he told us, that after the war the house was occupied by German PoW’s.

 

 

Alsace Golf Club, Selestat, (67). Railways of d'Alsace and de Lorraine.

 

Alsace Golf Club, Selestat, (67). The original Art-Deco Clubhouse.

 

Alsace Golf Club, Selestat, (67). The clubhouse is now a private residence.

 

Christoph Meister, December 2019.