The championship golf courses of Mauritius — a designer-by-designer guide

Seven championship layouts. Five resorts. Five designers. One of them did two of the courses, twenty miles and four years apart.

If you are working out which Mauritius championship golf courses warrant the flight, this is the piece to read before you start the spreadsheet. The island is small, roughly 65 kilometres long, and inside that footprint sit seven 18-hole championship layouts by five designers of real pedigree. Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer, Peter Matkovich (twice, the second time alongside Louis Oosthuizen), Hugh Baiocchi, and Rodney Wright (also twice, on opposite coasts). I am Simon Crawley, on GPH’s Mauritius desk, and clients tend to tell me which holes they remembered on the flight home. See all our Mauritius golf packages, or read on for the working guide.

Why seven championship courses on a small island works

Mauritius is a volcanic island in the south-west Indian Ocean, ringed by a barrier reef that flattens the lagoon into glass. The east coast (Belle Mare, Beau Champ) gets the trade winds and the wider lagoons. The south coast at Bel Ombre sits against the UNESCO Man-and-Biosphere Reserve, so you play past indigenous forest rather than retail estate. The west coast around Tamarin is the dry side, mountain-edged. Stay on one coast and you can play three designers’ courses inside a week. Split a stay across two resorts and you play five. Drives are short: 30 to 65 minutes from SSR airport depending on coast.

Every course on this list is owned by the resort beside it. No pay-and-play municipals, no scruffy second tracks. Hotel guests get green fees included or heavily reduced on their home course, and reciprocal play between resorts is normal courtesy. So the answer to “where do I stay” is the same as the answer to “which designers do I most want to play.”

Five major designers. Seven championship courses. One island, sixty-five kilometres long. There is nowhere else in the Indian Ocean with this density of design pedigree.

1. Tamarina Golf Club — Rodney Wright’s west-coast layout

On the west coast, at the foot of Mount Rempart, sits Tamarina Hotel & Golf Estate with its on-site Tamarina Golf Club. Designer: Rodney Wright. Par 72, 6,886 m from the tips, opened 2006. Eighteen holes across 206 hectares of dry savannah and old hunting estate, five teeing options. The 7th gives you the photograph, with Mount Rempart over your right shoulder and Tamarin Bay below.

This is the most open and exposed of the Mauritius layouts. Drier, more wind, fewer manicured edges. Tamarina guests also get reciprocal green-fee access at a string of west-coast hotels (Sugar Beach, Sofitel So Mauritius, Maradiva, Hilton, La Pirogue, Paradis Beachcomber), which gives you a second-course rotation without leaving the coast. The clubhouse is Le Dix-Neuf, and it does proper Mauritian food: arouille fritters, bol renversé, prawn curry, with the 18th green and Mount Rempart out the window.

Where to stay to play it: Tamarina Hotel & Golf Estate is the only on-site option. 49 rooms on a single floor on Tamarin Bay, with the beach club at La Preneuse a short shuttle away.  |  From £649pp for 7 nights half-board with daily golf (all-inclusive upgrade from £805pp).

Signature view: the 7th, with Mount Rempart and Tamarin Bay framing the green.

2. The Ernie Els Course at Anahita / The Bay Club

Cross to the east coast and you arrive at Anahita Golf & Spa Resort, now The Bay Club at Anahita under Sunlife. The on-site course is Ernie Els’s first Mauritius design, the Ernie Els Course at Anahita. Designer: Ernie Els. Par 72, opened 2008, USGA standards, six tee options, draped between lagoon and estate.

Els named four signature holes on the card, which is an unusually confident bit of routing. They are worth knowing before you play:

• #4 Ocean Drive. Par 5, 500 metres. The lagoon-edge hole. The green sits with the water on your right the whole way in.
• #10 Coconut Grove. Par 4 with an elevated green. The approach shot punishes a thin strike.
• #17 Turquoise Lagoon. Par 3, 144 metres. The postcard hole, with Île aux Cerfs across the water behind the flag.
• #18 Sugar Estate Ruins. Par 5, 500 metres. Finishing past the literal stone ruins of the old plantation.

The 17th view tells you something about east-coast golf here. From Anahita’s terrace you can see the next course on this list, Bernhard Langer’s island layout across the lagoon. Stay here and the standard package includes unlimited play on both, which is the combination most experienced players come for. Our guide to playing Île aux Cerfs from Anahita sets out the practicalities.

Where to stay to play it: Anahita Golf & Spa Resort (The Bay Club at Anahita) is lagoon-front (not classic beach-front), 30–40 minutes from SSR, Junior Suites 60 m² and up.  |  From £775pp for 7 nights bed and breakfast with unlimited play on both Anahita and Île aux Cerfs (all-inclusive upgrade from £1,619pp).

3. Île aux Cerfs Golf Club — Bernhard Langer’s island course

Île aux Cerfs is the small island off the east coast you can see from Anahita’s terrace. Bernhard Langer designed the course that occupies its southern half, the Île aux Cerfs Golf Club. Designer: Bernhard Langer. Par 72, 38 hectares, four tee options from 5,054 yards forward to 7,115 from the Langer tips (Championship 6,576, Tournament 5,992).

Seashore Paspalum grass throughout, which is the right choice for this environment. Nine natural ponds. Volcanic-rock outcrops where Langer routed around the topography rather than blasting through it, and endemic flora left in place. Lagoon views from all eighteen holes, and the claim holds up.

You reach it by a 24-seater shuttle from the Pointe Maurice jetty, every twenty minutes or so, between 06:40 and 17:30. All green fees include the boat transfer. The clubhouse is Langer’s Bar & Grill, named for the designer, with the island’s only restaurant view of the par-3 17th approach. Air Mauritius will fly you in by helicopter if you would rather skip the shuttle. For the full how-to-play guide, see Île aux Cerfs Golf Club — how to play.

Where to stay to play it: Anahita Golf & Spa Resort (The Bay Club at Anahita). The package includes both Anahita and Île aux Cerfs unlimited.  |  From £775pp for 7 nights bed and breakfast.

4. Le Château Golf Course — Peter Matkovich at Heritage

South coast, Bel Ombre estate, 2,500 hectares of restored sugar territory adjoining a UNESCO Man-and-Biosphere Reserve. The first of Heritage’s two courses is the Le Château Golf Course. Designer: Peter Matkovich. 18-hole championship, five teeing options. Named for the 19th-century Le Château de Bel Ombre, the restored colonial building on the hilltop, now a restaurant under Michelin-starred consulting chef Christian Têtedoie.

Matkovich’s routing is the more conventional of the two Heritage courses. Parkland feel, sugar-estate scenery, the kind of layout where a strong driver gets rewarded but a thinker can still card a good number. The Heritage practice hub sits beside Le Château: double-ended driving range, 1,000 m² putting green, chipping area, nine-hole short course, PGA pros on hand. This is the working course most guests play three or four times in a week, keeping one round for the headliner next door.

Where to stay to play it: Heritage Le Telfair Golf & Wellness Resort (5★) on direct beach access at Bel Ombre, or its all-inclusive sister Heritage Awali. Both courses included on both stays.  |  From £889pp at Le Telfair (7 nights bed and breakfast with both Heritage courses; all-inclusive upgrade from £1,445pp). From £939pp at Heritage Awali (7 nights all-inclusive).

5. La Réserve Golf Links — the headliner, Matkovich + Oosthuizen

The headliner. La Réserve Golf Links opened on 1 December 2023, co-designed by Peter Matkovich and Louis Oosthuizen, and billed as “the first and only contemporary links course in the Indian Ocean.” It is the newest course of real note built anywhere in this part of the world. The awards have come in order:

• World’s Best New Golf Course 2024
• Indian Ocean’s Best Golf Course 2025 (World Golf Awards)
• Golfweek No.1 in Africa / 28th worldwide, 2026
• GEO Certified (sustainability gold standard)

It sits alongside the UNESCO Man-and-Biosphere Reserve within the Bel Ombre estate, links character framed by indigenous southern forest rather than coastal dunes. Heritage Le Telfair was named World’s Best Golf Hotel 2025 at the same World Golf Awards. Both Heritage Le Telfair and Heritage Awali guests play it as part of the standard package. Full course detail in our La Réserve Golf Links guide.

La Réserve is the newest course of real note built anywhere in the Indian Ocean. Golfweek ranks it No.1 in Africa for 2026.

Where to stay to play it: Heritage Le Telfair Golf & Wellness Resort (5★, bed and breakfast) or Heritage Awali (5★ all-inclusive). Both share the Bel Ombre estate. Both include unlimited play on La Réserve and Le Château.  |  From £889pp at Le Telfair (bed and breakfast, 7 nights, both courses).

6. The Legend Course at Constance Belle Mare Plage — Hugh Baiocchi’s forest layout

Back to the east coast. Constance Belle Mare Plage is the senior name in Mauritius golf resorts. 2 km of Belle Mare beach, founded 1975, two on-site championship courses, and free green fees on both for hotel guests. The first is The Legend, designed by South African tour pro Hugh Baiocchi. Par 72. 6,018 metres. Opened 1994.

The setting gives The Legend its character. It runs through indigenous forest, old deer-hunting woodland the resort has kept largely intact, rather than the casuarina avenues the postcards suggest. Two signature holes anchor the round: the par-3 17th, played to a semi-island green over water, and the par-5 18th, with its peninsular green visible from the clubhouse terrace.

The Legend has a working tournament record. It hosts the MCB Mauritius Legends (Legends Tour) each December and has staged the MCB Ladies Classic Mauritius on the Ladies European Tour (€400k purse, Solheim Cup qualifying points). A course pros come to play, not a resort showpiece.

Where to stay to play it: Constance Belle Mare Plage (5★). 278 keys, 2 km of beachfront, 8 restaurants, Sisley spa, resort-wide refurbishment completed March 2025.  |  From £919pp for 7 nights half-board with unlimited play on both Belle Mare courses (all-inclusive upgrade from £1,689pp, buggies included on that tier).

7. The Links Course at Constance Belle Mare Plage — Rodney Wright’s east-coast hand

The second course at Belle Mare Plage is The Links. Designers: Rodney Wright with Peter Alliss. Par 71, 5,942 m, opened November 2002. The name is partly aspirational, as this is not a coastal links. But the routing has its own logic: inland lakes, lagoon glimpses, volcanic rock outcrops, elevated greens, and a finish on the 18th beside an old lime kiln. The 15th gives the only proper lagoon view of the round.

Green fees are included for hotel guests. Buggies cost extra unless you have booked the all-inclusive upgrade. The Golf Academy and practice fairway are at The Links, with lessons under the resident pros up at The Legend. Two courses, one resort, no transfer between them.

Where to stay to play it: Constance Belle Mare Plage. Same package covers both courses.  |  From £919pp for 7 nights half-board.

The Rodney Wright connection

Worth pausing on. Rodney Wright is the only designer with two championship courses on Mauritius, and they could not sit further apart geographically. The Links at Belle Mare on the east coast, opened November 2002 (with Peter Alliss consulting). Tamarina on the west coast, opened 2006. Same designer’s hand, four years apart, two completely different landscapes. East-coast lagoon-edge inland links one side, west-coast mountain-foot savannah the other.

Playing both inside the same trip is the closest thing the island offers to a designer study. You see how Wright answered two different briefs four years apart. Most clients who do the two-centre Mauritius trip build it around this pairing. Logistics in our two-centre Mauritius golf itinerary.

The seven courses, in pictures

Which course suits which traveller

The honest matrix, drawn from what clients say when they come home:

Traveller type	Course recommendation	Stay at	From
Awards chaser / freshest-course collector	La Réserve Golf Links, Golfweek No.1 in Africa 2026	Heritage Le Telfair	£889pp Bed & breakfast
Big-name-designer hunter	Ernie Els at Anahita plus Bernhard Langer at Île aux Cerfs (two majors winners’ work, both included)	Anahita / The Bay Club	£775pp Bed & breakfast
Tournament-pedigree traditionalist	The Legend, Legends Tour plus LET stops, indigenous-forest setting	Belle Mare Plage	£919pp Half-board
Two-courses-on-one-property convenience	Legend plus Links at Belle Mare, or Le Château plus La Réserve at Heritage	Belle Mare or Heritage	From £889pp
Mountain-and-bay break, west coast	Tamarina plus reciprocal play at seven west-coast hotels	Tamarina	£649pp Half-board
Designer-study traveller (two-centre)	Belle Mare Plage plus Tamarina, Rodney Wright on both coasts	Two-centre east + west	From £649 / £919pp
One round in a lifetime	Île aux Cerfs: Langer, island course, paspalum, lagoon views from all 18	Anahita	£775pp Bed & breakfast (Île aux Cerfs included)
All-inclusive, no-decisions golf week	Heritage stack: both Heritage courses plus free-flow drinks, food, spa credit	Heritage Awali	£939pp All-inclusive

Simon’s quick take

• Best for: the researcher who wants to know who designed what, where it sits, and which hotel package includes which course before they commit.
• Worth knowing: hotel guests pay no green fee on their home course at Belle Mare, Tamarina, Heritage and Anahita. Buggies are usually extra unless you have upgraded to all-inclusive. Belle Mare’s all-inclusive tier includes buggies on both courses, and it is the only package that does.
• Simon’s tip: if you want one trip to cover everything, split a fortnight on the east coast. A week at Anahita for Els and Langer, a week at Belle Mare Plage for Baiocchi and Wright. That is four named designers in fourteen nights without changing islands. For how the logistics work, see our two-centre itinerary guide and the all-inclusive vs half-board breakdown.

For the wider destination picture see our Mauritius destination page, or the rest of the cluster: Île aux Cerfs — how to play, La Réserve Golf Links, the two-centre Mauritius golf itinerary, and the all-inclusive golf in Mauritius breakdown.

By Simon Crawley, Manager, Golf Planet Holidays · 27 Years in Golf Travel.