Golf Club du Domaine Imperial Est. 1987

Usually rated Switzerland's best golf course, Domaine Imperial's prestigious reputation is based on strong credentials. Located on the shoreline of Lake Geneva, the palatial clubhouse was originally built for a Bonaparte Prince, while the excellently maintained course is the product of a rare Pete Dye design excursion into Europe. Although the layout provides only one lake view, from the 18th green, two contrasting nines provide plenty of absorbing golf. For many, the front-nine is the most challenging and scenic, played through a charming woodland of towering, mature trees. The variety of flora is stunning, with several pleasing green-to-tee strolls through the woodland. At the par-4 9th the layout transforms to a more open and modern parkland style, where earthmounding and smaller trees define the holes. Big hitters will feel more at home on this inward nine. In trademark Dye fashion the bunkers are many and varied, often mischievously concealed by grass-lined bunker walls. Long ribbon-like sand traps line several fairways; around the greens a mix of pot bunkers, coffin-style traps and deep conventional bunkers are joined by grassy mounds and hollows, and slick run-off areas. Although a very pleasant stream meanders around some of the front-nine, threatening water hazards are largely absent, with the exception of a large pond that protects the latter stages of the par-5 16th. Two mid-length front-nine par-3s, are complemented by two short par-3s on the back-nine, the 12th played to a heavily bunkered plateau green, the downhill 15th to a slender putting surface.