The Ryder Cup is in France, but where are the French?

"I was fortunate enough to attend Ryder Cups in Europe and in the United States," Grizot said. "And I was hit because the United States is the leading golf country in the world, but the Ryder Cup, when it was played outside of Chicago, you could not imagine when you were in Chicago that the Ryder Cup was played in the neighborhood. the last time in Minneapolis.

"So in Paris we tried to do it differently with this 10-day program. It is now or never, because after all we do, if there are no more golfers in France, we will unfortunately have a problem. "

A big Ryder Cup boost is far from certain

" Personally I do not see it ", said Gilles Jourdan, former director of the Open de France, the regular European Tour stop at Le Golf National. "I think they made a poor calculation because there is just so much work to do. I am a golfer, but. … "

He exhaled, as a homeowner looking at a flooded cellar, but Jourdan, who is now director of the expansion project for the French Open tennis tournament, thinks golf can get a long-term lift of the combined impact of the Ryder Cup and the Olympic Summer Games in Paris in 2024.

The Olympic golf tournament is also organized on the Albatross course of Le Golf National, the water course opened in 1990 and since then considerably has a lot of space and fine sightlines for spectators.

"That course was made to view," said Jourdan. "I've been to Ryder Cups where you're in the fifth row and you do not see anything . But the greens on this track are low and as a spectator you usually stand above them, so there is a lot of space, which is great. What it does not have is a lot of history. "

The Ryder Cup can fill that void, however, the event has been offering intercontinental sensations for more than 90 years, and although the French who feel their curiosity will not be able to take a Frenchman into action. See, they will probably look at someone more confidently.

"If there had been a French player, we would have been very happy in the federation," said Lasfargue. "But in France Tiger is for many people probably the only golfer they know. "