37 Blues attacking Pont Royal

The Golf de Pont Royal is hosting the fourth edition of the Hopps Open de Provence this week. 37 Tricolores will be at the start, among them 9 who played last week at the Cazoo Open de France like the amateur Martin Couvra (photo).

Nathan CARDET, at Pont Royal

The Challenge Tour stopover in France one last time this week and it is in the magnificent setting of the Domaine de Pont Royal that the players have put down their suitcases. The challenge for the 126 entrants is to tame the splendid and only route signed by Severiano Ballesteros in France.

Located at the foot of the village Pierre and Holidays built at the same time as the golf course, the course; opened 30 years ago, is indeed not to be taken lightly. Even if it is rather short (6327 meters from the quarter notes), this par 72 has some surprises in store.

« There are three different parts on the coursedescribe Jerome LaurediDirector of Golf. From 2 to 5, these are flat holes with wind against, a little fleeing, with parts of water. From 6 to 13, we are on the plateau, oddly there is less wind because there are no corridors but the holes are more tortured. These are doglegs, generally a little shorter, very strategic holes. Then from 14 to 18, we are in corridors of trees, with out of bounds, narrow fairways where the fault happens quickly and that adds pressure.».

37 Blues at the start

37 French people will take part in this tournament, the promoter of which is Julien Nazarian surrounded by his team of Pro Sports Events. Like the majority of the events of the season, the total prize pool reaches €250,000 (€40,000 for the winner).

Among the representatives of French golf, note the presence of the three members of the top 20 of the Road to Mallorca qualifier for the DP World Tour : Robin Sciot-Siegrist (9e)Clement Sordet (11th) and Jeong Weon Ko (17e).

Second last weekend at Swiss Challenge, Ko is the hottest player right now with his 5 top 10s in 7 outings

He also ejected Pierre Pineau (21st) coveted places. The winner of the Portuguese Open in the play-off at the expense of David Ravetto et Felix Mory (also present this week), had skipped last week, preferring to line up at theOpen the France. It was good for him since he made the cut for his first career on the DP World Tour (50e).

I feel like there’s a way to do something right now

Martin Couvra

They are a total of nine to have made the trip directly from the Golf National.

In particular the two amateurs, Nathan Legendre et Martin Couvra (they shared a practice game with the experienced Sebastien Gros under the eyes of the French coach Benoît Teiller this Wednesday morning).

Very prominent like all the members of the French team in GuyancourtCouvra knows he is expected after his great week on theAlbatross.

« Inevitably I will be more expected, my expectations will also be higherconfirms the member of theFrench men’s team at the last amateur World Championships. I’ll try to manage, and try to do my best as usual. All the compartments of the game are in place the face-offs are starting to be very good, I feel really good so I have the feeling that there is a way to do something right now ».

Martin Couvra with Benoît Teilleria Nathan Cardet/Golf Planète

At some point it will turn, and why not this week

Mathieu Decottignies-Lafon

Also present atOpen the France, Mathieu Decottignies-Lafon suffered over the weekend. In the top 10 after two laps, he left Guyancourt on two terribly frustrating cards 74 (+3) on Saturday and 77 (+6) on Sunday which left him with a bitter taste.

« The weekend was hard to digest because I didn’t feel like I was playing badly, I just felt like I couldn’t scoredwells on the current 79th of the Road to Mallorca. It’s a period like that, it’s very frustrating and I see that the results aren’t progressing even though I’m doing great things. I just have to keep trying to do even more beautiful things, better manage this feeling of frustration that this sport can cause. I play well, I put things in place so that everything improves, at some point it will turn. So why not this week ! ».

©Nathan Cardet/Golf Planète