Céline Boutier during the third day of the Solheim Cup 2023, at the Finca Cortesin golf club, in Casares (Spain), September 24, 2023. JORGE GUERRERO / AFP
The setting is idyllic. With her back to the imposing half-timbered facade of the Hôtel du Golf, in Deauville (Calvados), perched two meters above the ground on a large glass platform from which she can see the coastline in the distance, Céline Boutier is preparing to perform her first swing. The Lacoste Ladies Open de France had not yet started on Wednesday September 27 when the excitement was already being felt.
On the eve of the start of the competition, the golfer participated in the Pro-Am, a tournament organized by one of the sponsors of the event and which is played by teams made up of one professional and three amateurs. As soon as she arrived on the greens, the young woman attracted the attention of dozens of people present. “ I am happy to meet the French public again”rejoiced Céline Boutier to the Monde, who met her earlier in the day.
Thursday September 28 marks the start of the 33rd edition of the French Open, which takes place for the second time on the Diane-Barrière course. The world number 5 completed the first round in -1, five shots more than the provisional leader, the German Laura Fuenfstueck. “I don’t often have the opportunity to play in France, so it’s always a very special tournament”, she said before the tournament.
“The competition motivated me to work”
The young woman from Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine) left France in 2012. With her baccalaureate in hand, she decided to continue her studies in North Carolina, at Duke University. “It allowed me to develop physically and psychologically”, argues the one who, four years later, turned professional. Since then, the 29-year-old golfer has won five tournaments on the European circuit – and as many on the American tour – including a major, that of Evian-les-Bains (Haute-Savoie) in August, becoming only the third of her compatriots to achieve this performance.
However, nothing predestined her to hold the greatest prize list in French golf. If she hit her first white balls thanks to her father, a passionate amateur player, Céline Boutier assures that, in the first years, she was not “not strong at all”. “I was even very often last in competitions. » This pushes her to redouble her efforts to reach a better level. “The competition motivated me to work, it’s a habit that I developed very early on in order to be able to progress. Seeing the progress and results encouraged me to continue”retrace-t-elle.
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