Le Golf National set to provide a different challenge to that at the 2018 Ryder Cup

Mark McGowan

30th July 2024

The 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National is the best example of a golf course being set up to favour the home side as the famously narrow fairways of the Parisian course were bordered on each side by thick, unforgiving, and ungraded rough that measured over four inches in length.

Phil Mickelson, one of the most creative players in the game’s history and notoriously prone to being wild off the tee, called it “virtually unplayable” and the six-time major champion featured in just one of the paired matches – the afternoon Foursomes on day one – and the singles and was routed in both.

None of the 12 Americans who formed Team USA in 2018 are in the Olympic field, and just Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood of Team Europe are present, but Le Golf National superintendent Lucas Pierre, speaking to Golf Digest, has promised that the course setup at the Olympic Games will not mirror that at the 2018 Ryder Cup, even though the fairway widths will remain the same.

“For the Ryder Cup, the course was very narrow with the natural rough much closer to the fairway,” Pierre said. “It will be opened a bit more for the Olympics.”

Le Golf National will now have three levels of graded rough, with that closest to the fairway measuring 2.5 inches, increasing to 3.5 inches further away, and the 4+ inch length that was a constant at the Ryder Cup only catching the most errant of shots.

Quite who this will favour this week is yet to be seen, but the devilishly difficult course will still be much more forgiving when approach shots are being taken from the fairways.

With just three days in between the completion of the men’s event and the start of the women’s, the fear that the natural wear and tear – primarily divots – from the men’s tournament would impact the women’s event are wide of the mark according to Pierre and International Golf Federation executive director Antony Scanlon.

“Because they don’t play from the same tees the landing area will hopefully differ,” Pierre said. “There are some holes the players will have the same landing area, but people must understand we only have 60 men then 60 women, a field of 120 people. When we have the French Open sometimes, we have a field of 160 guys at once, so trust me, 160 guys, make more of a mess than 60 men. So, managing the course for both men and women is feasible.”