Paris 2024: A round with Victor Perez amid the chilled-out French

When it comes to golf, the French aren't particularly bothered it would seem, with a survey carried out by the European Golf Course Owners Association in 2018 stating that 10% of French people follow golf. Just over 400,000 of the country's 66 million citizens play the sport and most do it to relax.

Professionally, the country has produced some players of note over the years. Golf historians will know of Arnaud Massy, France's only major winner, who was victorious at Royal Liverpool in 2007. Thomas Levet, who was in a play-off for the Open at Muirfield in 2002, Raphaël Jacquelin, Victor Dubuisson, Grégory Bourdy, Marc Farry, Grégory Havret and Jean van de Velde, are other names that come to mind.

As for the latter, his collapse, when holding a three-shot lead heading to the 18th at the 1999 Open at Carnoustie, evokes painful memories even for the most hardened individuals. Finding the 'Barry Burn', a water hazard that guards the 18th green, he then proceeded to take off his shoes and socks and stepped through shin-deep water to try and hit the ball out.

On commentary, the late Peter Alliss was prompted to say: "Would somebody kindly stop him, give him a large brandy and mop him down? It's beyond a joke. He's gone ga-ga."

Van de Velde saw his lead flitter away, made a play-off, but was a broken man by that stage.

A more pointed view of how golf is perceived in France was uttered by professional Michael Lorenzo-Vera, on the eve of the 2018 Ryder Cup, which was staged at Le Golf National, the venue for Olympic competition.

"Honestly, nobody knows there’s going to be a Ryder Cup in France. Only the golfers know. That’s it. There won’t be many French there. There will be so many more from England or Spain."

On his perception of the