Post by bullfinch on Jul 12, 2024 6:46:20 GMT
We are staying at the Hilton as it has a free shuttle service to the course but as it turns out this is for accredited persons only so we make the short 3 min walk to the ferry terminal for the free public shuttle bus. The bus is waiting, we get onboard and there’s an elderly Korean couple who greet us with “Bonjour”. I answer back “Hello” and we all smile. It’s 8:30am and the sun is shining so we are in for a good day.
The bus drops us off in a street full of houses. Where’s the course? We follow the large pink Evian signs and eventually find the entrance. It’s up a slope that must be 1 in 4 and takes you to some pop up Swiss style huts that function as the entrance. We show our tickets, get a wristband, and then pick up La Gazette, an 8 page journal which contains the groupings, course details and some interviews with Celine, Nelly and Lilia - it’s very good. Tres bien to the organisers!
And now on to the golf. The supergroup of Nelly, Amy and Yuka had tee’d off at the 10th so we picked them up at the 18th. Nelly and Yuka were below par but Amy was one over. There were probably around 60 or so people following this group and this steadily grew to over 100. The 2nd hole is the Instagram hole, it’s a short par 3 which is about 160 yards long with a 160 yard drop. It could be a ski slope.
Amy started getting dialled in and was picking up birdies, while Yuka’s radar was off with each booming drive seeming to go more and more left. Nelly was steady but she had two 3 putts on this back 9 to audible sighs from the galleries. It’s the first time seeing Amy and like her swing and overall demeanour. The 3 of them all got on well. It dispelled my myth that Nelly was a robot and she seemed pretty chilled even after the three putts.
Amy finished with a birdie on 9 and they all went to the recorder’s tent which was a make shift affair in a wooded glade. This meant there was great interaction with the players after the round. Nelly signed everything and I had my photo taken with Amy and Yuka who were both lovely. I asked Amy’s caddy Jan about the rain forecast for Friday and he thought they’d be staying indoors as he reckons there will be a lot of thunderstorms - we shall see!
We then hung around to watch the next group finish who were Lydia, Charley and Lilia. Lydia had had a great round while Charley had a stinker. All became obvious when the 3 of them were in the scorers tent and Charley took her top off!!! Don’t worry she had a sports bra underneath and her shoulder was red raw. Lydia gave her some gel to rub in, Charley put her top back on and I got a photo with her and we spoke about the football. Come on England - we’re in the final.
It was about lunchtime so we headed back to the main village. It’s a long walk all the way back from the 9th. My wife decided that when in France we needed champagne, so while I queued up for some baguettes she got us some glasses of Veuve Clicquot. We agreed one glass wasn’t enough so we then had another one. It was very hot and humid on the course and we agreed we needed a bit of siesta so spent the next 1-2 hours in and around the village watching a few groups on 18 and also hole 5.
We were then going to pick up the Carlotta, Georgia Hall group for some early Spain v England rivalry. This only lasted one hole as we followed Georgia down the 1st and it took her 3 attempts to get out of a very easy bunker. I was obviously a bad luck omen for her so we then dropped back to the next group which included Jenny Shin.
We increased the watching public galley by 200% as the only other person watching the group was Fraser’s wife. Jenny was quite passive aggressive towards the poor left handed Indian player who was having a nightmare around the greens. My wife doesn’t like Jenny! We stayed with them to the recorders hut on the 9th and I got my photo with Jenny who was perfectly nice but I can see what my wife means. I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.
On the way back we briefly spotted Yewon’s group with a reasonable number of yellow KB umbrellas up and following the group. It was a lovely sunny day so UV index would be high.
We walked over 30,000 steps. My wife enjoyed the morning with the supergroup, less so the afternoon with the proverbial one man and his dog galleries.
Back at our hotel in the evening while eating in the restaurant, Tom Abbott sat down at the neighbouring table all on his own. I went over and we had a chat. I thanked him for the restaurant recommendation he’d given me on Twitter and we spoke about his busy summer of Europe/UK golf as he’s heading to Scotland next week for the men’s “The Open”, then the Olympics and then the Women’s British Open. My wife liked him and said he was a nice man.
That’s all for day 1. Roll on round 2 and let’s hope the thunderstorms stay away.
The bus drops us off in a street full of houses. Where’s the course? We follow the large pink Evian signs and eventually find the entrance. It’s up a slope that must be 1 in 4 and takes you to some pop up Swiss style huts that function as the entrance. We show our tickets, get a wristband, and then pick up La Gazette, an 8 page journal which contains the groupings, course details and some interviews with Celine, Nelly and Lilia - it’s very good. Tres bien to the organisers!
And now on to the golf. The supergroup of Nelly, Amy and Yuka had tee’d off at the 10th so we picked them up at the 18th. Nelly and Yuka were below par but Amy was one over. There were probably around 60 or so people following this group and this steadily grew to over 100. The 2nd hole is the Instagram hole, it’s a short par 3 which is about 160 yards long with a 160 yard drop. It could be a ski slope.
Amy started getting dialled in and was picking up birdies, while Yuka’s radar was off with each booming drive seeming to go more and more left. Nelly was steady but she had two 3 putts on this back 9 to audible sighs from the galleries. It’s the first time seeing Amy and like her swing and overall demeanour. The 3 of them all got on well. It dispelled my myth that Nelly was a robot and she seemed pretty chilled even after the three putts.
Amy finished with a birdie on 9 and they all went to the recorder’s tent which was a make shift affair in a wooded glade. This meant there was great interaction with the players after the round. Nelly signed everything and I had my photo taken with Amy and Yuka who were both lovely. I asked Amy’s caddy Jan about the rain forecast for Friday and he thought they’d be staying indoors as he reckons there will be a lot of thunderstorms - we shall see!
We then hung around to watch the next group finish who were Lydia, Charley and Lilia. Lydia had had a great round while Charley had a stinker. All became obvious when the 3 of them were in the scorers tent and Charley took her top off!!! Don’t worry she had a sports bra underneath and her shoulder was red raw. Lydia gave her some gel to rub in, Charley put her top back on and I got a photo with her and we spoke about the football. Come on England - we’re in the final.
It was about lunchtime so we headed back to the main village. It’s a long walk all the way back from the 9th. My wife decided that when in France we needed champagne, so while I queued up for some baguettes she got us some glasses of Veuve Clicquot. We agreed one glass wasn’t enough so we then had another one. It was very hot and humid on the course and we agreed we needed a bit of siesta so spent the next 1-2 hours in and around the village watching a few groups on 18 and also hole 5.
We were then going to pick up the Carlotta, Georgia Hall group for some early Spain v England rivalry. This only lasted one hole as we followed Georgia down the 1st and it took her 3 attempts to get out of a very easy bunker. I was obviously a bad luck omen for her so we then dropped back to the next group which included Jenny Shin.
We increased the watching public galley by 200% as the only other person watching the group was Fraser’s wife. Jenny was quite passive aggressive towards the poor left handed Indian player who was having a nightmare around the greens. My wife doesn’t like Jenny! We stayed with them to the recorders hut on the 9th and I got my photo with Jenny who was perfectly nice but I can see what my wife means. I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.
On the way back we briefly spotted Yewon’s group with a reasonable number of yellow KB umbrellas up and following the group. It was a lovely sunny day so UV index would be high.
We walked over 30,000 steps. My wife enjoyed the morning with the supergroup, less so the afternoon with the proverbial one man and his dog galleries.
Back at our hotel in the evening while eating in the restaurant, Tom Abbott sat down at the neighbouring table all on his own. I went over and we had a chat. I thanked him for the restaurant recommendation he’d given me on Twitter and we spoke about his busy summer of Europe/UK golf as he’s heading to Scotland next week for the men’s “The Open”, then the Olympics and then the Women’s British Open. My wife liked him and said he was a nice man.
That’s all for day 1. Roll on round 2 and let’s hope the thunderstorms stay away.
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For me, I love the smaller galleries as opposed to the big ones where you are constantly jostling for a view, so maybe you can use that as a justification.