Van De Velde: an Ambassador of French Golf
The French Professional golfer, Jean Van De Velde is considered a golf icon in France. His contributions to golf are worth remembering.
Recently, Van De Velde was able to make France the host for the Ryder Cup 2018. He represented Europe in the Ryder Cup which took place in 1999. The venue for the Cup will be the Le Golf National, near Paris.
Van De Velde is of the opinion that this is one of the best courses in Europe. It was built with this view in mind that it would host the Ryder Cup.
Presently the 46-year-old is the Championship Director for the Alstom Open de France. Till now, Van De Velde has participated in 463 European Tour events.
Van de Velde has bagged four professional wins so far and two of them came from the European Tour. His best performance in a major was in the year 1999. He finished tied second in the Open Championship.
Now, keeping in view the Frenchman’s dedication to the game, he is considered as a Golf Ambassador of France.
In the recent years, Van De Velde has reduced his concentration on the game. Currently, he has been given a new task, which is to oversee the development of the French Open.
The event is presently taking place at the course which is to host the Ryder Cup in 2018.
The 96th French Open was launched by Van de Velde and the defending champion Thomas Levet. It is tremendous amount of responsibility for the 46-year-old. Nonetheless, he is glad to have it.
In an interview, Van De Velde said, “It’s a very fulfilling role. There are obviously lots of things I know about in terms of the playing side, the course, the players and the golfing bodies, but everything to do with logistics and planning is new to me.
There is a lot goes into it”.
“It was great launching the tournament with Thomas, who is defending the title. We have a good interaction. His win last year was huge for French golf,” he continued.
This all is a great achievement for the Frenchman.
Tags: