With Le Golf National hosting and only Justin Thomas playing the French Open to scout out the course, this naturally opened the doors to pre-Ryder Cup chit-chat.
There's also the calendar, which suggests we only have a little over eight weeks to figure out who will be teeing it up.
I'm most struck, however, by the shock and sadness that only Thomas made the voyage to search for deep, hidden mystery on the grounds. As if this were the French's best Old Course impersonator.
Thomas, as respectfully as possible, explained how Ryder Cup week scouting will be enough for most players. From Alistair Tait's Golfweek item on Thomas playing this week:
“It’s a great test of golf,” Thomas said. “It’s all right in front of you. It’s not like there’s any hidden tricks or anything like that.”
And as Captain Thomas Bjorn noted in this item by Tait, he doesn't plan to get carried away with trying to create some sort of European advantage.
“It’s not particularly much narrower than it’s ever been,” Bjorn said. “It’s pretty much where it’s always been. Once you have great golf courses like this one, you’ve got to be careful you don’t overthink it and overdo it too much in the sense of that’s the golf course that’s there, that’s the course they’ve got to go out and play.
I've never seen the course but over the years it has never exuded a sense of rewarding great local knowledge or experience.
Now if the Europeans really wanted a home course advantage, the Old Course sure would make for a fun Ryder Cup venue!
