Pardon my French

Aussie Golfer has been lucky enough spend some time in Europe and has stopped to check out any golf courses that are within a long par 5. I wandered around the club house of a course in France a few weeks ago to see if I could catch a bit of the Ryder Cup on TV. It had been extremely hard to find every else I’d been. Upon walking into the clubhouse and asking if the Ryder Cup could be switched on, the bar staff looked at me like I was speaking another language. In truth I was as my French is bad but surely golf was a language of the world? Not even a short, imaginary pitch shot and a point at the TV made it any clearer.

I left feeling a little disappointed by the French golf world but maybe they have been trying to forget anything associated with televised golf after Jean Van de Velde’s debacle at the British Open back in 1999. For those that can’t recall, the video should refresh your memory. I soon became even more disillusioned when I saw the sign shown below on the walk to the first tee. Doesn’t providing different tees for different levels of golfers defeat the whole purpose of the handicap?