Hard on the heels of the British Open Championship announcement of its £3.8 million prize money bonanza, the French Open revealed yesterday that it will soon soar into the upper echelons of European events.
The organisation of it has been taken over by Amoury Sports, the company that also runs cycling's Tour de France, who immediately claimed that they could double the present level of prize money, which stands at £1.25 million.
If they did the tournament would immediately become the richest event in Europe bar the British Open, ahead of the Volvo Masters and the Volvo PGA Championship, current flagships of the PGA European tour.
Patrice Clerc, chief executive of Amoury Sports, said yesterday: "The French Open has been a sleeping beauty and it needs waking up. We would like to establish it at the Paris National course and, like they do at Augusta National, keep on improving things every year."
The French Open is the oldest professional event in continental Europe and its list of former champions reads like a history of the game. Arnaud Massey, the first non-Briton to win the British Open, won the first French Open in 1906 and was followed by the likes of J H Taylor, James Braid, Walter Hagen, Henry Cotton, Bobby Locke, Byron Nelson, Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal.
The two last named are competing at the French Open this week, with Olazabal defending the title he won in Lyon last year.
The Spaniard is only 36 but is contemplating the winding down of his career. "I don't know how many years I have left," he said yesterday, "But I know that they are less than more. And I know that there are no miracles - you can't be 55 and feel like 25. I am getting closer to the finish line."
It is because of that that he goes to America and consults Tiger Woods' coach Butch Harmon. "I wanted to reach the best level I could," he said, telling Harman he wanted not a quick fix but a swing that would keep him at the top for the next 10 years.
"It has been tough," said Olazabal, who has a deserved reputation for stubbornness. I had been doing the swing my way for many years and it has been hard to change."
It was mainly erratic driving that has let him down and in this department he is most improved. "It is nice playing golf knowing that I can score better more easily," said Olazabal. "It might be more interesting in the trees, but it is more fun on the fairways."
Meanwhile, droppings from hundreds of wild Geese and seagulls have affected the course's 15th green so badly that a new putting surface has had to be laid.
"They destroyed the surface by eating the grass down to below the crown of the plant and buried the green in their droppings," European Tour chief greenkeeper Richard Stillwell said yesterday.
Guardian Service
