The landscape of French golf has evolved constantly over recent years. On the men’s side for example, with the emergence of players such as Martin Couvra, Jeong-Weon Ko and Julien Brun. A breath of fresh air which has also arrived in the women’s game, with young talents whose names are no doubt familiar if you follow The Amundi Evian Championship each year: Pauline Roussin, Agathe Laisné… Despite this, whoever is making waves, certain leaders always stay at the helm, and Céline Boutier is an illustrious example of this. The native of Clamart is one of the seasoned players of this new generation. Aged 29, the world number 15 continues to write some of the best pages in French golfing history. An LPGA Tour player since 2018, she seems better equipped than ever to win at Evian.

The prime of life

As the seasons go by, women’s golf just keeps growing. And with it, a wave of young players originating from the four corners of the globe, of whom the majority already seem ready to take on the best players on the planet. This golden youth has benefitted not only from the rise of women’s sport, but also from the professionalization of their discipline and technological advances. That said, the seasoned players on the tour still have a significant advantage over the up-and-coming competitors: high-level experience. Céline Boutier is the perfect incarnation of this. Approaching thirty, she is one of the players who can still take advantage of a youthful physique whilst also drawing on solid experience. Having turned pro in 2016, the former amateur world number one has had an impressive array of wins since her arrival on the LPGA Tour: thirty top-10s and three victories, the most recent one in March. These performances make her one of the icons of French golf, in the men’s or women’s game, even though she is still missing the major championship which would ensure her name goes down in history. So, will this be the week? Given her first round 66 (-5), there is reason to believe it can happen.

2023 all guns blazing

Following on from her 2022 season, during which she achieved six top-5s on the LPGA Tour, Céline Boutier is having a top class 2023 season. As mentioned earlier, she only needed three “warm-up” tournaments before raising a trophy, at the Drive On Championship where she won the play-off against Britain’s Georgia Hall. A resounding victory once again demonstrating all her capabilities, against a dream line-up featuring the world’s best players. One only needs to look at the leaderboard of Ayaka Furue, Jin-Young Ko and Stacy Lewis to realise. Like a leader, Céline Boutier followed up with two top-15s the two following weeks to confirm her current excellent form. Since then, things have been a little tougher, without becoming worrying, that’s how the game of golf goes. A single round can be enough to restart a machine which performed so well just a few weeks ago. And now that’s been done, as yesterday she made the top-10 of The Amundi Evian Championship 2023.

Evian in her sights

With no success last year at Evian, when she missed the cut, the leader of French golf was playing on the back of her best performance in Haute-Savoie, where she finished 29^th in 2021, echoing the result she obtained during her very first participation here, in 2014. Yesterday morning she embarked on her seventh attempt to gain birdies on the prestigious layout of The Champions Course, proof again, if it were needed, of her steadfastness and consistency amongst the elite. Evian no doubt represents one of the greatest challenges of her career, having shone so brightly on the international scene at the Solheim Cup as well as in majors. Playing before this crowd, in this atmosphere and this idyllic setting are some of the many aspects that make this week even more special for the French players, motivating them to show themselves in their best light. It’s time to make a dream a reality, and she’s off to a good start.