Pascal Grizot brushes aside the rumor and reveals the future holes of the Golf National

Relocated to St-Nom-la-Bretèche in 2025 due to the work of the Grand Paris Express undertaken at the Golf National from October 21, the French Open will take place in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in 2026. Pascal Grizot, the president of the French Golf Federation, assures this and takes the opportunity to discuss the new configuration of the three holes impacted by these same works (4, 5 and 6) whose greens will be inspired by reference courses in the United States .

LV with FS, at the Golf National

This is a rumor that spread at the beginning of the week Golf Nationalwhen it was copiously watered by the residue of Hurricane Kirk which raged in the Atlantic a few days before. The 2026 edition of theOpen de France could in fact not take place on the Albatross’ favorite course.

The works of Grand Paris Expresswhich will officially begin on October 21, one week after the end of the FedEx Open de Francecould, according to this rumor, extend beyond the twenty months planned for the construction of line 18 linking Orly airport to Versailles-Chantiers. This will impact three holes (4, 5 and 6) of the route which hosted the Ryder Cup 2018 but also the Paris 2024 Olympic Games last August, forcing the relocation of the 2025 French Open to St-Nom-la-Bretèche (78).

The work should meet deadlines. Otherwise, we would be at the end of the work and line 18 would stop them for a week if necessary for the French Open.

Pascal Grizot

A scenario that Pascal Grizot dismissed it out of hand when we interviewed him this week at the Golf National, host of the 106th French Open in history. “ The goal is to only spend one year at St-Nomsays the president of the French Golf Federation rather confidently. The work should meet deadlines. In any case, otherwise, we would be at the end of the work and line 18 would stop them for a week if necessary for the French Open. »

During this work, several modifications will be made to the three holes affected by the upcoming passage of this same line 18. These were entrusted to the Englishman Russell Talleywho collaborated for a long time with the famous architect, also English, Martin Hawtreewho notably revamped the eighteen greens of the Royal Birkdale but also the routes in France of Aissesof Chantilly and of Fontainebleau.

« For hole n°4, which will be a slight left dogleg, we will take inspiration from green n°1 of Winged Footspecifies Pascal Grizot. At 5, we will move the green back 60 meters. It will be elevated with bunker barriers, a bit like n°2 of Pine Valley (New Jersey). As for 6, which is a very weak hole on the course, as we are going to move back 5, we are going to move the tees forward. Its green will be reduced by a third in size and instead of doing it in length, we will do it in width, and at the very bottom. It will look like hole #13 at Pine Valley. Still at 6, we will shift the tees to the left and it will still be a drivable hole but with a barrier of bunkers on the left. Depending on your length, you will have to choose which bunker you want to carry if you take this risk. If unfortunately for you you miss to the right, you will be out of limit. Which is a big difference from the current hole. »

Photo: Golf Planète