Rain of local talents for the doubles meeting in Reunion, despite the drought at Bassin Bleu

The eleventh edition of the traditional Indian Ocean doubles competition begins Friday to crown a week of Golf celebrations in Reunion. With Sébastien Vandooren in place of French number one Matthieu Pavon, Julien Quesne will be one of the favorites to succeed him. Almost all the big names in Reunion golf will be at the start to try to win this 2024 edition at the drought-stricken Golf de Bassin Bleu.

David CHARPENET, special envoy to Reunion

Like every two years, alternating with the Golf de Bourbon, the Golf du Bassin Bleu welcomes French Open Professional Doubles in Reunion, on the heights of the seaside resort of Saint-Gilles-les-Bains, for three days of intense competition (December 6-8). The best four balls on Friday will kick off the hostilities, followed by the dreaded foursome, before another fourballs on Sunday.

A particularly dry Bassin Bleu route

The drought hit the island of Reunion this year and the austral summer complicates the work of the teams of Stéphane André who must work hard to offer a course worthy of this event. “ The route is very dry. It hasn't really rained in four months and we only got a few drops last week and Wednesday, regretted the director of the Golf du Bassin Bleu. It wouldn't take much for it to turn green again, but this? it’s complicated for greenkeepers. The greens of 3 and 4 in particular risk being a little damaged.»

Joel Boucharagreenkeeper at Bassin Bleu for 25 years, suffered the consequences of a strike by the local electricity supplier which disrupted the watering installations. “ The strikers caused load shedding on the network and the pump synchronization board did not resisthe lamented. We were therefore obliged to regulate as best we could with the available equipment. But the most dramatic thing is that not a drop falls. We had 3 mm in seven months! »

There are bound to be rebounds that will make us lose our minds

Stanislas Caturla

The greens ultimately didn't suffer that much. But the fairways will clearly offer random bounces which could tilt the final result. “ There are bound to be rebounds that will make us lose our minds, summarized Stanislas Caturlathe great guru of the Win Tour. We will have to remain calm, especially during the foursomes on Saturday. »

(Stan Caturla, a great pro who leaves nothing to chance on the greens)

An endowment of 50,000 euros

After a tenth anniversary celebrated at the Golf de Bourbon last year, this eleventh edition was concocted by a new team around Jean-Marie Hoarauindestructible president of the Reunion Golf League.

« This year it is an invitational tournament. We still have a nice prize pool with 50,000 euros, including 10,000 euros for the winning pair, with a majority of players from theAlps Tour. In terms of the organizing committee, there were a lot of changes around me this year and so everyone had to understand what they had to do. But the concerns were quickly lifted because the new team is great. They really did an exceptional job to make everything go smoothly. »

(A golf course with stunning ocean views and sometimes bucolic scenes…)

Julien Quesne defends his title, with Sébastien Vandooren

Last minute guest, the sixteenth and final pair composed of Jérôme Lando-Casanova et Clement Berardothe only duo bringing together players who have already played on the DP World Touris certainly the most formidable on paper.

But even without Matthieu Pavon with whom he won the title last year, Julien Quesne is also necessarily to be classified among the favorites. The double winner on the DP World Tour has just won in Hossegor to pocket the order of merit for the Road to Arkea, the order of merit for French Golf Tour. This time it is Sebastien Vandooren who will play alongside him, a childhood friend from Touraine, pro teacher in Île de France at the Golf de Fourqueux.

The one who represented France at the 2016 Rio Olympics (with Gregory Bourdy) will therefore still be one of the favorites of the event, with many big names in French and Reunion golf as challengers.

Riu and Catur, the only pair already crowned

There will be many other former winners at the start of this 11th edition, but only Victor Riu et Stanislas Caturla have already won together, in 2022 on this Bassin Bleu Golf course.

Winner with his younger brother retired from the fairways Thomas on this same Bassin Bleu route in 2020, Paul Elissalde will be this week associated with Nicolas Calvet. David Antonelli has also already been French doubles champion with Joel Stalter on this course in 2016. This week he will play with the spectacular Romain Béchu. The experienced Maxime Radureau et Anthony Grenier will, for their part, try to showcase their talent, which remains intact.

We are very proud to bring together many high-level players from Reunion Island

Jean-Marie Hoarau

Like every year, the Reunion players will be particularly followed by the public. There will be six local players at the start, including three 100% pei teams (Romain Lanteri et Alexandre Daydou, Titouan Berny et Christian Verrougstrate as well as the endearing Bruno Sagansan et Jean-Philippe Welterphysically diminished and who courageously replaces at short notice Franck Michel).

« We are very proud to bring together many high-level Réunion players, recalled Jean-Marie Hoarau. All that's missing is Julien Sale who would have loved to come, but he passes the Asian Tour cards. »

Everything comes together for a great week of golf starting with the kids' day dedicated to children in the brand new splendid facilities of the Golf de Bourbon, before a series of pro-ams and three days of competition on the very scenic Golf de Bassin Bleu course. .

Photos: David Charpenet / Golf Planète