Golf: “The year will really begin”… Celine Boutier, the first major to (re)start her season

In just three months, Celine Boutier will have played almost her entire season. There are four Major tournaments on the program, including one in Evian (July 11-14), where she will have to defend her title before dreaming of winning gold at the Olympic Games (August 7-10).

And that long marathon begins this week at the Chevron Championship (Texas), the first Grand Slam of the season on the American LPGA circuit. The world number three will kick off at 8pm sharp this Thursday alongside Allisen Corpuz, the reigning US Open champion, and Ashley Buhai, the 2022 British Open winner.

An “ideal” tournament for Boutier, who plays virtually at home

That’s enough to put a somewhat lackluster start to the season back on track. While the 30-year-old Frenchwoman qualified through all the qualifying rounds of the six tournaments she competed in, finishing second in Singapore, where she narrowly missed out on becoming the world’s first French woman, was a major disappointment.

This was followed by anecdotal 12th, 35th and even 47th places in three subsequent tournaments. “I was a little upset with my first tournaments. It took me a while to feel comfortable in the game and on the field. I haven’t really been able to score in the last two weeks. I feel that things are getting better and, even if there were six tournaments before Chevron, we feel that the year will really start,” she explains in comments published by L’Equipe.

Another good thing about this Chevron Championship coming at the right time: The event has been held in Texas for two years at Jack Nicklaus’ signature course at the club, a reasonable distance from Dallas, where the French No. 1 lives daily. basis. “For me it’s really perfect. The course is really not very far from where I live,” she confirms.

Delacour will score a lot of points

The first major of the year was also her most successful, aside from (obviously) winning Evian last summer with a 4th place finish in 2022 and a 14th place finish in 2023. The Clamart native is playing to win this week. “This is the first Grand Slam of the year, so it is important to perform well because in the end everything will come together very quickly,” explains Celine Boutier. This is a good time to test your game and get everything in order to prepare for the rest of the year. »

She will also meet another Frenchwoman at the start: Perrine Delacour. The stakes for her may be even higher since she is not yet guaranteed to go to the Olympics next summer. The 30-year-old has also not finished in the top 40 in six starts in 2024 and sees Pauline Roussin-Bouchard inching closer to the Olympic rankings in her mirrors. A good result at the Chevron Championship would give him a breath of fresh air.