All the key trigger points blue

I was fortunate to play a number of French Open tournaments around Le Golf National. It is an outstanding test of golf with a set-up more akin to what you would experience in a major championship than that at a regular tour venue.

Given the level of experience in both Ryder Cup teams, it should be quite easy for them to figure out the required course strategy around the Albatross course south-west of Paris.

But you also have to factor in the passion and the occasion that is the Ryder Cup, those partisan fans and the momentum shifts. Collectively, those factors change the landscape and they can take even the greatest players out of their comfort zone – as it did to Tiger Woods with his opening tee shot at the K Club in 2006, when he hit it into the water some 50 yards left of his target.