Le Golf National general manager Paul Armitage and course superintendent Alejandro Reyes took an aerial look at the state of this month’s Ryder Cup venue a few days ago and saw a project that is on target to be completed on time.
The flight in a small light aircraft shows that all the major tented structures including those in the west and east villages are complete, at least on the outside, and much of the work on the grandstands has been done.
With no golfers being allowed to play the course for the last 10 days and until after the match and with all the golf facility areas being closed, the build has intensified. In the clubhouse area, one of the most important places that goes largely unseen by the fans is also undergoing a total change: the course pro shop is now empty of its normal stock and waiting to become a team room, fully redecorated to the design of one of the team captains.
Redecoration of all the main clubhouse areas begins this week and increasing amounts of Ryder Cup signage is going up all over the course. For example, the first tee already looks mostly dressed and close to being ready.
Not only that, but the less obvious areas of the course are now getting the attention of the building crews. These include the bridges over the roads between TV compound and temporary accommodation areas and the TV compound car parks. There are also some temporary builds including scaffolding over an amphitheatre of chairs in the clubhouse to create a platform for security meetings. Obviously, these aspects of the build will disappear as the match approaches.
“There have been no real delays and everything is on target for the moment,” says Armitage. Although the target date for full-on readiness would appear to be Tuesday 25 September when the first fans arrive, the players will be on site the day before and the media centre will be open on Saturday 22nd.
The short video of the aerial flight over Le Golf National can be seen on Paul Armitage’s Twitter site @Paulianarmitage
Pictured top: aerial shot of Le Golf National taken by managing director Paul Armitage
Le Golf National https://www.golf-national.com/en/