Jean Lou Charon, President of the French Golf Federation - © David Raynal / Swing-Féminin

How did you come to golf?

It is true that I am not a man of the seraglio. A holiday in Spain allowed me to experience golf. I was 40 years old and a long practice of football, rugby and tennis behind me. On returning, the tennis racket went down to the cellar. She is still there ... I became "addicted" and I quickly wanted to volunteer myself in the club. After having climbed the ranks one by one and taken on multiple responsibilities in the clubs of Rebetz, Divonne-les-Bains and Lyon, Georges Barbaret my predecessor made me the friendship to ask me to be on his list of 2009. I was then elected to the committee and then a permanent guest to the board of directors, before being elected president in March 2013.

After several years of decline, has the number of licensees now stabilized?

Last year we recorded a minimal decrease of 0,2%, which corresponds to a deficit of only 819 licenses. Currently in France, we have 408 licensees, but we note a strong increase in practitioners with more than 000 regular practitioners who play between 400 to 000 times per year. We therefore benefit from a potential of 5 licensees, which could make us in the future an even stronger Federation vis-à-vis the public authorities. One of my goals is to make golf one day the number one individual sport in France. This is currently the case with tennis, which has more than a million licensees. I think we can do it, because golf is already the leading individual sport in the world with some 10 million players.

Your ambition was to bring out a champion or a champion during your mandate are you on the way to achieving it? 

I currently see lots of French players who stand out, Romain Langasque, Clément Sordet but also Greg Havret, Greg Bourdy and of course Raphaël Jacquelin. I do not forget either Victor Dubuisson, Alex Lévy, Gary Stal, nor the recent feat of Celine Boutier and Romain Langasque at the British Amateur. We can also count on Gwladys Nocera and then also on a whole new generation, like Mathilda Cappeliez or Valentine Derrey who won in April 2016 the first Jabra Ladies Open in Evian. The role of the Federation is also to support and encourage our players so that they can rise to the highest level of competition. I of course hope that the Ryder Cup 2018 will have an important role in promoting and spreading our sport. But the Rio Olympic Games in August 2016 will certainly also play a catalytic role, because they will show the whole world that golf is a real sport, and moreover an Olympic one. It remains to know the volume of golf broadcasting on unencrypted channels. Apparently there will be an hour of golf on a public channel every morning. The time difference means that the first hour of broadcasting is free and that golf can rush into it.

Is the French Golf Federation ready for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games?

The Federation set up with the players an Olympic Games group which met in Florida under the leadership of Patricia Meunier-Lebouc. Our objective is to prepare well for the coming competition, but also to anticipate the next Games in Tokyo in 2020 and hopefully Paris in 2024. After 112 of absence from golf as an Olympic discipline, we are also trying to make the selected golfers aware of the spirit and specificity of the event. On the other hand, the boys did not want to form an Olympic group, but rather to see each other. It is a choice that we respect.

In your opinion, is there still a difference between professional players?  

In my mind, there should not be any differences between men and women, even if in fact there are still large differences in the amount of the endowments for the tests. At FFGolf, our goal is to help women's golf find the necessary financial support so that players can make a decent living from their profession and their passion. In 2015, women's golf in France represented 28% of licensees, a percentage less than the previous year. In England, they are only 19% and 22% in the United States, which does not prevent me from believing that we must be closer to 50% than to 30.

Where are the preparations for the Ryder Cup to be held in France in 2018?

Irrigation, drainage and platform works on the Albatros golf course at the Golf National are almost 93% complete. On April 30, 2016, we organized a pre-opening operation called Onz'bouge, on hole number eleven that we redesigned and put in water. We must also of course ensure under the best conditions the French Open 2016 from June 30 to July 03. For their part, the teams of Christophe Muniésa and Pascal Grizot are finalizing negotiations with Ryder Cup Europe at the ticket office level. As you know, we do not have any rights to ticketing, marketing and television rights. The French licensees have agreed to pay three euros more until 2019 on their contribution. We wanted to thank them by offering them at cost 20 tickets a day to attend the Ryder Cup. This is how any holder of a license, French or foreign, can be drawn. Four categories should be taken into account based on seniority. Licensees over ten years old will be four times more likely to be drawn than licensees under one year old.

Apart from professionals, how does FFGolf make fans want to go through the door of clubs? 

It is true that people sometimes have reluctance to push the door of a club house because they think that it is private and that they have no place in it. To combat this, we have implemented the "Pass Go for Golf" which includes four hours of group lessons for 59 euros and the free provision of practice equipment and balls. Lessons are taken at the rate of one hour per session so that the person returns four times to a club. It is up to the club to forge a genuine loyalty relationship with the future player who discovers golf. We are also in the process of changing the conditions for taking the green card which sanctions your basic theoretical and technical knowledge and allows you to access the course. It used to be like skiing or sailing, if you stopped for six months, you had to start all over again. This is no longer the case now, since we are setting up a level validation system that allows you to start on vacation by following the first cycle and to resume several months later at the level you had validated. Lastly, in 2012, the Federation was ordered by the competition authority to withdraw from the license for abuse of a dominant position its additional individual accident and repatriation insurance. In 2015, after requesting a review of this issue, which penalized us, the competition authority conducted a comparative survey with another federation. For the first time, it went back on one of its decisions by lifting the sanctions decided in 2012. This allowed us in 2016 to reintegrate personal accident and repatriation insurance into the license.

Will you be a candidate for your own succession?

Yes, I announced in 2012 that I was running for a second and final mandate. If I am elected at the end of March 2017, I will stop on December 31, 2020 to make way for a successor whom I hope to be able to train. Being president of the FFGolf is an honor, a pleasure and a passion. But I think that after eight years, you have to know how to pass the torch.

Interview by David RAYNAL

To know more : http://www.ffgolf.org