Photo: DR

His victory last year at Chantaco was undeniably a click. Building on his second success on the Ladies European Tour, four years after the first, Azahara Muñoz delivered a remarkable 2014 season on the LPGA Tour. Eight top 10, including two in Majors, propelled the Spaniard to 12th place worldwide (as of September 1). And if the native of Malaga has not yet won this year, a 2nd place after a play-off lost in Singapore in March constituting her best result, she on the other hand won with Spain at the International Crown. , a new team competition organized by the American circuit. As the season draws to a close in the United States, Muñoz, 26, will not be lacking at the Lacoste Ladies Open de France, where she returns with the ambition to defend her title. “It's a great event, where the best Europeans are present every year. I love this tournament and can't wait to come back. I feel at home there! She declares. If successful, she would become the first to achieve the double since the Italian Veronica Zorzi, crowned in 2005 and 2006.

This year again, Gwladys Nocera will be one of Azahara Muñoz's main rivals. The Frenchwoman, 2nd in 2013 just one stroke behind the Spaniard, will try to win at last in her national open, in which she will participate for the 12th time. Without a win in 2014, the current 4th in the Ladies European Tour order of merit is nevertheless in good shape, as illustrated by his recent 2nd place at the Scottish Open at the end of August. A tournament won by the English Trish Johnson, who returned to success four years after her last trophy, that of… the French Open then played at the Paris International Golf Club. The veteran (48 years old), crowned three times in France (1996, 1999 and 2010), would become the most successful player in the history of the event if she wins again! Charley Hull, finally, is the last member of this quartet of stars. Revelation of the Solheim Cup in 2013, the British prodigy won her first cup last March in Morocco, four days before her 18th birthday, and is currently ranked 30th in the world.

None of these players, nor even any of the 78 participants in the Lacoste Ladies Open de France 2014, was born when France won the World Amateur Team Championship on October 4, 1964. In Saint-Germain, where the first edition of the competition is being held, a young French trio made up of Claudine Cros, Brigitte Varangot and Catherine Lacoste wins one step ahead of the United States and lifts the Espirito Santo trophy. The icing on the cake: Lacoste, then 19, also won the medal for the best individual score, tied with an American competitor. “This is the moment when high-level women's golf started to really develop all over the world,” reckons the daughter of tennis player René Lacoste and golfer Simone Thion de la Chaume, who developed Chantaco golf course, founded by the latter's father in 1928.

Having remained an amateur throughout her career, Catherine Lacoste has won over the years some of the most beautiful victories in the history of French golf: the US Open in 1967, the Western Amateur in 1968, the US Amateur and the British Amateur in 1969, multiple individual titles of champion of France, and a dozen European titles by team either as player or as captain. “Brigitte and Claudine were also wonderful golfers, and we formed a small group that won regularly, and all over the world. I find a little that today in all these young French women who have the chance to spend four years in American universities. They quickly become competitive internationally and overflow with ambition, ”says Catherine Lacoste. Always very close to her young compatriots, notably via Porosus, an endowment fund created by some members of the Lacoste family which helps some of them, the great lady of French golf will be a wise spectator of this 3rd edition of the Lacoste Ladies Open de France to be held on its grounds of Chantaco.