© ICD Golf Trophy

Hello Sébastien. The next edition of the ICD Golf Trophy will take place on one of our most beautiful courses, Chantilly Vineuil, with a new game formula ...

Every year we try to innovate. For years, we have organized the event at RCF la Boulie, which is my favorite club. In 2018 we were at Golf National, which made sense in the year of the Ryder Cup. In 2019, it was in L'Isle-Adam, a course for which I had a real crush. Last year, the Chantilly-Vineuil golf course and its director Rémy Dorbeau welcomed us in exceptional conditions, with a course that is really worth the detour. In 2021 for our 20th birthday, we initially wanted to explore new territories and go for two days on the Opal Coast. But with the health crisis, it is not reasonable to want to transport all our partners and students there. As a result, we will be playing again this year with great pleasure at Chantilly, last year we experienced one of our most beautiful editions, from brunch to dinner in the evening through the competition. It is also an exemplary journey in terms of CSR and biodiversity, values ​​that are close to our hearts. As for the format, the ICD Golf Trophy remains a shamble at 4, but in Pro-Am formula this time.

Since when do you personally organize this event?

For ten years, the ICD Golf Trophy took place at the Forteresse golf course (Seine-et-Marne) on Sundays. In 2013, the director of the ICD * asked me if I could take care of it, thanks in particular to my address book in golf. I accepted, on condition that we change everything: the place, the format, the target, the partners… The idea was to organize a big event and to privatize a course one day of the week. In 2016, in partnership with the University Sports Federation, we added another competition open to students from all business and engineering schools, in a 2-person scramble formula: the ICD Grandes Écoles Challenge. For the past eight years, I have had wonderful encounters, whether with partners, students or parents of students. In 2013, Frédéric Schmitt, the founder of the Journal du Golf, helped me a lot and allowed me to meet Jean-Claude Forestier, the owner of the Vaudreuil golf course. There is the support of the Garaïalde family with Christine and the meeting with Jean in 2017, or the sponsorship of Pascal Grizot in 2019. I am also thinking of my friend Thierry David and Canal +, who have always responded in recent years. Finally, I would like to underline the work of my team and that of the ICD bachelor event management students with whom I work on a daily basis.

Speaking of the Vaudreuil golf course, do you have a new project?

Yes, we have the ambition to set up at the Vaudreuil golf course a sport-study in international bachelor over 3 years for high-level players, in partnership with Altus International of Guillaume Biaugeaud and the American Business School of Paris, directed by Fady Fadel. We wanted to launch the project in September 2020 but the health crisis pushed it back for a year. The Altus promotion will start in September 2021.

When did you discover golf for the first time?

I was 15-16 years old. One day, my father took me to the Fourqueux golf course at 7 am. He introduces me to the caddy master and tells me that I will now be working there on weekends. I had to do all the trades there: caddy, starter, commissioner and even gardener all summer to finance my first trip to Canada. I was able to hit my first balls there. In 1989, Fourqueux organized the French Women's Open and as I knew every corner of the course, I carried the bag of a British player, Susan Strudwick.

She passed the cut I hope ...

Better than that, she won the tournament!

Interview by Franck Crudo.

* The ICD Business School is a business and marketing school present in Paris and Toulouse.

https://www.icd-ecoles.com/icd-golf-trophy