The Yvelines department already had the Clairefontaine of football, it now also houses the golf version.
A factory for champions inaugurated this Wednesday on the prestigious site of the national golf course of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
The agglomeration and the French Golf Federation (ffgolf) have unveiled a new ultra-modern performance center, which brings together on the site a training area (dedicated to short game), open since October 2020, a performance platform and a shelter.
Its vocation is to train the country's amateur elite on the model of Clairefontaine for football, therefore, Marcoussis for rugby or even Roland-Garros for tennis.
This ambitious project has been operational since January after two years of construction work on the performance platform and accommodation center.
In these two buildings, with a surface area of 700 and 600 m2 respectively, the dozen young people aged 13 to 17, supervised by 27 teachers, have access to a fully equipped XXL sports hall, a laboratory dedicated to mental preparation, a treatment room, changing rooms and toilets, a briefing and relaxation area, a room dedicated to biomechanics and kinematics, a synthetic putting green and comfortable rooms.
The performance center is an ultra-modern tool.
DR
A bill of 4.5 million euros
“We find this type of equipment almost everywhere in the United States, but in a more fragmented way here (in Europe)”, indicates Édouard Bréchignac, the director of the new structure.
The particularity of having everything in the same place makes the system very efficient.
»
Intended for students who also follow an adapted schooling (middle and high school), the Clairefontaine du golf is also open to teams from France, as well as to professional players.
With a total cost of 4.5 million euros, this state-of-the-art equipment was 65% financed by the Île-de-France Region, the Yvelines Department, the urban community of Saint-Quentin- en-Yvelines (SQY) and the National Sports Agency.
Read alsoSaint-Quentin-en-Yvelines: red carpet for the Ryder Cup
The choice of national golf is strategic since its prestigious Albatross course hosted the Ryder Cup in 2018 and is preparing to host the Amateur World Championships this summer, as well as the Olympic golf event at the Paris Olympics in 2024. "Our ambition is to train the best amateurs, and we need infrastructures to match", justifies Pascal Grizot, the president of the ffgolf.
“Our proactive policy in terms of high-level sports equipment makes real sense with this center, dedicated to supporting the elite of tomorrow”, abounds, for his part, Jean-Michel Fourgous, the president of SQY.
The inauguration of the new champion factory preceded National Golf Week, the great golf celebration which opened this Friday and runs until Saturday with a discipline fair and a friendly tournament with some of the best pros. French.
