David Ravetto paid tribute to French golf past and present as he prepared to tee it up at the FedEx Open de France for the first time as a DP World Tour winner.
The home hero won the D+D REAL Czech Masters in August to continue France's record of having at least one DP World Tour winner every season since 2011 and was joined in the winner's circle the very next week by countryman Frederic Lacroix, who lifted his first title at the Danish Golf Championship.
Five separate Frenchman have won on Tour in the last two seasons and should a home player take home the prize this week, it will be the 50th French victory since the inception of the European - now DP World - Tour in 1972.
It took 21 years for Jean van de Velde to be the first at the Roma Masters in 1993 and Ravetto is grateful to those who followed him for their inspiration and friendship.
"It really struck me last year when I came out on Tour, the guys are really friendly helping me," he said ahead of his third Open de France appearance at Le Golf National.
"I'm good buddies with Antoine Rozner, we are from the same club. It's been a huge help, especially seeing him win like three times already.
"I think our generation is really pushing forward, even the generation before us was really good as well. It was one of the best with Grégory Havret, Raphaël Jacquelin, Victor Dubuisson, Alex Levy. I'm forgetting some names but I think we have a really nice generation pushing forward.
"It's a really good friendship and we're helping each other, especially for like ourselves, like new guys coming on Tour and new winners. Yeah, it's really exciting times."
Matthieu Pavon is currently the highest-ranked Frenchman in the Official World Golf Ranking at 26th but 12 months ago, he did not have a win on the DP World or PGA Tours.
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He now has one on each and an Olympics appearance under his belt and Ravetto has been inspired by his compatriot's progress.
"It was really inspiring what he did the last year," he said. "It's a great example of how work ethic and dedication can bring some results, even if it's like seven or eight years later.
"He worked really hard and got his first win at the end of the season and his first win on the PGA TOUR and now he's set for the stars, I guess, top 30 in the world.
"He's really inspiring and push us to practise more and he proves to all of us that it's doable."
Lacroix is also proud to be among the current French crop of stars along with the likes of Ugo Coussaud and Romain Langasque and believes that the strength of the game in France is sometimes underestimated.
"I think we are even under-rated in France sometimes," he said. "People don't realise how hard it is. It's hard to win. It's hard to play on first division.
"French golf is in a pretty good position. There's a lot of players on tour and there's a lot of players on the Challenge Tour looking to actually graduate.
"Even though we don't have as many wins as other nations, we are in a good place. It's growing. It's nice to see and it's nice to be part of it."
