Home hero Raphaël Jacquelin enjoyed his "best memory on Tour" as he walked up the 18th at Le Golf National to a rapturous ovation with his family in his final appearance at the Cazoo Open de France.
Since graduating from the European Challenge Tour in 1997, the Frenchman has played 680 DP World Tour events - this week is his 681st - winning four times and finishing inside the top 100 on the Rankings every year between 2000 and 2016.
He has also played in his home open 25 times with a best finish of third in 2012, but he now bids farewell to the event before turning 50 in May next year.
Jacquelin has already started the next part of his golfing journey, coaching countrymen Alexander Levy, Julien Guerrier and Jeong weon Ko and aims to move into senior golf in 2024.
And while he may have created one of the most memorable Tour events in recent years, winning a marathon nine-hole play-off at the 2013 Open de España, Jacquelin insists saying goodbye to his home fans with his family tops it all.
“It was really difficult to tee off on the first, really difficult to finish on 18, it was too emotional for me," said Jacquelin, who was presented with a trophy of three tees in the colours of the French flag.
"It was great to have my wife on the bag on 18, we changed with my son. We had the four boys with me at the end, something different, and I wasn’t expecting it to be that difficult to finish on 18.
"Even if I made a double bogey at 18, that still would've been my favourite memory on Tour."
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) September 22, 2023
A moment to remember for @Raphjacquelin and his family 😍#CazooOpenDeFrance https://t.co/pPNhZFwTwi pic.twitter.com/GNUHYcjFAF
"It was very special to finish with the French Open.
"Even if I made a double-bogey on 18 that would be my best memory on Tour because my family was there.
"My wife stopped studying law when she was 24 to follow me on Tour, that was something special for me, so to have my family on 18 was a special moment."
