Victor Perez is delighted to see the return of the Cazoo Open de France and is hopeful home comforts can bring him a second DP World Tour title of the season.
The Frenchman claimed his second career win at the Dutch Open in May, ending a near three-year wait since his maiden triumph at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
He also achieved his best result in this event in 2019 as he finished in a tie for 16th and is hoping that experience, plus the memories from his junior days, can stand him in good stead.
“Obviously it’s great to be here after a couple of years of it being cancelled because of Covid, I think it’s great, I have some great memories of this place," he said. "All the French guys have always played so many junior tournaments here and the familiarity of everything is nice, so it’s going to be a nice week.
“It’s been quite calm so far, obviously as the tournament progresses more and more people will show up.
"I don‘t spend as much time in France now of course, living in Edinburgh. It’s great to be back, the fans are excited, hopefully there will be a lot of kids around and it can hopefully be an inspiration to them to take up golf.
“I think the course is playing a little bit easier because there is not as much rough as in the past, and I think the weather is going to be quite clement as well so it should be playing quite fast after a drought in the summer.
"So we’ll see how it plays out, if the conditions stay like this I think it will be fairly open to scoring, but it’s still Le Golf National with its exciting finishing holes."
Perez's victory in Scotland in 2019 was followed by impressive results at the WGC-HSBC Champions and in the Rolex Series in Turkey and Abu Dhabi as he put himself right in contention for a Ryder Cup debut.
He did not make the team for Whistling Straits but a third-place finish at 2023 host venue Marco Simone Golf & Country Club last week was a good start on the road to Rome and he is eager to maintain momentum.
“It was really good last week, obviously it was really bunched at the end so it could have gone either way," he said. "I felt like I could give myself a chance coming down the last and that’s all you can ask for.
"Obviously the putt didn’t drop which is a little bit disappointing but it makes me more hungry to do it this week in front of the French fans.
“I was in a decent position for the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, so it’s obviously something I know a little more about now and I’ll have a better mindset going into qualification for this year but it’s a long way away and there’s plenty of golf to be played.
"It’s thankfully far enough away for this week to be just another tournament where hopefully I can perform well."
