SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – There were a lot of things on Perrine Delacour’s mind, but the Paris Olympics weren’t one of them.
The year was 2022, and after missing the cut at the CPKC Women’s Open, Delacour decided it was time to put the clubs down for a while. The mental toll of professional golf had gotten to be too much, and the sticks needed to be out of sight, out of mind so Delacour could decide if this life was really worth it, if she wanted to keep fighting.
A much-needed mental reset gave her the answers she needed, and Delacour returned to golf the next year, in March of 2023.
She attacked the 2023 LPGA Tour schedule with a renewed vigor that season, earning seven top-20 finishes and qualifying for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
At the beginning of the year, the Olympics still felt like a too-far-out-of-reach pipe dream for the Frenchwoman, but when Delacour wrapped up her 11th season on the LPGA Tour, the bright lights of Paris were finally coming into view.
“Early 2023, when I restarted, (the Paris Olympics) was not even in my mind,” Delacour remembered. “I was just trying to get through the course and not crying too much. As everybody knows, I was struggling mentally. Then I had a really good season in 2023, so I was like, ‘Maybe I want to do the Olympics.’ It was in my mind, but I was trying to not put too much pressure on myself.”
The 2024 season was once again a bit rocky for Delacour early in the year. She missed six cuts in her first eight starts, finally rounding back into form in May. But those early woes never wound up mattering when it came to Olympic qualification
The work she had done in 2023 was more than enough to bolster her world ranking, and after the qualification period for the 2024 Games concluded following the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Delacour’s dreams were realized.
She had done it. She was going to represent France at the Paris Olympics.
“It's definitely a reward,” Delacour said. “It's a long way since my mental break, so I just enjoyed it. I still have some stress and everything, but I'm much better than when I stopped in September 2022.
“I'm going to enjoy every moment, and if I happen to be in the top three at the end of the week, I'll be super happy. If not, it's already a good moment. Playing in front of the family at the Olympics, it's already pretty good.”
While Delacour didn’t really expect to qualify for the 2024 Olympics, Celine Boutier was always going to be competing in Paris
She first represented France at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, finishing in a tie for 34th in Japan. In the years since, Boutier has amassed five LPGA Tour titles, four of which were captured during the 2023 season and one of which was her first major victory in her home country at The Amundi Evian Championship.
Boutier has been in the top 10 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings since winning in Evian-les-Bains, France, rising to as high as third in the world, a position she most recently held until the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give.
As France’s leading professional golfer, all eyes will be on Boutier to see how she stacks up against the world’s top talent at Le Golf National. Unlike many in this week’s 60-player field, the 30-year-old has plenty of experience with the venue and will be leaning on that local knowledge as she works to find a spot on the podium at the end of the week just outside of Paris.
“I definitely played it a lot,” said Boutier. “We had national junior championships here every summer, and I joined the national team and had the official training camps, with Perrine, as well. We have played (Le Golf National) a lot. It's definitely a challenging course, and then the rough is obviously very thick. It's going to be a good tournament.”
Both Boutier and Delacour were in Paris for the Opening Ceremony and saw the conclusion of the men’s golf competition on Sunday at Le Golf National. Like Victor Perez, Delacour will be hitting the first tee shot on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. local time to kick off the women’s golf competition at the Paris Olympics, a special honor for the 30-year-old Frenchwoman.
She actually picked fellow countryman Matthieu Pavon’s brain about how to handle the emotion that comes with being on the first tee at the Games and will be working to handle those feelings as best she can as round one gets underway.
“I spent some time with Matthieu, asking a couple of questions about how he felt on the first tee to have a couple of tips and get ready for Wednesday. He actually struggled on the first tee last Thursday,” Delacour said. “He was emotionally way super high, which is normal. You don't expect to have that on the first tee. He did say during the end of the week, there was so much emotion on Thursday that he struggled during the week. That helped me, like, I need to rest early in the week to be able to carry it for four days in a row.”
The Games generally serve as a point of inspiration for young athletes who have dreams of podiums and medals and Olympic glory someday, pushing them to pursue those goals and passions as they work to join their idols in history’s record books. While Boutier and Delacour do just that week-in and week-out on the LPGA Tour, both athletes know that this time is something different, something bigger, and will take the opportunity to bolster golf fandom in France as seriously as ever as each works to earn a spot on the podium in their home country’s Olympic Games.
“It's definitely very cool to be able to be a part of the Olympics,” said Boutier. “(The men’s golf competition) was huge for us, for French people to even get to the game of golf. We saw a lot of people who were at the course who weren't really familiar with golf at all, wanting to be curious to watch something different. I think it's going to be huge for France and huge for golf in France.”
Delacour agreed: “I know we've already inspired people,” she said. “I felt it at the Opening Ceremony when we moved from the village to the boat and during the Seine, it's no word to describe it. We have a lot of people on the course, and they are all here for you no matter what. They showed it to Matthieu during the four days, where he was struggling, and they were still cheering for him.
“We are just going to try our best. It's one time in your life you play in the Olympics. For myself, I just (want to) enjoy every moment as much as I can.”
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