Five things to know about Le Golf National

The Ryder Cup is visiting France for the first time, but the European Team will be familiar with this week's venue. Le Golf National is site of the European Tour's French Open. That should only increase the home-course advantage and make it harder for the United States to win the Cup in foreign territory for the first time in a quarter-century.

If there is some solace for the United States, it is the fact that Le Golf National is an American, stadium-style venue. The man-made spectator mounds and water hazards lined by wooden bulkheads are reminscient of courses like TPC Sawgrass.

In case you aren't familiar with Le Golf National, here's a quick primer to get you up to speed before the matches begin.

1. FAMILIAR TERRITORY: Le Golf National was created by the French Golf Federation to be an annual venue for its national championship.

The course was just 8 months old when it first hosted the French Open in June 1991. Le Golf National has been a European Tour stop in all but two years since.

The past two French Opens have been won by European Team members Alex Noren and Tommy Fleetwood. More than half the team has had a top-10 at Le Golf National in the past three years.

Noren has finished in the top 10 in each of the past three years. Jon Rahm has back-to-back top-10s in France.

Francesco Molinari finished second in the 2016 French Open and T6 the previous year. He won the Quicken Loans National during the week of this year’s French Open.

Here’s a look at the European Team’s results in the past three French Opens:

2. TOUGH TEST: No matter the metric, Le Golf National is one of the toughest venues on the European Tour. The average winning score in the past 10 French Opens has been just 9.6 under par.

Players averaged 73.8 strokes on the par-71 Le Golf National in this year's French Open, making it the second-hardest course on the European Tour in 2018 (not including majors).

“The course itself is such a wonderful test,” said former European captain Darren Clarke. “It’s fair. If you get too aggressive, there’s a lot of water in play.”

Le Golf National, unlike many modern venues, emphasizes accuracy over distance. Rahm is known for his aggressive strategy off the tee -- he leads the PGA TOUR in percentage of yardage covered by tee shots on par-4s (71 percent) -- but he is forced to lay back at Le Golf National.

“It’s not go to the tee, hit driver as hard as you can,” he said. “It actually makes you think.”

Superior ball-striking carried Noren to the winner's circle at this year's French Open.

He hit 75 percent of his fairways and greens at Le Golf National, finishing in the top five in both statistics. And, despite firm and fast conditions, his average driving distance at Le Golf National was almost 13 yards shorter than his season average. That could imply a conservative strategy off the tee.

Here’s a look at how past French Open champions have ranked in driving distance and accuracy in the year of their victory:

Other winners at Le Golf National included former U.S. Open champions Graeme McDowell (2013-14), Martin Kaymer (2009), Retief Goosen (1997) and World Golf Hall of Famer Colin Montgomerie (2000). Kaymer won both the U.S. Open and THE PLAYERS in 2014.

“It’s not a driver golf course. It rewards good iron play,” McDowell told Golfweek. “I paced the seventh fairway at 275 yards off the tee and it’s 18 yards wide. The sixth fairway and fifth fairway are very similar. These fairways are elusive.”

Four of the past nine winners at Le Golf National ranked in the top 25 in driving accuracy in the season of their victory. Five of the past nine champions at Le Golf National ranked outside the top 125 in driving distance.

Justin Thomas told the No Laying Up podcast that he hit just seven drivers at this year’s French Open.

“It’s just a hard golf course,” Thomas told Golfweek. “It’s very narrow. You have to hit the fairways to have birdie chances. … You can get it snowballing pretty quickly out here if you’re not careful.”

Le Golf National will likely play longer for the Ryder Cup, though. The course was exceptionally firm and fast this summer.

According to the golf analytics firm The 15th Club, players averaged approximately 5-6 drivers per round at this year’s French Open, a decrease of approximately three drivers per round over the previous two seasons.

“I’m not hitting driver on a lot of these holes,” Ian Poulter told Golfweek. He ranks 124th on the PGA TOUR in driving distance. “(Long hitters) will be nudging irons around the golf course. They’ve definitely pinched in a few of the fairways.”

3. CLOSING STRETCH: Le Golf National has the most difficult finishing stretch on the European Tour, according to The 15th Club. Players averaged 1.2 strokes over par on the final four holes in 2018.

Water comes into play on three of the final four holes. No. 17, the second-longest par-4 on the course, is the exception. The long, narrow hole is still Le Golf National's second-hardest hole and is the hardest green to hit on the course. Only 44 percent of players hit the green in regulation over the past decade.

The short, water-lined 15th hole has the easiest fairway to hit at Le Golf National, but it’s penal for those who do miss it. The fairway pinches at approximately 280 yards, forcing players to hit less than driver off the tee.

"The perfect place to hit it off the tee is about 260 yards into the fat of the fairway," U.S. captain Jim Furyk told Golf Digest. "Everyone will lay up in pretty much the same spot."

Only 2 percent of players hit driver at this year's French Open, compared to 59 percent who hit iron off the tee, according to The 15th Club. That leaves a longer approach shot to a green fronted by water.

Approximately 1 in 6 approach shots on No. 15 found the water in this year’s French Open.

The short par-3 16th hole plays from an elevated tee, increasing the wind’s impact on tee shots. Like the previous hole, the 16th green is fronted by water.

“You really have to hit a solid flighted shot to hit into that crosswind,” Thomas said.

It should be no surprise that such a short par-3 has the second-easiest green to hit at Le Golf National over the past decade, though. More than 77 percent of players found the putting surface over the past decade. The tournament committee can create excitement by placing hole locations in the front of the green, near the water hazard.

Finding the green is just part of the challenge, though. According to The 15th Club, No. 16 has the second-highest rate of three-putts (5.2 percent) at Le Golf National. Some of that could be attributed to players firing away from hole locations near the water hazard.

"There are some really difficult pin placements, not only near the water but toward the back-left portion of the green," Furky told Golf Digest. "I know they have the pin there at least one day during the French Open. Then they run the other pins along the water—front right, middle right, back right."

Only the 18th hole had a higher percentage of three-putts (5.6 percent). That hole, a water-lined par-4 of 471 yards, tests players from tee to green.

Le Golf National’s 18th hole was the European Tour's hardest finishing hole over the past two seasons. It even exceeded Quail Hollow's 18th hole in last year's PGA Championship.

One in eight players made double or worse on the hole over the past decade. Even though nearly two-thirds of players hit the fairway, only 55 percent hit the green in regulation.

The penalty for missing the fairway was nearly three-quarters of a shot. Water is left of the fairway, and bunkers await any player who hits his tee shot too far to the right. Many players who miss right will have to lay up short of the water.

Rahm called the hole “extremely difficult.”

“You have an island green, a really narrow fairway with trouble right and a lot of trouble left,” he said. “You don’t want to hit it in the water, but if you hit it right you have no chance to hit the green because you have extremely thick rough and even more bunkers. You have to hit the fairway.”

4. STADIUM VIEWING: You wouldn’t know it from walking around Le Golf National, but it was built on a flat piece of farmland. The course should be an ideal Ryder Cup venue because it utilizes the stadium concept made famous at TPC Sawgrass. With such large galleries, and only four matches on the course during the team sessions, it can be hard for fans to follow the matches from outside the ropes. Le Golf National’s fairways are lined by large viewing mounds that will give fans a better view of the action.

“That finish, coming down 15, 16, 17, 18; the amount of people, the noise, the cheers, the crowd in that area is going to be an incredible site,” Furyk said.

Over the course of three years, 400 trucks per day transported soil to the site to create the spectator mounds. The soil that was excavated to create the course’s water hazards also was used to build the artificial hills.

“My inspiration was to create a stadium, a golf course that would be able to receive great championships with ideal conditions for not only players but also spectators and the media, particularly television coverage,” said the course’s architect, Hubert Chesneau. “Contrary to most of the courses being built at the time on natural undulating ground, I preferred to create a landscape that would be ideal for ‘natural grandstands.’ With this in mind, there was no alternative but to start with a blank canvas.”

The water hazards were created because the clay silt of the Parisian basin does not drain well. The course has very few trees because it needed to be ready to host the French Open in a matter of months.

5. FIRST-TEE JITTERS: The United States will have the honor at the Ryder Cup.

That may not be an honor.

Le Golf National will feature the largest first-tee grandstand in Ryder Cup history. More than 6,500 fans will be able to watch the opening tee shots and the final green from that record-setting structure. It dwarfs the 2,148 seats at Gleneagles in 2014 and the 1,668 fans at Hazeltine National in 2016.

At least the U.S. will have two opportunities to find the fairway on the water-lined opening hole, a 419-yard, par-4. Seventy percent of players in the French Open hit the fairway. The penalty is stiff for a miscue, though, as the entire left side is lined by a water hazard.

The opening session will be four-ball format, so both players from each team will tee off. The United States will hit the opening tee shots at 8:10 a.m. local time Friday. Fortunately, the first fairway is the second-easiest to hit at Le Golf National. According to the 15th Club, only 2 percent of players hit that shot in the water during the French Open.

Of course, everything changes under Ryder Cup pressure.