Jacquelin Hopes for French Revolution at Ryder Cup

This year’s Ryder Cup competition could have a Gallic flavour if Raphael Jacquelin and his French legion have something to do with it.

Frenchmen have won two of the past three European Tour events and Jacquelin is hoping the country can have a strong presence in the European squad who are defending the Cup at the Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky this September.

Thomas Levet, who played in the 2004 Ryder Cup, won the Andalucia Open last month while Gregory Bourdy triumphed at the Portuguese Open the following week.

Jacquelin is trying to defend his title at this week’s Asian Open in Shanghai, a tournament that is jointly sanctioned by the European Tour and Asian Tour. He said in a Reuters report:

“It is not a big surprise as the French group is improving a lot. We are all working hard to compete at the top in Europe and maybe later the top of the world. There is a lot of competition and it is good. It’s the way to go. And maybe we will see a French player in the Ryder Cup team at the end of the year.”

Another Frenchman who is coming up the ranks is 23-year-old Michael Lorenzo-Vera, who finished second equal at the China Open last week.

Bourdy and Levet are 29th and 30th respectively in the European Tour Order of Merit while Jacquelin is 63rd, three places behind Lorenzo-Vera.

Bourdy was 16th in the European Ryder Cup rankings on April 21, 2008, the highest-ranked Frenchman, while Levet was 40th. Lorenzo-Vera was number 50 while Jacquelin was 63rd. Only the top 10 qualify automatically for the Ryder Cup team, to be captained by Nick Faldo.


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