‘I wasn’t prepared’: Olympics’ most popular golfer overwhelmed by the moment

Matthieu Pavon of Team France during round 1 of the men’s golf singles at Le Golf National during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France.

Matthieu Pavon on Thursday at Le Golf National.

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At just after noon local time Thursday, a swarm of charged-up fans ringing the first tee box at Le Golf National — the Olympic Golf competition’s host course — broke out into song. Their chorale of choice: “La Marseillaise,” France’s national anthem, which begins:

Allons enfants de la patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L’étendard sanglant est levé!

Loose translation:

Let’s go children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny’s
Bloody flag is raised!

En avant Matthieu Pavon #golf #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/F0bqo6h6Oc

— Morpheus (@DavidDerhille) August 1, 2024
Talk about a walk-up song. The stirring hymn, which was composed during the French Revolution, was directed at the most popular golfer at this XXXIII Olympiad: France’s own Matthieu Pavon. If you’re just joining us, Pavon, who got his pro-golf start about a decade ago on the Alps Tour, has been on quite a run. Late last year, he finished 15th in the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai to earn a PGA Tour card for 2024. In his first appearance of the year, he tied for 7th in Maui. Then came another strong start (T39) in Palm Springs. But even with those promising results, no one could have predicted what was coming next: At the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, Pavon shot a closing 69 to win by a shot, becoming the first Frenchman to win on Tour since 1907.

Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

A week later, Pavon finished third at Pebble Beach. In April, he tied for 12th at the Masters. In June, he claimed his first-ever top-10 finish at a major, with a 5th-place finish at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. In July, he made another cut a major, this time at the Open Championship at Royal Troon. But his dream year wasn’t over. Far from it, because another momentous event beckoned: the Summer Games in Pavon’s homeland.

Like most golfers, Pavon didn’t grow up aspiring to win a gold medal for his country. “My dream since a kid, it’s to go play in America, and this is what I achieved end of last year,” Pavon said earlier this week. “Then my dream is to win in America. This is what I did.”

Fulfilling that dream, though, serendipitously unlocked another one: qualifying to represent his country in the world’s biggest sporting event, hosted by a city about 400 miles north of his childhood home in Toulouse. “I went straight to be like, let’s say, underdog to someone who would be in the Olympics this year,” Pavon said.

Any ambivalence Pavon might have had about competing in the Games — a common sentiment among golfers — was washed away in a matter of days if not hours. Soaking up the Opening Ceremonies along the Seine. Hanging in the Olympic Village with his fellow athletes. Attending a couple of events. It all got Pavon in the mood — and then some. “All the great moments we spent the last few days,” he said Tuesday, “it really feels like a gold medal would be now ranked higher than a major for me.”

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The scene on the first tee Thursday would have done nothing to convince Pavon otherwise. When he and his playing partners, Collin Morikawa and Matt Fitzpatrick descended the stairwell that leads to the tee, they were greeted by thousands of fans on the amphitheater slopes. It wasn’t quite a Ryder Cup-sized gallery (like we saw at Le Golf National in 2018), but it wasn’t far off, and most were there to urge on one player, with many waving French flags above their heads. No one is comparing Pavon to Michael Phelps, but Phelps swam in five Games and never once had the opportunity to do so in front of a home crowd. For Olympic athletes, these occasions are rare.

“That was a crazy moment which I wasn’t prepared [for],” Pavon said. “At that moment, too big, took emotions, too many people screaming just your name.” He added: “An experience I never experienced before, even though when I played the last round at Torrey this year wasn’t that big.”

Was he overwhelmed?

“Completely,” Pavon said. “I think it’s normal, no?”

Tres normal. And yet Pavon bore down on the task at hand, whipping the galleries further into a frenzy with a birdie at the par-4 1st. His opening 3, though, would be his only birdie on the outward nine, which he played in one-under 35. Bogeys followed at 10 and 12, one of which he neutralized with a birdie at 14. After four closing pars, Pavon had shot an even-par 71, leaving him eight back of Hideki Matsuyama’s first-round lead.

“Sometimes it was too much for me,” Pavon admitted afterward of the crowd’s adoration. “I don’t know if it’s too much for me, but, as I say, I wasn’t prepared. You don’t really have a hole where you can calm down and breathe and take some water. It’s always you get back to that tee box and everyone screaming your name, and stuff like this, so you never get some rest. That was a very tiring day for me.”

Pavon wasn’t the only player who sensed the love for Pavon. Xander Schaufelle and Jon Rahm, a group ahead, could hear the chants for the Frenchman. So could Shane Lowry, who was two groups ahead. “You hear the French crowd cheering him on to every green, every tee,” Lowry said. “Being out there today shows you how big this tournament actually is.”

Lowry said he even felt a crush of support for himself on the first tee. “It was nearly off-putting a little bit, like, wow, I wasn’t expecting that,” Lowry said. “I got goosebumps, and I hit a really bad tee shot. But I’m not blaming them. It was my fault.”

Of the general vibe, Schaufelle added: “I don’t know what I was expecting. I heard 30,000 [fans] a day, which is a lot. It’s a ton of people. And I heard they got up to like 18ish, maybe, 20 today, something like that. We’ll make it up as we go. What we normally do. But it was an awesome atmosphere. And the fact that there’s only 20 groups, the fans sort of — it’s very congested in the best way possible.”

Especially around Pavon.

The Frenchman knows this a big moment for golf in his country, but he also knows there is still much more work to be done before le jour de gloire truly arrives.

“Ryder Cup helped a little bit and Olympics helped a little bit more,” he said. “I think what we need is to win a medal or win a major.”