US chef leaves sour taste at team’s hotel

IT HAS not gone down well at the Trianon Palace Hotel in Versailles, where both Ryder Cup teams are staying, that the Americans have brought their own chef.

This is being regarded as a major lack of respect for the French hosts, who are staging golf’s marquee team tournament for the first time.

To add to the insult, American cooking is hardly renowned, while French cuisine is arguably the world’s best. Plus the super luxury five- star Trianon Palace has a kitchen to match its global reputation and a Michelin- starred restaurant among its varied gourmet eating choices.

However, American golfers aren’t known for being too ambitious with their food choices. Of the current Ryder Cup team, Dustin Johnson is said to be the most intransigent in what he eats.

Senior hotel staff have let it be known that they are not impressed with having a visiting American chef in their midst preparing food for guests. DESPITE the relatively poor crowds attending the practice days this week, the European Tour hope that their hugely extended merchandising operation on the vast Le Golf National complex will bring in £9million today alone.

This contrasts with the cramped commercial facilities at Gleneagles in 2014. Merchandising sales accrued only £5m through the tournament.

Ryder Cups in Europe are still way behind the money-making behemoth at the Augusta Masters. The estimated turnover for the 2018 tournament from merchandising alone was £100m.

That kind of golf spend across the Atlantic explains why the European Tour are keen on attracting worldwide partners for the Ryder Cup who will back every tournament, rather than a different set of sponsors every two years.

lRIGHTS

holders Sky and NBC received the opening session four-ball pairings a short time before the captains made their official announcements. Networks need the information in advance to prepare graphics. Sky were given the strictest of warnings not to break the embargo, as they did at Celtic Manor in 2010. But Sky could hardly be kept out of the loop having yesterday signed a four-year deal with the European Tour, taking in the next two Ryder Cups.

lMINISTERfor Sport Tracey Crouch will be at the Le Golf National outside Versailles this morning to cheer on the European team. This comes after no government official travelled to the World Cup in Russia at the behest of former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in the aftermath of the Salisbury poison attack. Despite the current Brexit sensitivities, Crouch (right) had dinner last night with the new French sports minister Roxana Maracineanu. Subjects under discussion included knowledge-sharing as Paris prepares to stage the Olympics in 2024.