It was not merely convenience of location that brought the Lancome Trophy to the tranquil, leafy environs of the Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche golf club for the inaugural event in 1970. The course oozes style, class and charm in a truly French way.
Designed by Fred Hawtree and opened in 1963, St Nom was built on a former apple orchard. It not only has the sweet smell of apples about it, it also has the strong aroma of affluence. Down in the café overlooking the 18th green beyond the duck-pond, the older gentlemen members can be seen snacking on croques-monsieur and vin rouge; a cravat would not be out of place.
The affluence, however, is subtle and understated. The course glides down through what is left of the orchards into a valley surrounded by multi-million-euro homes. But these abodes are elegant and relatively modest; they don't shout at you but call gently for you to gaze up and admire their architectural beauty as you stride the fairways below them.
The Lacoste family home sits to the left of the landing area of a good drive on the par-five eighth. A crocodile, the logo of the famous brand of the former tennis champion, was placed subtly above the main chimney stack of the modest, almost rustic house. It disappeared a few years ago never to be replaced. I suspect despite its subtlety it was too much for the neighbours.
Madame Lacoste, the daughter of the celebrated tennis player, is one of the elegant older ladies who greet the players at the main entrance to the clubhouse. These doyennes have sat in the same place for the Trophy Lancome for as long as I can remember. They wear matching costumes befitting their mature years. Madame Lacoste's sister-in-law Catherine Lacoste, also a member of the club, won the 1967 US Open as an amateur.
The arched entrance doorway leads to what must have been the courtyard before it became the putting green. It is surrounded by locker rooms and other clubhouse buildings with wooden beams and thick stone walls. The cobblestoned walkways make the trip for the spike-shoed golfer precarious.
Style has rarely been compatible with practicality, and the traditional patrons of the Lancome are testament to the fact. Sunday afternoon brings Paris's finest to Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche for the climax of the competition. Now if you want to see incompatible dress for a golf event then check out the couture queens that present themselves to the hosts and hostesses for the Lancome hospitality area, who themselves look like they are straight off a catwalk.
For the invited guests, apart from the four-course nouvelle cuisine luncheon served by black-tie waiters in the central part of the labyrinthine clubhouse, the women are invited to be made up with the latest Lancome cosmetics in a special tent in the Allée des Golfeurs. There is none of your shoddy plastic here - it's all teak and fine wooden furniture - and the air hangs heavy with autumnal perfumes.
Forgive me if I have drifted far from the golf course. Getting back to the track, even the drivers of the shuttle to the driving range are impeccably dressed - gray flannels, navy blazers, light-blue shirts and red ties.
Not only do the sponsors provide the sophisticated venue and trimmings but they also offer the services of one of the capital's finest coiffures, Franck Provos, free of charge, to players and caddies. No Ian Poulter bouffants on offer here.
Now that Lancome have whetted our aesthetic appetites on the European Tour, they are dumping us back into the art-free zone that is the weekly norm. The 34th Trophée Lancôme is the final one. It is the end of an era of style and in particular of art.
Since 1976, the sponsors commissioned well-known artists to design the posters promoting the event. All the posters were on display in the tented village last week. The artistic style of the posters evolved from the convention of golf in the 1970s to a more subliminal style in the 1980s and 1990s and reach a positively sensual conclusion designed by the celebrated Pierre and Gilles.
With a humorous look at the Mona Lisa and an explicit reference to the 16th-century portrait of Gabrielle d'Estrées and one of her sisters, their work reiterates the golfing event's usual codes. Dressed as a modern-day Eve, at once innocent and sensual as a flower of paradise, Elizabeth Jagger poses with an intense stare at the camera. Surrounded by red roses (the symbol of Lancome) with a thousand silver shards, clasping a star-like glittering golf ball to her breast, and protected at the front by two golf clubs, she is a vibrant ode to love, to sensuality and to femininity.
Not your run-of-the-mill golf artefact, no more than the trophy hoisted by Retief Goosen for the final time last Sunday. Isabella Rossellini, as the Lancome model, used to present the trophy back in the 1990s. Retief got to spend a few moments in the company of the very beautiful Ines Sastre, today's face of Lancome, as she handed over the highly artistic and most unusual trophy on the European Tour.
In 1982 David Graham raised the new Trophée Lancôme, designed by the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj. A bronze of a male torso with a golf ball placed in the right pectoral, it should, in artistic terms, be the most coveted prize in golf. It is a unique artefact, not simply a bland reminder of a tournament victory. It would certainly be a valuable piece of art in its own right.
The Lancome Trophy is a symbol of the most artistic event that graced the world golfing calendar. It is a fitting finale to the 34th and ultimate aesthetic event on the European year that one of the most graceful of golfers, Retief Goosen, should have raised the trophy on Sunday.
The Tour has lost its main sponsor of taste and aesthetics. Let us hope an appropriate new sponsor can be found to fill the vacuum left in the artistic department.
