CADDIE'S ROLE:The magnificent Golf National outside the French capital should get the 2018 Ryder Cup

I’VE GOT a week left before I fall under the spell of unquestioning affection for the Ryder Cup, so it might be a good opportunity to look at the 2018 Cup bid in what could be the last time I can speak objectively about that event.

The European Tour makes its final stop in Paris this week before the end of my objectivity. The Vivendi Trophy will be played for the first time as a pro-am event. It is the European Tour’s answer to the economic crisis. The show goes on but in a compromised manner.

The tournament this week is what used to be the Seve Trophy, which was a team event that had the legendary Ballesteros as the captain of the European 10-man team against the Colin Montgomerie-led British and Irish Team. It was a breeding ground for the bigger stage of team challenge, the Ryder Cup. It may even have fallen into some debates as to why the Europeans seemed to jell so well when the Americans seemed to be more isolated in their approach to group effort.

The point was that the golfers on the European tour were more used to compromising with each other by the very nature of the diversity of the European Tour as much as their personalities.

It may well have been a valid argument 10 years ago that there was a unique camaraderie among the European players, but I don’t think that such a contention would hold up today. That some of the key players vying for the captain’s picks on the European team rightly protected their status on the biggest and most important tour in the world, the PGA Tour of America, and opted to play over there would suggest that good golfers need to play consistently against the strongest competition.

Being a big fish in a little pond is not progressive for either the player or, in this case, the European Tour. It is vital the European Tour has players in the top-50 in the world constantly challenging themselves in the States as well as Europe.

So when it was mooted that the European players who stayed away from the European Tour in the final denouement to the Ryder Cup selection might be compromising their chance of being selected, it was a rather naïve argument. Good golfers need to go where they have the best chance of winning in the most competitive environment. Such team members are always indispensable to a leader with victory on his mind.

As the bid for the 2018 European venue closes in, it is with great affection that I personally feel that the only worthy venue is the most sophisticated city in Europe, Paris. The French National course west of Paris, not far from the Palace of Versailles, is the most obvious venue on which to hold the Ryder Cup. It fills all the requirements when it comes to what should be important as selection criteria.

My worry is that the Golf National is almost too perfect given the requirements of recently selected European venues. It would appear that the norm for a viable selection bid suggests that you need to develop a course from scratch. The idea is that it is paramount to develop a new course rather than select an established one. In an era where the number of golfers in the game is in decline, it would seem that we have enough courses to meet present and future demand. We most definitely have enough bad courses. So why not simply redesign or use the good courses that we have?

Twenty years ago the French National was built on a rubbish tip about 20 miles outside Paris. It was part of the nouvelle vague of French golf. The course is arguably the best in France. The clubhouse is functional, if somewhat lacking in Parisian style and elegance, but it served a purpose for the new era of golf in the French nation. There is not a weak hole on the course and three of the four finishing holes are likely to get even the most confident and controlled golfer’s acute attention. So in terms of quality and drama, the National is a winner.

From a spectator’s perspective, most of the holes form natural amphitheatres, enabling tens of thousands of people to troop around the course with ease and ample viewing space. In particular, the final holes offer huge natural surrounding banks to ensure maximum viewing with guaranteed atmosphere.

From a practical perspective, the infrastructure is already in place to accommodate, transport and entertain fans from both Europe and America at ease with an abundance of direct flights from America to the French capital.

From a non-golfing angle, it would be difficult to close the debate about the winner among Munich, Madrid, Amsterdam or Paris as vibrant and culturally appealing cities. But certainly Paris would match if not better them all. Portugal’s Algarve has its own, less urban appeal.

In this economic era of spending cuts, surely the fact the Golf National is virtually ready to stage the Ryder Cup if it was to be held there next month is as good as reason as any that it should be the 2018 venue. Given that Madrid and Munich are planning to build a course from scratch if they win the bid, I feel compelled from a rational perspective to favour the French.

If the rumours are true about the sheer adrenalin buzz of the event in Wales next week I may well argue in post-Cup hysteria that Florrie DeBoer’s pitch-and-putt course near Leiden in Holland is a worthy future venue.