ÉVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — As Haeran Ryu was making history, her final shot on the third day of the Amundi Evian Championship was playing out on a big screen in the city centre.
Ryu is 19-under-par after shooting a course record 60 on Saturday, which was news to her when she handed in her scorecard. The 25-year-old was being interviewed live on the Golf Channel when she was told she had shot the lowest ever round at any major, women’s or men’s. Another welcome surprise.
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Beyond the screen in central Évian, which kept replaying Ryu’s delightful chip-in off the fairway for an eagle on No. 6, you have to look closely to see signs of a major golf tournament taking place just a five-minute car ride up the hill.
Swedish exchange students Agnes Göransson and Paulina Engel, both 24, were visiting Évian from nearby Lausanne in Switzerland on Friday night. Évian is a 35-minute ferry trip across Lake Geneva and a popular spot to take in sunset views. Göransson and Engel were taking advantage of the many restaurants which line Rue Nationale, which they say are a lot cheaper than the ones in Switzerland.
First, they wanted to visit the Source Cachat to fill up their water bottles with the world’s most famous water, which gushes out of a fountain and has done so on this site for more than 200 years. The natural mineral water, which takes 15 years to filter through glacial rocks before flowing out of the tap, is not just a tourist trap but where locals come to fill up multiple bottles at a time.
“It’s a quiet town,” Engel said. “We didn’t know the golf was happening. I haven’t seen any advertising for it.”
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Back on Rue Nationale and their compatriot Anna Nordqvist, who is Europe’s Solheim Cup captain and tied 10th after 54 holes, was wandering around beneath the yellow bunting which is up to mark the Tour de France’s stage 16 visit on July 21. On Wednesday evening, Nordqvist and world No. 1 Nelly Korda said hello to each other on this same street and nobody really noticed.
Évian is a famous spa town and has a calming pace. It has more village-like qualities than that of a city with just more than 9,000 residents. That number swells in the summer months with holidaymakers flocking to the lake resort.
Marilyn and John Noyce are from a village called Middleton-on-Sea in West Sussex, England, and bought a holiday home in nearby Thollon-les-Mémises more than 18 years ago. They spend each summer in southeastern France and attended the tournament at Évian Resort Golf Club a year ago when Englishwoman Lottie Woad, then playing as an amateur, tied for third, one shot off the lead of eventual winner Grace Kim.
“It’s a little bit busier for the golf, but it doesn’t get silly at any stage,” John said.
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Woad had taken a lead into Day 3 but got around in 72 shots and is now nine back of Ryu and six behind Japan’s Aki Iwai in second place. Sister Milly and the rest of the family have accompanied her to Évian and are staying in an Airbnb rental together. The Woad family have been enjoying walks to get ice cream and have been swimming in the lake.
One of the most popular spots to visit is the building near Source Cachat, Buvette Cachat. The former bathing site opened in 1826 and is back open to the public after seven years of renovations.
“It’s so busy right now and every year because of the golf it gets more and more busy,” said Romane Kalboussi, a worker there. “When you grow up here, all the locals, we know that every year we have the tournament so for us it’s completely normal. But maybe it’s not as common to know about it for outsiders. We are really happy because a lot of people are coming for the golf and because of that they are visiting our city.”
Evian Championship VP Jacques Bungert said the tournament employs 2,000 people every year, many of them locals. He says over the tournament they expect around 30,000 visits, some of them returning guests each day.
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“This town has always been very quiet,” said Bungert. “But for the locals it has been 32 years (of this event), and it has always been a pride to have this tournament and this moment here.”
The town’s vibe hasn’t really been disrupted by golf much. On Thursday evening, when France beat Morocco to reach the semi-finals of the men’s World Cup, horns blared throughout the night as locals celebrated the victory.
There is no late-night scene in Évian. The casino, which overlooks the lake and reopened recently after being partially destroyed by fire, is one of the few places that has a closing time of 3am.
Beyond a late night at the slots, this place remains a peaceful lakeside resort where you do not automatically know there is a major tournament being played here. Even for some pink branding dotted about and the world’s best golfers buying ice creams and riding the funicular train up the hill, this tournament is not in your face until you want it to be.
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It is one of the reasons returning players seem to love it. Charley Hull put it best when she referred to it as a “little holiday”.
Said Brooke Henderson: “I love this place. It’s so beautiful. Every year I look forward to coming. The course is definitely a challenge and makes you think the entire time. You can never really take a break. But just looking over Lake Geneva is very peaceful and calming in such a stressful situation.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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