Thomas Levet has never played in an Olympics.

The Frenchman was already 48 – two years shy of making his debut on what is now called the Legends Tour presented by Staysure – in 2016 when golf made its return to the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

But Levet played in – and won – the 2011 Alstom Open de France at Le Golf National, where this summer’s Olympic golf competition will be held. He was just the seventh French champion, and he was so excited he jumped into the lake and broke a bone in his leg.

So, Levet knows first-hand the kind of fervent support his compatriots Matthieu Pavon, Victor Perez, Celine Boutier and Perrine Delacour will encounter – and need to embrace – at the upcoming Olympic stroke-play competition.

“It could be interesting,” Levet said. “The thing they're going to have to manage in France is the crowds. The crowds will be a hundred percent behind them. And we see it every year at the French Open.

“And it's very difficult for a French player to play on that course with that much tension for your play and then so much attention out of the game because the French people are really, really behind their players and sometimes put too much pressure on them. So, you need to be used to it.”

Jean van de Velde, Levet’s broadcast partner at Canal+, represented France in 12 World Cups as a professional and multiple times at the amateur level. He also was the first Frenchman to play for continental Europe in the Ryder Cup at Brookline in 1999.

So, the 58-year-old knows only too well that wearing the Gallic rooster – or coq gaulois – on one’s chest instead of a corporate logo is a game-changer.

“Every time that you put, as I say, the cock on your heart, there's something special,” said van de Velde, who was chosen as an Olympic torch bearer this year. “My name doesn't sound too French because I'm a second-generation full French, but I'm very, very patriotic. And again, it's something special. Unless you are completely insensitive and nothing matters to you, representing your country is a great honor. …

“And singing ‘La Marseillaise’ (the national anthem of France) in America (at) Brookline is something that I will always remember and cherish.”

While they never had a chance to win a gold medal, both Van de Velde and Levet came close to becoming France’s first major champion. Van de Velde lost a three-shot lead on the 72nd hole of the Open Championship at Carnoustie in 1999 followed by a playoff with eventual winner Paul Lawrie and Justin Leonard. Three years later, Levet was part of a four-man, four-hole aggregate playoff at Muirfield, bogeying its final hole and losing to Ernie Els on the first hole of sudden death.

Instead, Boutier became the first French major champion after winning The Amundi Evian Championship last year. Pavon, who won the Farmers Insurance Open in his third start as a PGA TOUR member, paid tribute to Boutier and said winning a gold medal would be huge.

“I think it would be big for the golf in general,” said the 31-year-old Pavon, whose mother is a golf professional. “… If someone French brings it home, it would be amazing.”

Levet is well-acquainted with the younger pros from his homeland. His wife Caroline played amateur golf with Pavon’s mother, and her son spent several months with Levet’s family in south Florida when he was a teenager.

“Matthieu Pavon obviously is a good surprise for France,” Levet said. “We knew he had the game to do something big, but then to do it that early in his career on the PGA TOUR is unbelievable. And I know Matthieu for a long time, we've been friends with the family forever. I saw him in his mom’s belly, so I know him. He was minus one year, basically. And so, for me to see him win. It's unbelievable.

“And then with Victor Perez, we have another very strong mind-input player. Extremely hot with the putter when he's putting well.”

Levet and Boutier are from the same village outside Paris. He first saw her play when she was a junior, and like Pavon, Boutier visited Levet in south Florida.

“She's always been very, very calm,” he said. “She could be a 007 agent, you know what I mean? She's so calm under pressure. She's unbelievable. When she's won that first tournament on the LPGA, and she just waved to the crowd. It's a little bit like Jason Dufner, basically. It doesn't get to her. It feels like, ‘Oh, it's normal what I did.’

“I think that's her strength basically. It looks like what she does is normal, but it's not. And she's a hell of a player because she's not the longest, she's not the most precise, but under pressure, she has nerves of steel.”

How well Pavon, Perez, Boutier and Delacour handle the pressure of contention and expectations of their countrymen and women will be key at Le Golf National.

“It's going to be interesting to see the fight for the medals in last four holes,” Levet said. “Those last four holes are really, really demanding mentally, and with that much under pressure, it could be interesting, I would say.

“And it's a course that you need to be really calm all week long, and the scoring with no rough, it can be around 15-, 16-under. With rough, anything around 5-, 6-under could be enough.”