FedEx Open de France:
Tyrrell Hatton (11-1) tied the course record by shooting 61 on the Old Course at St. Andrews on Saturday and held on for a one-shot victory over Nicolas Colsaerts at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland. This victory marked Hatton’s third Dunhill Links win. It also gets him back into the top 20 in the OWGR and secures spots in the major championships plus fulfills his DP World Tour event requirement to be eligible for Ryder Cup Team Europe consideration next year.
This week, the DP World Tour heads to Paris for the FedEx Open de France.
The field declines without the top-end quality of last week’s field with no Jon Rahm, Hatton, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, etc. and is certainly not what we saw in the Olympics earlier this summer at Le Golf National. However, there are some names in this group.
Billy Horschel (12-1) missed the cut last week at the Alfred Dunhill Links but has already had a successful sojourn to Europe with a BMW PGA Championship victory at Wentworth three weeks ago.
Rasmus Højgaard (14-1) was a winner four weeks ago at the Amgen Irish Open and has finished fourth and second here the last two years.
Matt Wallace (18-1) won five weeks ago in the Swiss Alps at the Omega European Masters.
Thriston Lawrence (18-1) has a victory on the Sunshine Tour in his home South Africa plus two runners-up (Betfred British Masters, BMW PGA Championship) all in the last seven weeks.
Victor Perez (20-1) leads the home French contingent.
At 22-1 are Jordan Smith and Thorbjørn Olesen, who was runner-up here in 2011.
Niklas Norgaard (25-1) won his first DP World Tour event six weeks ago at the Betfred British Masters.
Justin Rose and Thomas Detry (both 28-1) are looking to break winless droughts and also make impressions for Ryder Cup consideration next year.
Defending champion Ryo Hisatsune is playing this week on the PGA Tour at the Black Desert Championship in Utah.
The Event
The Open de France is the oldest national open in Continental Europe and was conceived in 1906. That event was won by Arnaud Massy, who as yet remains the only French male golfer to win a major championship – as the winner of the 1907 British Open. Wins for multiple major winning, legendary golfers, such as James Braid (1910), Walter Hagen (1920), Bobby Locke (1952, 1953) and Byron Nelson (1955) add further prestige to the early history of the tournament.
It has also been part of the European Tour schedule since its inception in 1972. France’s national open carries prestige and boasts a cavalcade of Hall of Famers on its past winners list, including Seve Ballesteros (three wins), Nick Faldo (three wins), Greg Norman, Bernhard Langer, Retief Goosen (two wins), Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal. Other recent winners include former major champions Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell (two wins).
The Course
Le Golf National has hosted this tournament every year but two (1999 and 2001) since it opened in 1991. It hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup and the 2024 Olympics. This track usually plays as one of the more difficult layouts on the European Tour. The 7,247-yard, par-71 stadium course is a test for the very best golfers with a premium on accurate driving and, in particular, approaches to the difficult, undulating greens.
With much of the course exposed and water dangerously in play on around half of the holes, it mixes aspects of U.S. resort-style golf and holes that do not look dissimilar to that which you’d find on many British links courses.
The rolling fairways are about average in width overall, with some very narrow and others particularly generous. They’re defended by water on seven holes, some strategically placed bunkering on others and are framed by large mounds, which can be home to some gnarly rough.
The Bentgrass greens (12.6 stimpmeter) are well bunkered and have many run-offs leading into swales and hollows that are not easy to get up and down from, with the course ranking among the 10 most challenging courses on which to scramble around on the DPWT. Water protects seven of them, including the opening two holes, and makes for a furious finish, in play on three of the final four holes.
Open de France Recent History
2023: Ryo Hisatsune (-14/270); 100-1
2022: Guido Migliozzi (-16/268); 80-1
2021: Canceled due to COVID-19
2020: Canceled due to COVID-19
2019: Nicolas Colsaerts (-12/272); 100-1
2018: Alex Noren (-7/277); 16-1
2017: Tommy Fleetwood (-12/272); 22-1
2016: Thongchai Jaidee (-11/273); 66-1
2015: Bernd Wiesberger (-13/271); 33-1
2014: Graeme McDowell (-5/279); 12-1
2013: Graeme McDowell (-9/275); 25-1
2012: Marcel Siem (-8/276); 70-1
2011: Thomas Levet (-7/277); 140-1
2010: Miguel Angel Jimenez (-11/273); 80-1*
* Playoff win over Alejandro Canizares and Francesco Molinari
Selections
Jordan Smith (22-1, BetMGM)
Smith finished runner-up here last year and seventh the year before.
He ranks second on the DP World Tour for Greens In Regulation and 13th for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee.
Thorbjørn Olesen (25-1, Bet365)
Olesen was runner-up on debut here in 2011 to Frenchman Thomas Levet.
He finished 14th on this course at the Olympics earlier this summer.
Yannik Paul (45-1, Bet365)
Paul has consecutive top-10 finishes at Le Golf National.
The German ranks eighth for Greens In Regulation on the DP World Tour this season.
Adrian Otaegui (55-1, Bet365)
Otaegui has a form line here of 16-13-MC-12-7 in this event.
The Spaniard is the DP World Tour leader for Driving Accuracy and also top 15 for Strokes Gained: Around The Green and Top 20 for Strokes Gained: Approach.
Frederic Lacroix (60-1, Bet365)
Lacroix aims to become the first home winner of this event since Levet in 2011.
He won his first DP World Tour event seven weeks ago at the Danish Open and his top-10 tee-to-green game should lead him to contention this week.
