European Tour - Open de France...

...or shouldn't they call it "Le Ouvert de France"!?

Anyway, the French Open is one of the oldest golf tournaments on the planet and is certainly enjoying a hike in profile over the last 5-6 year (since 2006 to be more precise, when Alstom came on board as title sponsor).

Spoiler:

The prize fund has shoot up as well over the past decade, as high as over 4 million euros at some point, making it one of the richest events on the European Tour calendar, outside the majors and WGCs. And with the 2018 Ryder Cup on its way to France on the same course where the French Open is played most of the time, one can only expect this high profile to be maintained, if not enhanced in the years to come. The venue is Le Golf National, situated just east of Paris and Versailles, and its championship L'Albatros course (L'Aigle and L'Oiselet are the other two smaller courses in the complex) is highly regarded by many pros as an excellent and pretty tough test of golf.

Last year the tournament was won rather surprisingly (his form wasn't at all great before that) by Thomas Levet of France, to the great delight of the large and noisy local crowd. Unfortunately for him, Levet has been remembered ever since just as much, or maybe even more, for breaking a leg in the wild celebrations that followed that win... Pitty also that there is no sequel this year to last year's 'comedy' - An American in Paris - starring Bubba Watson... as neither him nor any other notable Americans are making the trip. Robert Allenby looks to be one of the most 'exotic' specimen out there this year, probably in as a former winner of the event and probably in desperate search for his lost form as well as pre-Open aclimatisation... Some of the European guys who did well here last year, like Olesen, Foster and Morrison are all in good form lately, so I would expect them to rise to the task once again this week. Lee Westwood can move to #2 in the world if he wins again this week, and you'd expect him to be there or thereabouts come Sunday afternoon (not looking like a great start at the moment though).

The early leader this morning is Gary Boyd, but he's been having quite a few fast starts in the past only to fade away later on, so we'll have to wait and see if Le jour de gloire est arrivee for him. Also, amongst others with good early starts are Del Moral (playing well recently), Matteo and RC-Bello as well as Colsaerts and Allenby... But it seems that the hangover is not over for Donaldson after the Portrush celebrations, and there's a rather worrying bunch of 'superstars' cluttering the bottom of the leaderboard at the moment: Lee, GMac, Quiros, Stenson, Kaymer, Jimenez, Goosen...

Nice summary drac.M Campbell about to get a nosebleed!!

Forza Matteo! Allez Raphael! Wake up Lee! Cheers dynamark!

Jacquelin leading in the Allons enfants de la Patrie category...

pd

Upside down leaderboard here, none of the six top 50 golfers currently on the course are under par. "You can't win it on Thursday, you can only lose it", comes to mind.

pd,
Glad Brendan Steele came back to Paris - he did a good job last year playing the good guy to Bubba's bad guy, and enjoyed a decent finish also.


And, as a digression for George1507, he'll be pleased to see Player, Charles and Bembridge grouped together in this week's Senior affair.

Cheers kwini, you're right, totally forgot about Steele this morning... Good to see him back!

Great start for Matteo and Rapha! Of course, now when I decided to leave Matteo out of my fantasy team but picked Kaymer instead...

pr,
I think you were right first time, Steele hasn't done anything to classify him as a "notable American".

Hope "goldwolf" is enjoying Gary Boyd's progress . . . . . . long season for Boyd so far.

Pd, thanks for the notes!

Will be interesting to watch Westwood's week. His last event before The Open. Would imagine he'll view this as a warm up, he'd never admit it, and his scores will reflect that. Get some tuning and tinkering done Thursday through to Saturday then a low one on Sunday to finish.

Cheers, lairdy.

Nice come back from Lee, GMac and Stenson.... but Kaymer, Quiros, Miguel and Goose look like definite "You can't win it on Thursday, you can only lose it" contenders, as kwini pointed out...

Super flawless 66's posted by Boyd and Manassero!

After qualifying for the Open, dear old Mr Broadhurst is really cocking up his round today (after a birdie start, he is now 5 over after 8 holes). Thusfar, most afternoon starters seem to be lagging behind, compared to the morning flights. Only exceptions: Messrs Rose and Kjeldsen.

Didn't mention Rose, but he's certainly making everybody aware that he's there and means business... Very strong start also from Kjeldsen as well and Brendan Steele; Zanotti's another one in very good form lately...

I think Broady is just keeping his eye in until seniors beckons

On the sorry side of things...
- no signs of any hope from Casey, still looking all over the place out there...
- what looked like two of the brightest young prospects of English golf at the end of last season, Lewis and Fleetwood, are having a pretty poor 2012 and need to rediscover their form very soon...

Back-to-back SEVENS for Casey.

This is more tragedy than farce . . . . . .

kwinigolfer wrote:Back-to-back SEVENS for Casey.

This is more tragedy than farce . . . . . .

Casey's 7 at 14 is now a 6.
DC's 4 at 14 is now a 6

Looks like the scoring fella at 14 has been on the Merlot!!

princedracula wrote:Didn't mention Rose, but ...

...and now I wish I didn't mention him at all!

Looks like it's a game of two halves on that course. Front is easy, back can throw up some big numbers. JR and LW with similar looking cards but where JR started on the 1st and Lee the 10th, they appeared very different while in progress.

Nice to see Big Darren in at -1 after a dodgy period during Back 9.................3's at 18 are like gold dust................

That's true SJ, remember it was pretty similar last year... Today the hardest 3 holes were on back nine and easiest 3 holes were on the front nine...

JC - didn't see it, but according to this tweet from Chris Wood, DC nearly aced the 16th for a BMW...

http://www.twitvid.com/GMZ6L

kwinigolfer wrote:pd

Upside down leaderboard here, none of the six top 50 golfers currently on the course are under par. "You can't win it on Thursday, you can only lose it", comes to mind.

pd,
Glad Brendan Steele came back to Paris - he did a good job last year playing the good guy to Bubba's bad guy, and enjoyed a decent finish also.


And, as a digression for George1507, he'll be pleased to see Player, Charles and Bembridge grouped together in this week's Senior affair.

Kwini - thank you!

It's so nice to know there's someone looking out for me as I sit here alone on the high hill of my old age...

The standard of writing, and the knowledge about pro golf on this board is astonishingly good. I doff my hat to you all.

My hill of old age is also pretty high, George, certainly high enough to remember Bembridge's course record tying 64 at Augusta National!

And a quick gaze at wiki showed me that Bembridge was born (not on the Isle Of Wight . . . . . ) in Worksop who clearly have something in their water, what with Foster and lw1, and I think David Snell's from that part of the world also!

Bit of trivia Kwini.Atherstone golf club have produced open 2 silver medal winners(Webster and Broady)3 Ryder cup player(Broady,Bernard Hunt and Geoff Hunt )and a Seniors Open winner(name escapes me but he is still around and won the club championship about 15 times).Short ish course but very testing every hole completely different.

Good moaning...

What's with all these Italians towards the top of the leaderboard??? And that's excluding Dodo Molinari - is he still injured, by the way?

Joost Luiten from The Netherlands is presenting a mixed bag today: 12 holes played, 6 birds, 4 bogeys and 2 pars... Looks like he will be making the cut if he gets to level par (he is now 1 over).

Cut looks to me like it might get to +2...........

And Paul Casey's poor run continues today. Already 4 over after 11 holes for a combined total of 13 over and a tie for 153rd spot in a 156 field... That about says it all. 10 bucks on Casey not making the cut at The Open.

John Cregan wrote:Cut looks to me like it might get to +2...........

Had a look at the scores again and seems that you are right; don't know what the current conditions are and if conditions will improve or deteriorate during the day, but a fair share of the players out there is over par for the day.

***And a quick gaze at wiki showed me that Bembridge was born (not on the Isle Of Wight . . . . . ) in Worksop who clearly have something in their water, what with Foster and lw1, and I think David Snell's from that part of the world also!***


Really? I'm going to a wedding near Worksop next weekend, completely coincidentally. Do you think if I hang around the town centre for a while some of it might rub off on me?

Probably not George the place is a bit run down Last time I was there I saw a young couple feeding chips to a baby in a pushchair.mining decline and all that.
However if you take you clubs worth a visit to Bondhay GC very very difficult.

Update on the top 100 OWGR players' scoring: Hansen and Luiten are today's leaders (both -4, Hansen had 5 birdies and a bogey, Luiten a whopping 8 birdies and 4 bogies, both have two holes to play). Rose is one over for the day and the tourney and just inside the cut line, Hanson and Dyson look set to miss the cut (as are Rock, Casey, Hoey and Ramsay).

Update on DC.........from being inside the Top 20 he's gone quadruple bogey, bogey.............weekend off

I really hope DC does the decent thing and retire after the open. He is just wasting places in fields that could go to up and coming players. What he is doing is a lot worse than the worlds best taking a couple of quid out the prize funds in appearance fee's. He is stopping good players even having the chance to win anything.

People on here will think I have a thing agianst him but really I just look for fairness when judging the players.

I agree mac, i bet if first prize were a pint of guinness he'd win every tournament

I have to say it is more the contrast in outrage when players doing well and growing the game are called out on here and then for reasons I dont understand DC is given an easy ride.

McLaren wrote:I really hope DC does the decent thing and retire after the open. He is just wasting places in fields that could go to up and coming players. What he is doing is a lot worse than the worlds best taking a couple of quid out the prize funds in appearance fee's. He is stopping good players even having the chance to win anything.

People on here will think I have a thing agianst him but really I just look for fairness when judging the players.

I assume you believe Michael Campbell should retire as well??

Clarke is still Top 100 in the World......i think your point is way OTT.............Lee Westwood went through a similar and longer slump many years ago. Should he have retired??

Cobblers, Mac!
I didn't hear any bleats from you about Woods playing tournaments in the last year or three because he was playing poorly.
DC deserves all he gets in my book, mostly good one would hope.

Meanwhile, Casey in with his second consecutive EIGHTY, including three birdies.
One eight, two sevens, four sixes and nine other bogeys in 36 holes. Not his best effort; Peter Kostis conspicuously silent regarding his form, wonder if they're still working together?

Well I guess when DC returns to the top 4 in the world like lee and tiger managed after a slump my thought will be certified cobblers.

I also don't think tiger kept getting in majors and wgc's on the basis of four good days.

Darren is just having an annus horribilus mac, give him a break.

Lee is having a back-nine horribilis . . . . .

Marcel Siem seems to be thereabouts week in, week out this year. Always had talent, has he finally sorted out his dodgy temperament? Still only 31.

Ned,
Don't you think his talent is taking him further every week? Before his dodgy temperament takes over of course!

Some strange old scorecards out there, and I see Poults is bleating about the course set-up.

As a PGA Tour fan, I'm happy to see Brendan Steele up there. Not sure quite how far his career will go, but he seems a good guy.

Poor results for Dyson and Rock, as well as Casey and Clarke of course.

What back nine horribilis...? Noren is blitzing through them holes at the moment....
He's one of the few who when in his zone, can be quite devastating... unfortunately, that doesn't happen as often and as consistently as he would like... The 18th yet to go, so it could still go horribilis-ly wrong if he's not careful...

This really is a course where predictions are extremely difficult to make at any time... plus both Siem and Noren, although they've tonnes of talent between them, are not exactly the sort of material that I would bet my house on, not yet anyway...

There you go, as I just finished writing this, Noren bogeyed the 18th, still a great round though...
Great to see Steele playing well...

Howler is gradually creeping back to his old form.
Probably should not have said that !!

Westwood six holes played this morning ...............+7.............no par yet.............Kaymer last.

Talking of an upside down leaderboard... it would've looked like that for sure about a year ago considering the two Germans that are now top and bottom of the LB. Good to see some signs of life coming out of Retief this morning...

Also, looking at how Lee, Kaymer, Tiger, Phil, etc. performed this week, makes you wonder how much the top players really care about some of these pre-major tournaments...

There is an Open Championship place on offer this week, both en France and at The Greenbrier: Top finisher in the Top Five not otherwise qualified.

Siem in the drivers seat (tenuously) in Europe, Beljan, Flores, Kelly and Maggert tied in West Virginia!

"Also, looking at how Lee, Kaymer, Tiger, Phil, etc. performed this week, makes you wonder how much the top players really care about some of these pre-major tournaments..."

Prince I hope your right as I like to see the top guys contend the msjors.

I see that there has been a reason for Lee's poor performance today. Apparently he injured his groin after he slipped this morning before he teed off... Hopefully he'll be ok for the Open...

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012048/news/newsid=166575.html#westwood+upbeat+after+injury+scare

Wow! Howler leading after 56 holes... when was the last time that happened...? Once apon a time...

C'mon Howler!!!

Can anyone explain the scoring variances so far, were the conditions terrible for the early starters?

I hear Lee injured himself after slipping on a sleeper, hope its not too serious. Maybe he will fulfill the "beware the injured golfer" prophecy and win the Open.

It Siems we have a winner, well done Marcel.