Golf
Open de France preview: Perez hunting home Victory
The DP World Tour heads back down into mainland Europe as Paris plays host to this year’s Open de France.
The tournament has been played at Le Golf National every year since 2002, and before that it was also the most frequent venue for this event.
Having been in the Olympic spotlight this summer, Paris’ premier course is set to welcome a slightly less star-studded field this week, headed by the Dane Rasmus Højgaard.
It was another gut-wrenching finish last week as our outsider once again just missed out, with Matthew Jordan (100/1) ending up T10 at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Two T10s in a row following a good string of successful selections gives us confidence heading into this week, where we have another two selections to get stuck into at nice prices.
Victor Perez 22/1
Regular readers will know that Victor Perez is not an unfamiliar name to us, although it is usually as a big outsider in premier PGA Tour events or Majors that we tend to see his name crop up for a bit of value.
With that in mind, we couldn’t leave him out of our line-up for his home DP World Tour tournament, at a course where he has played so well recently.
He performed admirably here over the summer when representing his country, falling just one shot short of a bronze medal as he ended up fourth in the standings with an impressive final score of 16-under-par.
None of the three players who finished ahead of him that week are in action here, and only two of the 12 others who finished T9 or better will be teeing it up in Paris again. If he can reproduce anything like that performance then he’ll certainly be good value to at least finish in the 6 places available with William Hill.
Since his T10 finish at the Scottish Open back in July, Perez has failed to really produce anything spectacular. He’s been steady enough in making four consecutive cuts in the lead-up to this week, but with his best finish out of those being T33, it’s hard to say he’s set the course alight recently.
However, the return to his homeland proved enough to spark the fire, and if the same applies here then the 22/1 about him could prove generous. With this summer’s near miss likely still hurting, he’ll certainly be eager to set the record straight at Le Golf National.
Yannik Paul 40/1
The Open de France is a simple hop across the border from neighbouring Germany and it is no surprise that Germans have made this course and tournament somewhat of a second home over the years.
Martin Kaymer and Marcel Siem have both been victorious here, while more recent history has seen five German T20 or better finishes in the last two editions. Two of those came via our man Yannik Paul, who improved on his T8 finish in 2022 to finish T6 here last year, and at 40/1 we’re hoping there’s more to come from the Frankfurter.
Finishing in the 6 places available with William Hill was a valiant effort from Paul last year, but it could have been so much better. He finished five back from the eventual winner having shot two-over-par on Sunday and, if matching the final round scores of almost all of those above him, he could’ve had his hands on the trophy.
Much like Perez, Paul’s return to this course will be one filled with an urge to take what he feels should’ve been his, with his omission from the German team here this summer only adding more fuel to the fire.
