Niall Lyons has four tips for the Open de France in Paris.
Open De France 2023
One week closer to the Ryder Cup and Luke Donald will have been delighted with the quality shown by the majority of his players at Wentworth last week. Ludvig Aberg was a huge disappointment on Sunday but at such an early stage in his career it is important not to get carried away with one bad round. The Swede already looks like he belongs with the best in the game and his career will be a fun ride.
11 of them take the week off before Marco Simone but MacIntyre, who struggled in parts last week heads to Le Golf National in search of some better form before he realises his dream next week by playing in his first Ryder Cup. Tom Kim, Min Woo Lee and Billy Horschel are the big names from the PGA Tour who hang around to play in Paris.
Kim is now making a habit of playing more events worldwide and that can only be an advantage. He looks to have maturity beyond his years in preparation for the future and I'm sure we'll see him back in the winners enclosure sooner rather than later.
Open De France Tips | Niall Lyons Golf Betting Tips
Le Golf National is certainly one of the more challenging courses on the DP World Tour and the players will need to be extra careful with their approach play and be sound around the greens. Long and straight from the tee certainly helps but I'd favour accuracy ever so slightly around here despite some of the ball busters making the frame here in the last couple of years.
Greens in Regulation is certainly a statistic high up the list of winners and contenders here whilst scrambling is also a big part of the equation. Celtic Manor has many similarities even with the naked eye, but on paper it's a course that you can't ignore when analysing the Open de France.
McDowell, Jaidee and Noren have all won on both courses whilst a handful of others have solid form on both tracks. This being one of the tougher tests out there it was no surprise to many that Migliozzi won last year having finished 14th and 4th in the two previous US Open Championships. McDowell won the US Open and the Welsh Open just weeks apart so anyone in this field who has form on either Celtic Manor or tough Major Championship courses must be closely watched.
Min Woo Lee to Win at 14/1
Min Woo Lee has driven the ball extremely well all season and his latest two efforts at the K Club and Wentworth suggest he'll give himself every opportunity to capitalise upon a weaker field this week in Paris. He has ranked 3rd off the tee in both the last two events and had his iron play not dipped a little from the K Club then he could have been looking at a much better finish than 14th last week at the BMW PGA.
Lee looks to have the perfect game for a setup like Le Golf National and should he manage to avoid the water with his approach play this week then he'll be a hard man to keep from the top of the leaderboard. LA Country Club and Oak Hill provided two of the toughest tests this year on tour and Lee finished 5th and 18th in both those events.
He finished 27th at the 2022 US Open, an even tougher test than those two mentioned above so his credentials on these tests are second to none. Tom Kim has the game to cope with these also, but Lee has a shade more experience in that department and ranking 6th in Scrambling this year on the DP World Tour is another string to his bow.
I'd argue he should be favourite for this event so I'm happy to have a fair sized bet on him landing a second National Open having won the Scottish back in 2021.
4pts WIN Min Woo Lee 14/1 (General)
Connor Syme at 45/1 (Eight Places)
Connor Syme was high up my list at Wentworth and as I wrote any triple figure prices were very much worth considering. I was nearly left to rue that omission as he headed off two back of the leader Aberg on Sunday. The final group failed to deliver though and he wasn't helped by the drop in standard from both Aberg and Fleetwood.
Having been four over for his round through eight on Sunday he did battle well with a back nine of two under par to notch his fourth top 10 finish on the trot. He ranked 8th tee to green and 3rd on approach but 55th on the greens meant he had little chance of victory in the end. That has been the story of his golf lately with a sparkling long game and struggling short game.
The latter will no doubt need to improve, but maybe not by much given how well he is hitting the ball. Four efforts at Celtic Manor have yielded finishes of 2nd, 3rd, 8th and 18th so I'd expect him to make his first cut at this golf course this week and once again give a bold account.
2pts each-way C.Syme 45/1 (1/5 8) Bet365 8 place market, WilliamHill
Callum Shinkwin at 75/1 (Eight Places)
Callum Shinkwin battled back admirably on Sunday having been two over par through four holes and I can't help but feel he's a little overpriced to oblige this week. After nine missed cuts on the trot his long game improved a fair bit at the K Club to finish 61st then even further at Wentworth where he ranked 5th in strokes gained tee to green.
A better week on the greens could have seen him in a much better position heading into Sunday but nevertheless it has been a huge improvement. The Englishman has the best form in the field from Celtic Manor having gone WIN-4-8-11 there over the last four years. A previous top ten here in Paris back in 2016 is another positive.
When he won in Wales last year he had posted finishes of 7th and 16th the two weeks previous so it'd be foolish to ignore his excellent long game from last week coupled with the significant course correlation at Celtic Manor.
2pts each-way C.Shinkwin 75/1 (1/5 8) Bet365 8 place market
Matthew Jordan at 100/1 (Seven Places)
Jordan Smith has seen a downturn in his iron play these last couple of weeks but this course should once again suit and I can't see him continuing the run of poor approach play. I expected him to drift to a slightly bigger price than 25s though and despite the fact that he finished 20th in this years US Open being a huge positive, the price dictates and it just isn't big enough.
Having finished 10th at the Open Championship Matthew Jordan has failed to kick on but there were some encouraging signs over the last three days at Wentworth. He opened with a 74 last Thursday but followed it with three under par rounds of 69-71-71. He ranked 34th on approach which in a field as stacked as that was a huge improvement upon recent efforts.
As pointed out by the magnificent Ben Coley on Sunday, three Open qualifiers from Royal Liverpool have since gone on to win on the Challenge Tour. Jordan has yet to kick from his experience there but it may not be long and now having drifted to a very backable number looks worth being on the right side of. 3rd at Celtic Manor in 2020 is another positive heading to Paris.
1.25pts each-way M.Jordan 100/1 (1/5 7) Paddypower
