Nevertheless, these team competitions aren’t quite so good for betting whereas the Open de France is another open, competitive heat, the market headed by a handful of Wentworth contenders plus the man who emerged as champion, Ryan Fox, after another fine advert for everyone’s favourite golf tour.
Tom Kim faded a little on Sunday but it was a good return to action and he’s installed as favourite. Le Golf National, a positional course which frustrated the hell out of several members of Team USA in the Ryder Cup five years ago, sets up nicely for a player with star power if not driving power and he has all the tools to be adding this title to his collection.
Min Woo Lee is built differently – what a Presidents Cup pairing these two could make, by the way – and on the face of it wouldn’t be as suited to the task at hand, given that driver is not going to be an option for him all that often. Still, encouragement can be drawn from the fact that he’s contended at somewhere as suffocating as Valderrama, and the fact he was greenside to welcome home Fox on Sunday night.
Kim and Lee are a window into this week’s big conundrum: just how a course we know really well is set to play. When the DP World Tour moved the event to October in 2019, big-hitting Nicolas Colsaerts won. Three years later, Guido Migliozzi marked the return of the event with the shot of the year to beat Rasmus Hojgaard, with powerhouses Thomas Pieters and Paul Barjon helping pad out the top five.
This represents a marked contrast from when drier conditions made for an often fiery test in mid-summer, but after the latest European heatwave not so long ago, and with very little rain around in Paris of late, I wonder if we might get Le Golf National playing somewhat like it used to. That scenario would lead me to Kim over Lee, and it colours this week’s selections at bigger prices.
Thunderbear to strike
First up is THORBJORN OLESEN, who returns to the scene of his Ryder Cup appearance in 2018, one which started badly but ended spectacularly as the Dane thrashed Jordan Spieth in the singles.
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With his career now firmly back on track following two wins in the past 15 months, Olesen might’ve expected to be in the running for a wildcard pick this year but didn’t quite do enough, his golden spring followed by a quiet summer despite plenty of good signs.
Since returning following a missed cut at the Open, surely his final chance to turn Luke Donald’s head, I’ve felt that Olesen has been a big eye-catcher. He’s made all four cuts, defying slow starts each time to climb the leaderboard, and until last week his iron play in particular had been electric.
Ranking 66th in strokes-gained approach at Wentworth was a big backwards step on the face of it, but Olesen simply hates the West Course. I dare say he wouldn’t admit it, and it’s possible he still very much enjoys playing in such a fantastic event, but he’s done so a dozen times now without ever being in the mix.