Ahead of the Cazoo Open de France, The Tips returns to provide more expert insight to help you choose your Fantasy team as the DP World Tour returns to former Ryder Cup venue Le Golf National.
As anticipation builds ahead of next week's Ryder Cup, regular host Ollie Silverton is joined by golf writers Dave Tindall and Tom Jacobs.
If you have not done so already, you can sign up to play the official 2023 DP World Tour Fantasy game and submit your six-man team before round one gets under way on Thursday: https://fantasy.dpworldtour.com/
The 2023 season-long winner will win a trip to the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai next year, enjoy a lesson with a DP World Tour professional and a round of golf on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. For more information on this amazing prize and others, read here.
Cazoo Open de France
Inaugurated in 1906, the Cazoo Open de France is the oldest national open in Continental Europe and has been part of the DP World Tour's schedule since its inception in 1972.
This week marks the 50th edition of the historic event and the 29th occasion the event is being held at Le Golf National – host venue of the 2018 Ryder Cup.
Formerly a Rolex Series event, a strong field has assembled at the venue on the outskirts of Paris, with Robert MacIntyre joined by a host of former Ryder Cup players as he builds towards his debut appearance at golf's greatest team contest next week.
Ryan Fox, who won last week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club, is also in action as is defending champion Guido Migliozzi, Min Woo Lee and Tom Kim.
The Albatros course at Le Golf National is regarded as one of the toughest on the DP World Tour, with the final four holes surrounded by water which has historically created drama in the closing stages.
Rather than focusing in on course form and recent form, our experts have highlighted performances at the U.S. Open as being perhaps giving a better insight into who might emerge as the winner this week.
"When [Guido] Migliozzi won it last year, I wondered why he had won there? I didn't know it, but he's done really well in recent U.S. Opens, coming fourth in 2021 and 14th in 2022. If there was a quiz question, name a player who's come top 15 in the last two U.S. Opens, unless you really keep your eye on the ball, you wouldn't have guessed him.
"When you go down previous winners at Le Golf National, you’ve got Graeme McDowell winning it twice, a U.S. Open winner. Martin Kaymer won there, also a U.S. Open winner. Retief Goosen won there, a two-time U..S Open winner. Monty and Fleetwood won there, they’ve both come runner-up in the U.S. Open.
There is certainly that kind of mental grind that it puts on a player.
I think you've got to really scramble well and you've always got to do that. Well, in the U.S. Open it really does test your short game excellence. So I think looking at U.S. Open form, even though it perhaps isn't your first thought is, is a decent way to come at this.
Headline Picks
Min Woo Lee
DT: I've nailed my colours to the U.S. Open as a good form guide, so I need to obviously reflect that in my pick. So I'm going to go with Min Woo Lee.
This is his first look at the course, but I think it'll be one that he immediately takes to.
He was fifth in this year’s U.S. Open. He was 27th in the 2022 U.S. Open so far, very early in his career, but that is his best major. I think that bodes well.
He has an excellent temperament, he's a really good scrambler. He's sixth in scrambling this year.
He actually played well in The Open at Hoylake, just didn't see it through on the weekend. But seventh at the Irish Open, a really good 14th last week. He has got that kind of mentality where you can dig in, in the US Open style conditions and he's just a really classy player, isn't he?
I think this is a real good chance for him to get a third DP World Tour title.
Yannik Paul
DT: He was in the Ryder Cup discussions at one point and among a lot of players who were vying for those Captain Picks and automatic qualification. He missed out, but, you know, he could play a role in the future.
I do like his chances this week. He is not in amazing form. He is sort of ticking over, he was 45th in both the Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
But before that he was 20th at Crans-sur-Sierre, 10th in the Czech Masters. So he is bubbling along pretty nicely. I just think, maybe let's get him on a course that he really likes. He has played Le Golf National just once and finished eighth last year, which was an excellent debut performance.
He describes it as an amazing course. He says he likes it because it rewards good shots and can punish weak shots and he likes that kind of setup where you put an emphasis on really good approach play. That's one of his massive strengths as well as being a really good scrambler. He's top 20 in scrambling this season and last, which is really good.
He seems to like France as well. I was looking at his Challenge Tour form in France and he played there twice in 2021 and was 11th both times. So, good vibes and that kind of thing. I just thought it's a chance for him to shine in this company.
Alexander Björk
TJ: I don't know if I necessarily just feel sorry for him for the fact that he is going to probably have the best season of his career and not end with a win, but also he's just been so consistent like every single week.
You look at him and he always seems to be up and there about on the leaderboard.
It doesn't matter what the field is these days, he seems to be in the mix and that's just testament to what he has done this season.
I don't know why he is so much better. With some of the leading DP World Tour players playing a lot more in America, it gave the likes of the Björks a little bit more freedom to play week in, week out and get positive results. Confidence has just bled through the whole season.
We know he struggles to get over the line, but he's been third, eighth and 20th in three starts on a golf course that is notorious for causing some blow-ups and some disappointing finishes.
He was a 54-hole leader here on debut in 2017, he was inside the top four after 36 holes last year, finishing 20th.
He had a couple of good rounds at Crans-sur-Sierre, and I felt the same with Björk that maybe he's just going to take that good course form and turn it into a win.
Connor Syme
TJ: He's just playing too well to ignore. There's a correlating course that I do like too, which is Celtic Manor.
For someone that's finished second, third, eighth and 18th at Celtic Manor between 2020 and 2022, I found it very hard to, to leave him out based on his kind of statistics as well.
Look, I think Connor will be the first person to, to critique his own Sunday performances.
But this is a player that ranks first in both approach and tee to green over the last eight weeks.
He has got four straight top-10 finishes and not many people will have those claims, if any, I think in this field. So, hopefully Connor can put the upset of Sunday behind him and really kick on and look to win his first DP World Tour title.
Fantasy Insight: As it stands, Tom Kim is the favourite for players of our Fantasy Game this week, featuring in 71.23% of teams. Other popular players include Aaron Rai (65.79%) and Min Woo Lee (62.96%). Of those Lee is the only to feature among our expert picks.
Comparatively, some of our other expert choices feature much further down the ranks in terms of players chosen, with Richie Ramsay in 4.78% of teams and Rikuya Hoshino in 2.94%.
Picks in full
| Expert | Player | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Dave Tindall | Min Woo Lee | I've nailed my colours to the U.S. Open as a good form guide, so I need to obviously reflect that in my pick. He was fifth in this year’s US Open. He was 27th in the 2022 US Open so far, very early in his career, but that's, this is his best major the U.S. Open. I think that bodes well. He has got that kind of mentality where he can dig in on the US Open-style conditions and he's just a really classy player, isn't he? I think this is a real good chance for him to get a third DP World Tour. |
| Yannik Paul | He has played Le Golf National just once and finished eighth last year, which was an excellent debut performance. He describes it as an amazing course. He says he likes it because it rewards good shots and can punish weak shots and he likes that kind of setup where you put an emphasis on really good approach play. That's one of his massive strengths as well as being a really good scrambler. He's top 20 in scrambling this season and last, which is really good. He seems to like France as well. I was looking at his Challenge Tour form in France and he played there twice in 2021 and was 11th both times. So, good vibes and that kind of thing. | |
| Adrian Otaegui | But in his last four starts here, he has finished 13th, 12th, and seventh, which is good. He is second in scrambling this season, which bodes well. His putting has been really poor, but I did note that he had positive strokes gained putting figures at Wentworth which was good. He's a four-time winner on the DP World Tour. He won at Valderrama and that was his most recent win. That, like at Le Golf National, is somewhere where you need to be mentally tough to get it done. | |
| Richie Ramsay | On a course that requires accuracy and it's not too long, I think he fits the bill and there's a couple of top-fives that he can play this course nicely. | |
| Tom Jacobs | Alexander Björk | It doesn't matter what the field is these days, he seems to be in the mix and that's just testament to what he has done this season. I don't know why he is so much better. With some of the leading DP World Tour players playing a lot more in America, it gave the likes of the Björks a little bit more freedom to play week in, week out and get positive results. Confidence has just bled through the whole season. We know he struggles to get over the line, but he's been third, eighth and 20th in three starts on a golf course that is notorious for causing some blow-ups and some disappointing finishes. He was a 54-hole leader here on debut in 2017, he was inside the top four after 36 holes last year, finishing 20th. He had a couple of good rounds at Crans-sur-Sierre, and I felt the same with Björk that maybe he's just going to take that good course form and turn it into a win. |
| Connor Syme | He's just playing too well to ignore. There's a correlating course that I do like too, which is Celtic Manor. For someone that's finished second, third, eighth and 18th at Celtic Manor between 2020 and 2022, I found it very hard to, to leave him out based on his kind of statistics as well. Look, I think Connor will be the first person to, to critique his own Sunday performances. But this is a player that ranks first in both approach and tee to green over the last eight weeks. He has got four straight top-10 finishes and not many people will have those claims, if any, I think in this field. So, hopefully Connor can put the upset of Sunday behind him and really kick on and look to win his first DP World Tour title. | |
| Nathan Kimsey | I think he came to people's attention at the Barbasol when he had a chance to win. He obviously lost in a playoff to Vincent Norman there and he had a chance to win his PGA TOUR card. But he’s been pretty solid for the last year or so, winning twice on the Challenge Tour last season to get himself back on the DP World Tour after a decent absence. He's got a great skill set and last week finished 28th at Wentworth, which I think is a really positive result considering he didn't have his best short game stuff. | |
| Rikuya Hoshino | He's done nothing but win since playing professional in 2016. He won on the Japanese Challenge Tour in 2017 and then he won every year on the main Japan tour from 2018 to 2022. Two of those wins came in 2021, he lost a playoff in 2019 and 2022. So, he could have really had three multiple win seasons in the past five-to-six years as a professional. Recently he's finished third at the BMW International Open in Germany, made the cut at The Open Championship and the past two weeks he's finished seventh at the Irish Open, 25th last week at Wentworth and he was actually 12th going into Sunday as well, which I was really impressed by. I'm one of those people that really believes that form can travel, and winning form can definitely travel and translate into different events and he's certainly showing that. His best effort in a Major so far was 26th at Torrey Pines in 2021. |
