Rory McIlroy secured a third-placed finish at the 100th Open de France and then instantly turned his focus to winning a second Open Championship at Royal Troon in two weeks' time.
The Northern Irishman failed to catch fire on the final day at Le Golf National recording a birdie, a bogey and 16 pars in a round of 71 that saw him finish the week five shots behind winner Thongchai Jaidee.
McIlroy had spoken throughout the tournament of how he had been working on his swing and he will now set about doing more work on his action before he looks to regain the Claret Jug he was unable to defend last year due to injury.
"It's been a good week, just to see where I'm at with my game," he said. "There were signs that it was really good and heading in the right direction and then today, again, there were some times that it was good.
"But there were a few swings I made on the back nine that I need to work on. I was getting quite steep with my irons, which has been a problem anyway. So I just need to try to work on that going forward.
I've got ten days until the Open starts. I'm going to be working every day to try to get better and play a bit of links golf and work on the shots that I'll need for Troon - Rory McIlroy
"I'm confident where I'm at and even though this week it didn't feel that good, I'm obviously doing some things right. So I'll go forward and keep working hard and hopefully I'll be ready for Troon.
"It was really disappointing, especially at St Andrews last year, not to be able to defend. The last time I played the Open I won it, so good memories and hopefully I can play similar to the way I did in Liverpool and give myself a chance."
Francesco Molinari finished a shot ahead of McIlroy to claim second place in this event for the third time after his runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2012.
The Italian finished birdie-birdie after also rattling off four in a row from the third in a closing 66 but that was not quite enough to hand him the title.
"Obviously it was a great start," he said. "I was just trying to keep it going, to hit good shots.
"Unfortunately I hit two really bad ones on nine and ten off the tee. So I managed to get away with two bogeys, which was a success, really, with those two shots. Then I started playing better again.
"I always seem to fall a bit short here. I'm glad with today. I think yesterday, I got it to five under after 11 and then made three soft bogeys coming in without hitting really bad shots.
"The game is moving in the right direction. I think I've done a lot of work on the short game and on the putting and I think it showed today. I holed so many putts, so I'm proud of that."
