Golf Events / Editor / 26 June 2007 / Leave a Comment

John Bickerton may be the defending champion at the French Open but there is another fascinating sub-plot to this week's events as the high-quality field gather on the outskirts of Paris for the richest tournament on Continental Europe this season.

Bickerton was the surprise winner at Le Golf National last year and will be hoping a return to the par-71 course will spur him on to better things after a disappointing year so far in which he has also had to contend with the recent loss of his mother.

The Englishman is available at 60 to defend his title but there is likely to be almost as much interest this week in the 'mini' Order of Merit race that finishes on Sunday, which has two places on offer for next month's Open Championship.
Bradley Dredge and Richard Green currently head the standings approaching the fourth and final event of the race and have a sizeable lead over their closest pursuers Miguel Angel Jimenez and Nick Dougherty.

But the mini-table could still change with all four golfers in action in France, with Jimenez needing to finish in the top six and Dougherty the top five to overtake Green - in both cases they need the Australian left-hander to miss the cut.

Green is the most fancied of the quartet to do well and currently trades as the 18.5 favourite to win with Dredge on offer at 21 ahead of Jimenez (29) and Dougherty (36).

Lee Westwood can be backed at 19.5 to claim his second win of the season ahead of BMW PGA champion Anders Hansen (20), with Jose Maria Olazabal and Richard Sterne trading around three points longer in the market and flamboyant Englishman Ian Poulter available at 29 as he seeks a welcome return to form.

This year's event at Le Golf National will feature a record total prize fund of 4 million euros and, with no fewer than 83 players in the field with winning form on the European Tour, selecting the victor will be no easy task.

The course is expected to be far from easy, with firm fairways and fast greens predicted which will place more emphasis on finding the fairway off the tee and putting well - especially for the tough finish where water comes into play on three of the final four holes.

Green, available at 4.9 to finish in the first five this week, provided a few anxious moments before winning the BA-CA Open in Austria three weeks ago after a play-off but is swinging well while Hansen is also unlikely to be too far away on Sunday.

Much like he did to win the BMW PGA title last month, the Dane - the same price as Green for a top-five finish - surged through the field in Germany last weekend to finish joint fourth and look out for him if he is still in touch with the leaders going into the final two rounds.

Olazabal is making a rare appearance in Europe after basing himself on the PGA Tour for most of the year and is yet to produce his best form this season, but he is a former winner of the event in 2001 and finished strongly here last year. He may be worth backing at 6 to place in the first five.

Westwood's win in Spain earlier this year has given his confidence an enormous boost but the player it may pay to follow this week is South African Richard Sterne.

Sterne has not been seen in competitive action since winning the Celtic Manor Wales Open at the start of the month, but he has finished in the top five of seven of his last eight tournaments and has managed 11 top-20 places in his last 13 events.

He is trading at 6.6 to come in the first five and 3.05 to finish in the top ten this week.

Despite blowing three good opportunities to win this year, Dougherty remains in good touch and appears a player for the shortlist together with Dredge, Jimenez and Raphael Jacquelin - who is trading at 34 to win and 7.8 to place in the top five, slightly longer than Jimenez.

Poulter may be a player best watched in play as he bids to come out of his recent slump but there looks to be plenty of other value to be found in the market.

Jose-Filipe Lima warmed up for this week by tying second behind Niclas Fasth last week and is attractively priced at 100 to win while Andres Romero (44 to win), Thomas Levet (60), Maarten Lafeber (80) and Ricardo Gonzalez all performed with credit in Germany.

Paul Broadhurst came from eight shots back in the final round to win the French Open in 1995 and could be worth backing at 85 to repeat his triumph after enjoying a good first half of the season, while he is priced at 17.5 to place in the first five.

And keep a watching brief too on Frenchman Jean-Francois Remesy, who won here in 2004 and 2005 and is trading at around 65 to make it three victories in four years.