• GIR and Scrambling the key stats to focus on

• Form stats for Paris

• Read Dave Tindall's each-way column here

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Tournament History

After a break of a 112 years, golf returned to the Olympics in Rio in 2016, where England's Justin Rose edged out Sweden's Henrik Stenson, with America's Matt Kuchar picking up the bronze medal.

America's Xander Schauffele claimed the gold medal in Japan back in 2021, Rory Sabbatini, who represented his wife's country of birth, Slovenia, finished second, thanks to a ten-under-par 61 from off the pace in round four, which is the lowest round ever recorded at the Olympics, and after a seven-man playoff, C.T Pan of Chinese Taipei won the bronze medal.

Only four men are in the line-up that have contended in the first two editions in the modern era - Gavin Green of Malaysia, Fabrizio Zanotti of Paraguay, Tokyo bronze medallist, C.T. Pan, and New Zealander, Ryan Fox.

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Format and Qualification Criteria

The tournament is a traditional 72-hole stroke play event played out over four days between Thursday 1 August and Sunday 4 August. If there is a tie for any of the three medal positions after the 72 holes have been played, there'll be a play-off to determine the result. There wil be no halfway cut.

The field is limited to 60 through the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).

The top 15 players on the OWGR are eligible for the Olympic Games, up to a maximum of four golfers from a single country, so the United States are represented by the world numbers one, Scottie Scheffler, two, Xander Schauffele, five, Wyndham Clark, and six, Collin Morikawa.

There are nine players inside the world's top-15 from the United States and no other nation has more than one player inside the top-15.

After the top 15, the field is made up of up to the top two eligible players per country and 32 different nations are represented.

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Who's in and who's out?

Although inside the top-15 in the official rankings, as there's only a maximum of four Americans allowed to play Patrick Cantlay, Bryson DeChambeau, Brian Harman, Sahith Theegala and Max Homa all miss out.

The field of 60 is made up of 30 players that have played here previously and 30 players that haven't, and that includes Scheffler and Schauffele.

Gudi Migliozzi and Alex Noren are the only two in the field that have won here previously.

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Venue

Le Golf National, Paris

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Course Details

Par 71, 7,174 yards

Le Golf National only opened in 1990 but it's already establishing itself as a truly great venue that provides an extremely demanding test.

It's a fairly exposed track with a linksy feel and undulating fairways of average width. The greens are bentgrass, of an average size, and they usually run at around 12 on the stimpmeter. Water is in play on holes 1, 2, 13, 15, 16 and 18.

It's a stadium style course designed by Hubert Chesneau and Robert Van Hagge and it underwent some significant changes prior to the 2016 edition, in preparation for the Ryder Cup in 2018.

Apart from 1999 and 2001, it's been the host course for the Open de France on the DP World Tour since 1991.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

Coverage on BBC and Eurosport, starting at 8:00am on Thursday and streaming on the BBC iPlayer and Discovery +

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What Will it Take to Win the Gold Medal?

This isn't a course to be overpowered and historically, Driving Accuracy has been a more important stat than Driving Distance.

The last two Open de France winner, Ryo Hisatsune and Guido Migliozzi have ranked only sixth and 14^th for Greens In Regulation. However, had the two men who finished second went on to win, Jordan Smith and Rasmus Hojgaard, 11/ 11 of the last 17 course winners would have ranked inside the top-three for GIR. Smith and Hojgaard both ranked second for that key metric.

The 2019 Open de France winner, Nicolas Colsaerts, only ranked 68^th for Scrambling and that's an unusually high ranking for any winner and especially so at Le Golf National.

The two previous Open de France winners, Alex Noren and Tommy Fleetwood, ranked eighth and ninth for Scrambling and Hisatsune ranked 14th. However, Migliozzi topped the Scrambling rankings in 2022, Thongchai Jaidee ranked second when he won here in 2016, the 2015 Open de France winner, Bernd Wiesberger, ranked third, when the top-five scramblers all finished inside the top-six places.

Jaidee also finished runner-up here ten years ago when he also ranked second for Scrambling, with Mathew Baldwin, who finished 5th, ranking first.

Back in 2013, six of the first seven home ranked inside the top-eight for Scrambling and 12 years ago, four of the first six home ranked in the top-six for that stat.

GIR is a stat to concentrate on, but Scrambling looks the most important and the top scrambler for the week has finished in the places in 15 of the last 19 renewals.

Most of the placed players have ranked highly for Putting Average at the last two editions of the Open de France but it's not unusual to see someone to rank poorly for putting and win. Noren only ranked 37^th for Putting Average in 2018, Fleetwood's PA ranking in 2017 was only 53^rd, Wiesberger ranked just 33^rd in 2016 and the three winners between 2011 and 2013 had an average PA ranking of just 25.6.

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Is There an Angle In?

Course form used to count for plenty at Le Golf National and Graeme McDowell and Jean-Francois Remesy have both won the Open de France back-to-back but the last three course winners have shown it's not essential.

Although he'd finished 11^th in both 2011 and 2012, in addition to a couple of other top-25 finishes, the 2021 Open de France winner, Nicholas Colsaerts, didn't have the strongest set of course form figures, Migliozzi had missed the cut on his only previous visit before he won here two years ago, and Hisatsune was playing the course for the very first time when he took the title last September.

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US Open form could be a plus

The 2022 course winner, Migliozzi, is an in-and-out performer and he often goes off at a triple-figure price, but he's finished fourth and 14th in his only two appearances in the US Open and a number of Paris winners have also won what's often regarded as the toughest major, so that's another angle in to consider.

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Course Winner's Position and Exchange Price Pre-Round Four

2023 - Ryo Hisatsune - solo fifth - trailing by four 32.031/1
2022 - Guido Migliozzi -T9 - trailing by five 90.089/1
2020 & '21 - Open de France cancelled
2019 - Nicolas Colsaerts led by three strokes 2.001/1
2018 - Alex Noren T7 - trailing by seven strokes 42.041/1
2017 - Tommy Fleetwood T3 - trailing by two 5.14/1
2016 - Thongchai Jaidee - led by two 3.953/1
2015 - Bernd Wiesberger - solo third - trailing by three 6.86/1

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In-Play Tactics

As many as ten of the last 13 54-hole leaders have been beaten so converting from the front here is notoriously tricky.

Jordan Smith, who was matched at just 1.111/9, led by six after two holes of round two in last year's Open de France but he went on to finish tied for second. A year earlier, Rasmus Hojgaard had led by eight strokes after he'd finished his second round on Friday morning but he also finished second.

Although it's tough to convert from the front and we've witnessed plenty of course winners from off the pace in round four, every winner here has been inside the top-ten places through 54 holes, but Migliozzi pushed that in 2022 given he was tied ninth through three rounds.

We've seen winners come from two, three, four, five and seven adrift at Paris National and when McDowell defended the Open de France title ten years ago, he trailed by eight with a round to go!

Alex Noren trailed by seven with a round to go in 2018 and he was one of five men to trade at odds-on in round four! Marcus Kinult, who had led after round three, was matched at a low of 1.8810/11, Jon Rahm hit 1.981/1, Julian Suri was matched at 1.9520/21, and the eventual second, Chris Wood, traded all the way down to 1.454/9 before bogeys at 15 and 17 did for his chances.

It's a really difficult finish and posting a score and waiting for the rest to fail has often been the way the Open de France title has been decided.

Previously a par five, the 18^th usually ranks as the hardest hole on the course and after the par five 14^th, it's a tough finish all round, so if your fancy is in front with four to play you might want to bank some profit. And if you're planning to trade in running on Sunday, anyone already in the house will have a distinct advantage on anyone on the same score with holes to play.

That may seem obvious, but the market always favours those still on the course, with optimistic punters imagining birdies, but in reality, playing the last four holes in level-par is a great finish.

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Gold Medal Contenders

The world number one, Scottie Scheffler, has already won six times this year, with the highlights being a successful Players Championship defence and a second US Masters victory.

He contended strongly at the Open Championship at Royal Troon last time out, where he eventually finished seventh, and he's almost certain to be in-the-mix again here, if the putter behaves.

In his last three starts, he'd ranked only 73^rd, 27^th and 36^th for Putting Average and that's just about the only negative.

After finishing second to Rory McIlroy at the Wells Fargo Championship in May, the defending Olympic champion, Xander Schauffele, has overtaken the Irishman in the Official World Rankings with two wins in his last six starts. And both victories have been in major championships.

Having been the best player not to have won a major, the 30-year-old edged out Bryson DeChambeau to win the US PGA Championship before cruising to victory at Troon last time out.

Having ranked third for Greens In Regulation in each of his last two starts and first and third for Scrambling, he's a great fit statistically but how hard has he been celebrating his Open victory.

Rory McIlroy missed the cut on the first occasion he played in the Open de France here in 2008 but he finished fourth in 2010 and third in 2016 so he has course form to boast.

The world number three was spotted warming up at St Andrews yesterday and he's been well-supported but he's not for me at around 10/111.00.

McIlroy finished fourth when defending the Scottish Open following his horrible collapse at the US Open in June but he missed the cut last time out in the Open Championship and I'm happy to swerve him.

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US Open winners chanced before the off

Having been forced to withdraw from the US Open before the off with a foot injury, an event he won in 2021, Jon Rahm finished seventh at the Open Championship before winning the Liv Golf UK event on Sunday.

The Spaniard has played here twice previously, finishing 10^th and fifth and I thought he was fairly priced at 12/113.00 given his recent upturn in form.

In addition to backing Rahm, I was also happy to throw a few pounds in the direction of the world number five, Wyndham Cark, at a triple-figure price.

He lost his way badly in the worst of the weather at the Open Championship last time out and he missed the cut by a country mile, but he'd finished inside the top-ten in both his previous starts, and he looks a big price for someone that's won three times in the last 14 months - including last year's US Open.

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*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter

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