Open de France, one of the longest running

Matteo Manassero, Guido Migliozzi, Francesco Molinari, Edoardo Molinari, Andrea Pavan, Lorenzo Scalise and Francesco Laporta are the seven Italians participating in the FedEx Open de France, one of the longest running tournaments of the DP World Tour, founded in 1906 and now in its 106th edition.

It will be played from October 10 to 13 for the 30th time since 1991, the 21st time in a row, at the Le Golf National course in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines near Paris, France, where the 2018 Ryder Cup was held .

France, history

The field includes four players in the top 50 of the World Rankings: the American Billy Horschel (no.

17), the Frenchman Matthieu Pavon (no. 26), the Englishman Justin Rose (no. 37) and the South African Thriston Lawrence (no. 46), in a context that also involves 21 seasonal winners and which makes it quite a difficult task makes exercise to make predictions on the eve.

The 21 include Guido Migliozzi (KLM Open), former winner in 2022 when he took the title with a final 62 (-9) and equaled the course record, Matteo Manassero (Jonsson Workwear Open), who was in the running for success in the recent Irish Open (3rd) and BMW PGA Championship (4th), the latter signed in September by Horschel.

Among the others we must mention the French David Ravetto and Frederic Lacroix, who together with Victor Perez, Antoine Rozner and Pavon will try to bring back home a title missing since 2011 (Thomas Levet), the Japanese Rikuya Hoshino and Yuto Katsuragawa, the German Marcel Siem, who won at the Italian Open in Cervia and in this competition in 2012, the Danes Thorbjorn Olesen and Rasmus Hojgaard, the Englishman Matt Wallace and the Iberian Angel Hidalgo, who defeated Jon Rahm in the Acciona Open de España .

They have not won on the track this season, but the Englishman Danny Willett and Francesco Molinari, two Major Champions, can have their say with the Italian who was the absolute protagonist on this course in the 2018 Ryder Cup with five successes in no fewer than matches , a record for continental players.

And also the Dane Nicolai Hojgaard, the Northern Irishman Tom McKibbin, the English Jordan Smith and Daniel Gavins and the German Yannik Paul. The tournament is of significant importance as it is the seventh of the nine “Black 9” events leading up to the Genesis Championship (October 24-27), at the end of which the first 110 of the Race To Dubai will make the ‘card’ have ‘ for the DP WorldTour 2025.

So that leaves only three options for those currently off the list. In addition, there will also be a competition to get into the top 70 of the Race to Dubai, which will gain entry to the first of the two final races (Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, November 7-10).

Without forgetting the points up for grabs to automatically join Team Europe for the 2025 Ryder Cup (six qualified via the Ryder Cup points table). The prize pool is 3,250,000, with a top prize pool of $552,500. The tournament originated, as mentioned, in 1906 as the Open de France, and since 1980 the name has been associated with a sponsor, FedEx being the eighth in the series.

There have been only four winners in the past: in addition to Migliozzi and Siem, the Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts (2019) and the Austrian Bernd Wiesberger (2015) are at the start. Migliozzi was the third Italian to sign the honors list, after Ugo Grappasonni (1949) and Costantino Rocca (1993).

Italians have finished second six times: once with Aldo Casera (1954), with Massimo Florioli (1998) and with Rocca himself (2001) and three times with Francesco Molinari (2010, 2012, 2016). The record for victories belongs to Englishman Aubrey Boomer with five (between 1921 and 1931).

The Spaniard Severiano Ballesteros and the Frenchman Arnaud Massy follow with four and with three the Englishman Nick Faldo, the Argentinian Roberto De Vicenzo, the Belgian Flory Van Donck and the Frenchman Marcel Dallemagne (the only hat trick in a row from 1936 to 1938).