All eyes in the golfing world head to the French capital this week as the Paris 2024 Olympics men’s golf event takes place on a course very familiar to fans of the DP World Tour as Le Golf National stages the event.
Xander Schauffele was the Olympic champion in Tokyo three years ago and the USPGA Championship winner is in Paris looking to retain the gold medal. A decent field is in place to oppose him although some big names are missing due to the qualifying criteria.
Recent Winners
2020 – Xander Schauffele
2016 – Justin Rose
The Course
We are at Le Golf National this week. This course has hosted the Open de France on plenty of occasions and was also the stage for the Ryder Cup in 2018 so it has held a lot of big tournaments and it hosts another here. The course for the Olympics is a par 71 and it has been setup to stretch no further than 7,174 yards. While Paris was downed by rain at the beginning of the week extreme temperatures will soon firm this course up so it has to be played from the fairway.
When the Ryder Cup was here the rough was purposely grown to give the Americans a disadvantage when their drives were wayward. That is not the case this week so there is a chance that this is a lower scoring week to normal, although this course often holds its own when it hosts the DP World Tour. Iron play is the key around here. The greens are hard to find and they are going to be firm so have pristine iron players on your side.
The Field
There is a set qualifying criteria for this tournament so we don’t have a field like a major or anything like that but the majority of the best players in the world are here and there is no restriction by tour either so there are some LIV golfers in the field. The Americans arrive with a strong artillery in the defending champion Xander Schauffele, the world number one Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and the former US Open winner Wyndham Clark.
Five members of the victorious Ryder Cup team from 2018 are here led by Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood while Jon Rahm, Alex Noren and Thorbjorn Olesen are the others. There is an international charge on this tournament which is led by Joaquin Niemann, Tom Kim and Corey Conners while Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland and Shane Lowry are other notables in the field as are Matthew Fitzpatrick and Jason Day.
Market Leaders
Scottie Scheffler is the 4/1 favourite to win the gold medal this week. Having a decent tee to green game is a requirement around here and there aren’t many with better than the world number one but since that arrest issue at the USPGA Championship he hasn’t been quite at the level he was prior to that. I wouldn’t be rushing to oppose him but I think the field are a little closer than a 4/1 favourite suggests so I’ll tentatively pass him over.
The USPGA Championship and The Open winner and defending champion Xander Schauffele is the 6/1 second favourite to win the tournament. He has been flushing it from tee to green over the last couple of months and arriving here as the defending champion he’ll certainly be motivated to go well. He didn’t play in the Ryder Cup so he will be experiencing the track for the first time but that wouldn’t appear a problem. He is certainly someone to respect.
Rory McIlroy really should be arriving at the Paris 2024 Olympics as the US Open champion but having melted when the heat was on you just wonder if he would get over the line here in a similar situation. This probably isn’t going to be as intense as that was which will help and his blistering driving when it is on song could open this course right up but he hasn’t been in tip top form for a while now and single prices about him in this company don’t really appeal.
Jon Rahm is the only other player in the field who is a single figure price. He nearly had a final round run at The Open a couple of weeks ago and between then and now he cantered to victory on the LIV Tour so he arrives in Paris, where he experienced the course at the Ryder Cup in 2018, in decent form. The Spaniard is always passionate about representing his country and is 9/1 to win the tournament here but that feels like a fair price rather than a particularly inspiring one so I’ll leave this alone.
Main Bets
While putting isn’t everything around here, if I could rely on the putter of Shane Lowry or Tommy Fleetwood over 72 holes I would be all over them this week but as we can’t I think the former Open de France winner Alex Noren is worth a go here. He is an excellent iron player which is probably why he won around here and with this course not being long he won’t need to pound the driver which is very much a positive. Course form certainly is a positive and in these conditions he should be a real threat even in this field.
The other elite ball striker I want to be on this week is Sepp Straka. He is one of the best iron players in the game and has been over an extended period of time. Nobody has hit more fairways in the PGA Tour than him so if he can be dialled in with the irons then he is going to be a leading player this week. The Austrian has four top 10s on the PGA Tour this season and was a winner of the John Deere Classic just over 12 months ago. I think he is a solid punt at 40/1.
Outsiders
I’ll go with a couple of outsiders this week too with Christiaan Bezuidenhout the first of them. He is known to be a master with the irons and as I’ve mentioned already this isn’t a course where he needs to lean on the driver to be successful. He gains strokes on most into the greens, around them and certainly on them so if he can keep the ball in good shape off the tee he shouldn’t be a million miles away. The South African has been a factor in a few key events over the last couple of years and this course should really suit.
It certainly suited Guido Migliozzi two years ago when he took down the Open de France on this very track and the Italian, who has won the KLM Open as recently as six weeks ago, arrives in Paris feeling good about his game and ready to tackle this event again. Migliozzi was excellent from tee to green that week and he hit the ball well when he won here a couple of years ago. Golfers always feel better about life when they go back to a place where they have good memories and with Migliozzi determined to prove he is one of the best in the game I’m happy to support the Italian this week.
Tips
Back A.Noren to win Olympic Golf (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back S.Straka to win Olympic Golf (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-6)
Back C.Bezuidenhout to win Olympic Golf (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-6)
Back them here:
Back G.Migliozzi to win Olympic Golf (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-6)
Back him here:
