Open de France

stayed up and watched the 1st round last night. the ruff at the US Open @ Oakmont and BMW in Germany last week have NOTHING on this French course near Paris. you miss the fairway and you are BURIED. some of the 1st round scores were an absolute SHOCK for me.

Rory McIlroy even (the obvious favorite this week)
Martin Kaymer +3 (the 2nd favorite after McIlroy)
Danny Willett +4 (also a "top 5" favorite)
Lee Westwood  +3 (see Willett)
Graeme McDowell +9 (was also a "top 5")
Thorbjorn Olesen +9 (the SOB tied for 2nd last week in Germany SO naturally I bet on the bugger this week)

1st round leader is Lucas Bjerregaard @ -5 there was NO indication the big Dane would do anything this week. had a 3rd in China in early April BUT has been a CUT 4 of his 5 tourneys since then

well 5 tied for the lead @ 5 under after a rather cold with drizzle day in Paris. Thongchai Jaidee, Brandon Stone, Mikko Ilonen,  Jeunghun Wang and Rory McIlroy, both he and Wang with [-5] on their 2nd round. probably means Rory will eventually WIN but Wang DOES have two wins this season. I am surprised he is listed as NOT exempt for the British Open as he is currently 26th in the Race to Dubai

the cut came @ +3. notable CUTS were Matthew Fitzpatrick [+4], Danny Willett [+6] and Graeme McDowell [+11]. once again I get SCREWED this week with Thorbjorn Olesen WITHDREW before the round after a [+9] 1st round SO Jamie Donalson wins even though he is a CUT @ [+12]. these Euro Trash are just as inconsistant as the damn PGA "pampered poodles" 

going into the final round Sunday, Thongchai Jaidee 1st @ [-8] with Rory McIlroy and Jeunghun Wang tied 2nd @ [-6]. Bernd Wiesberger who won the tourney last year, 4th @ [-5]. slew of golfers tied for 5th @ [-3] including Martin Kaymer, who was the 2nd fav to Rory this week, Andy Sullivan, Joost Luiten, Branden Stone and Alex Noren

the little "Thai Guy" Jaidee hadn't done much lately with his last top 10 finish in December of last year at the Nedbank Golf Challenge and last WIN the Porsche European Open in 2015. will be interesting to see IF he can hold off Rory and the rest of the field on Sunday. he had a bogie free round Saturday and seems to be one of the few golfers that can "keep it in play" this week and out of the nasty Federation Française de Golf ruff

When I am up to it, I like to watch some of these Euro tour events. But it's pretty much either watch them or watch the regular tour event and over here wins out.

Ya does NOT come on The Golf Channel until 4:30am pacific time. sometime i will be up that late BUT, like you say, that means probably getting up after noon

btw, in the 3rd round Jaidee had 1 birdie on the back side for a bogie free 3 birdie round BUT Rory had 5 birdies on the back side while Wang went 3 birdies front 3 bogies back. 4th place Wiesberger had 2 back side birdies his round.

ANY of the four can win BUT you gotta think "Advantage Rory" with that finish Saturday

AND it is Thongchai Jaidee -11 for the WIN by 4 shots over Molinari and 5 over Rory. ALL the money I have bet on the little Thai since the beginning of the year and he picks THIS tourney to SHINE when I thought his 60-1 was NO value with Rory in the field. the one "to win" bet I had working, Jeunghun Wang @ 100-1, naturally "blows up" final round with a freeking 78