Out of the Rough: FedEx Open de France (2026)

Nate (@NateOoTR)

4 hours ago

4 min read

The DP World Tour returns to the 2018 Ryder Cup and 2024 Olympic Games venue, Le Golf National, for this week’s FedEx Open de France.

Le Golf National will look a bit different for the 108th edition of Continental Europe’s oldest standing national open.

Due to the Grand Paris Express Line 18 metro expansion, the course underwent a near two-year long renovation, beginning just after the 2024 playing of the FedEx Open de France.

Last year’s installment was played at the Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche in Le Golf National’s absence.

Including this season, Le Golf National has hosted the FedEx Open de France a record 31 times. The closest competitor in Racing Club de France La Boulie who have hosted 20.

The Field

Again, with the PGA Tour playing its FedEx Cup Fall swing and with the President’s Cup taking place at the same time, plenty of the PGA Tour’s best will be teeing it up in France.

A combination of Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland highlight this week’s field in France.

Kristoffer Reitan, Ryan Gerard, Michael Kim and Bud Cauley join the list of the PGA Tour regulars playing this week.

Notable DP World tour regulars playing this week include Eugenio Chacarra, Andy Sullivan, Nacho Elivra, Joe Dean, Shaun Norris, Hennie Du Plessis, Angel Ayora and Dan Bradbury. All currently rank within the top-20 of the Race to Dubai Standings.

The last time a Frenchman won his own national open was Jean-François Remésy in 2005 who won his second of back-to-back Open de France titles.

Notable frenchmen looking to end the absence of hometown winners playing this week include Matthieu Pavon, Victor Perez, Adrien Saddier, Martin Couvra, Julien Guerrier, Federic Lacroix, David Ravetto, Antoine Rozner, Romain Langasque, Ugo Coussaud, Tom Vaillant and Oihan Guillamoundeguy.

Kim, although at a different venue, comes in as the defending champion, topping both Elvis Smylie and Jeong-Weon Ko by a single stroke. Smylie and Ko will also be playing this week along with Kim.

Bradbury won the 2024 edition, the last time this event was played at Le Golf National, holding off a slew of golfers by a single stroke.

Other former winners of this event playing this week include Guido Migliozzi (2022,) Fleetwood (2017) and Marcel Siem (2012.)

The Course

The Le Golf National in Paris, France has been the host of the FedEx Open De France since 1991, outside of 1999, 2001 and 2025.

The Albatros Course at Le Golf National plays as a par-71 at 7,331 yards.

As previously mentioned, Le Golf National was closed for nearly two-years to undergo a massive renovation.

Under the guidance of Russell Talley, the renovation saw over 91,000 cubic-tons of earth moved and the addition of 17 new bunkers.

The renovation saw the complete rerouting of holes four, five and six. The timber-borders of holes one, two, 15 and 18 were also replaced with modern profiles.

The biggest change however is that all of the tee boxes, fairways and greens have been converted to resilient Bentgrass. Additionally a brand new irrigation system was installed in the renovation.

The course was originally designed by Hubert Chesneau and Robert Van Hagge. The course underwent some significant changes prior to the 2016 edition of the FedEx Open de France in preparation for the hosting of the 2018 Ryder Cup.

It was also the host of the 2024 Olympic Games that saw Scottie Scheffler claim the gold medal.

The Le Golf National is a fairly exposed course that has a links-style feel to it.

The fairways are average in width and feature undulations.

The greens are bentgrass and are average in size as well. These bentgrass greens run at around 12 on the stimpmeter.

Water is in play on holes one, two, 13, 15, 16 and 18 as well.

Finding the fairways here at Le Golf National is more important than bombing the ball off the tee. The rough featured this week is slightly penal as well.

Off-the-tee metrics aren’t the most important here, as it is what golfers do after their tee shots that will make-or-break it at this venue.

Finding these average-sized greens in regulation is the key to victory at Le Golf National. If greens are to be missed, golfers who are above-average in scrambling will see a leg up.

Bradbury’s and Migliozzi’s -16 was the lowest winning score of any FedEx Open De France since 2000. Typically, a winning score in the low teens or even high single-digits has been enough.

In all, the course demands patience.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, Thursday has the highest chance of precipitation this week at just ten-percent. The rest of the week calls for just a five-percent chance. Temperatures will be the lowest on Thursday with a high of 76-degrees before increasing to 78-degrees on Friday, 80-degrees on Saturday and 81-degrees on Sunday. Winds will peak at ten miles-per-hour on Friday and Saturday to nearly non-existent across the weekend.

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