This Thursday, a new edition of the FedEx Open de France kicked off at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche in Paris. It began with Pablo Ereño (-3) leading the way for the Spaniards with a very good round of 68 strokes, among the top ten of the morning session, which had its peak moment at the par three of the 7th hole. There, the Madrid native showcased precision to achieve a sensational hole-in-one with special significance.
His shot from 152 yards to hole directly from the tee and boost his round with the eagle allows the Armada to set its best record for holes-in-one in a decade. Before Ereño, Pablo Larrazábal at the Bahrain Championship, Ángel Hidalgo at the British Masters, and Rafa Cabrera Bello at the Irish Open had succeeded in getting their ball to the hole in one stroke.
Larrazábal achieved it on the 2nd hole of the Royal GC during the second round of the Bahrain tournament; Hidalgo, on the 7th at The Belfry Hotel & Resort during the third round of the British event; while Cabrera Bello followed the same path on the 3rd hole of The K Club, during the final round of the Irish tournament. With Ereño‘s on Thursday, there are now four holes-in-one by Spaniards so far in 2025 on the DP World Tour.
You have to go back to 2015, a decade ago, to find an equal or better number of holes-in-one in a single season of the European circuit. That year, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, absolutely on fire, made three, in Abu Dhabi, the Open de España, and Wentworth; Álvaro Quirós made another; while Javi Colomo went one better by achieving a hole-in-one on a par four, a tremendous albatross, the first in the history of the DP World Tour, raising the season’s tally to five for the Armada players.
Birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie finish for Min Woo Lee 📈#FedExOpenDeFrance https://t.co/yiRpAfkl7z pic.twitter.com/a3u54QpLXC
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) September 18, 2025
Since then, two were made in 2016, one in 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, while none were made in 2024, 2023, and 2018. With his great shot, combined with four other birdies and three bogeys, Ereño finishes the morning session of the French tournament in the top 10 of the leaderboard. Nacho Elvira (-2), with a round of 69 strokes, is the second-best Spaniard in the tournament, positioned high up. Ángel Hidalgo (+2) and Joel Moscatel (+3) have had more problems and will need to make a comeback tomorrow to try to make the cut.
The leaderboard is provisionally led by Englishman Marcus Armitage (-7), with a two-stroke lead over Min Woo Lee (-5). The rest of the Spaniards participating in this edition of the FedEx Open de France, which changes venue, are competing in the afternoon session.
