Alexander Levy will lead the home charge when the Rolex Series makes its French debut at this week’s HNA Open de France.
The second of eight premium events on the European Tour’s season long Race to Dubai takes place at Le Golf National, with Levy – the highest ranked French player in the field – already having secured a win this season at the Volvo China Open.
With a prize fund of US$7million on offer, the swashbuckling 26 year old is excited by the prospect of teeing it up on home soil for one of the biggest weeks on Tour and he will be joined in Paris by a strong French contingency including Victor Dubuisson, Grégory Bourdy and Mike Lorenzo-Vera.
Meanwhile, Ian Poulter is hoping a return to a happy hunting ground at the HNA Open de France. The Englishman has never missed the cut at Le Golf National, with two top three finishes around the Paris layout that will host next year’s Ryder Cup.
Germany’s Martin Kaymer is another player with a strong record in the French capital, having won the title in 2009 with three further top five finishes, including in each of the last two seasons. The two-time Major winner therefore knows more than most about how to tackle Le Golf National and its notoriously tough closing stretch.
Player Quotes
Alexander Levy
“I feel good and I hope the weather is still okay for the week. We can feel it’s a different tournament, bigger player lounge and facilities are different. I think it’s nice to have a big tournament like that in France, especially on this golf course.
“I think we have four big events this week, next week (Dubai Duty Free Irish Open hosted by the Rory Foundation), the Scottish (Open) and British (Open). For sure I want to play well this week, but I have good tournaments coming and I just need to be patient. If it’s this week, it will be really nice, and I really enjoy to play well there. But we need to be patient and don’t take only this week as important as we have four big weeks.
“It’s different, especially on this golf course. For sure it’s different and it’s tough to be in front of your crowd and in front of home. It’s tough, but I think you just need to enjoy and we’ll see what happens, and don’t start the tournament thinking to win.”
Martin Kaymer
“It’s one of those golf courses I really enjoyed in the past, every year I played since I’m on the Tour. It’s one of those courses where you don’t need to shoot five or six under par every round. When you shoot par, or one or two under, it’s usually a good score.
“I think it’s very exciting for us players, for the entire tournament. Even though when you’re two or three shots behind, you kind of like still fancy your chance on Sunday afternoon because a lot can happen there. You can attack or you can play defensive, and you can make from birdies to double, triple-bogey, and I think that’s always a great finish for a golf tournament.
“I’ve been working quite hard the last few weeks. I’ve been in America before the U.S. Open, and things come together nicely. It’s a very important summer now.”
Ian Poulter
“Kind of eased the summer schedule to come back to Europe with the family, and that’s what I’ve enjoyed over the last few weeks. Spent a good couple of weeks back home resting, preparing, obviously to come into the series of events right here, which is quite important.
“This week is a week where I’ve performed very well in the France. I’ve had some great finishes in France, and hopefully we can have another one this week. You need to hit your numbers and you’ll need to play well to win this week.
“I’ve got my sights on playing some really good golf over the next number of weeks. It’s potentially a very long schedule I have in the summer, and that’s why I’ve taken a couple of weeks off. If I can play the way I’d like to play in the next three events in Europe, obviously French Open, Irish Open, the Scottish Open, somehow make my way obviously into The Open Championship, that’s four in a row.”
