Round 1 plays (1pt):
Colin Montgomerie to beat Darren Clarke +105 @ Stan James [tie loses]
Straightforward play. Both players are past their best, but Monty has still managed top-3 finishes on this course in each the last two years whereas Clarke returned last year for the first time over a decade and missed the cut. In terms of their current form, Monty has shot the lower 1st round in every common event in 2009.
Markus Brier to beat John Daly -125 @ FiveDimes
A solid course record including a top-5 finish last year points to a much better week for Brier than Daly who is making his course debut. Daly did finish 2nd in the Italian Open in May, but has a best finish of 72nd on this Tour since then; over that period Brier has finished 21st, 32nd and 35th.
Angel Cabrera to beat Alvaro Quiros -133 @ Bet365
All is not well in the Quiros camp - he sacked his caddie after missing the cut last week - so this should be a good time to back the Masters Champion against him. Cabrera hasn't been in great form since his win at Augusta, but he does have a good record here in recent years and he is still a class above the young Spaniard.
Jeev Milkha Singh to beat Oliver Wilson -111 @ Bet365
Finishes of 5th and 6th in his last two European Tour starts are a lot more impressive than the missed cuts that Wilson recorded in his last two and then there is course form: 12th and 21st in the last two years for Singh points to a decent week for him. Wilson, on the other hand, has made the cut in just four attempts and averages 74.3 over 10 rounds at Le Golf National.
John Bickerton to beat Jean-Francois Lucquin -110 @ FiveDimes
Lucquin may be the home player, but it is Bickerton with the impressive record in this event: he won here in 2006, finished 7th last year and has made the cut in seven of the last eight Opens de France. Lucquin has missed the cut in five of seven attempts and was clearly feeling the after-effects of the U.S. Open when finishing 140th last week in the BMW International Open.