South Africa’s George Coetzee and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox opened up a one shot lead at the top of a congested leaderboard after day one of the Open de France.
Coetzee fired his lowest opening round of the season to set the target in the morning with a 65 and Fox matched him in the afternoon as the Kiwi also carded seven birdies and a single bogey to get to six under.
Benjamin Hebert delighted the home fans at Le Golf National with a birdie on the last to sit a shot off the lead alongside American Kurt Kitayama and Scot Richie Ramsay.
Another home favourite in Victor Perez, South African trio Darren Fichardt, Jaco Van Zyl and Justin Walters, Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, Dane Nicolai Højgaard and Finn Kalle Samooja were at four under, with 49 players under par.
Coetzee has four victories on the European Tour and finished runner up earlier this season at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
‘It was almost perfect,’ he said. ‘I played really well. It’s nice to be in the mix again. It’s been kind of a hard, long year but it feels like the game is coming along nicely.’
There was plenty of early jostling at the top of the leaderboard but nobody could get past four under until Coetzee went out in the final group of the morning off the first.
The 33-year-old made a birdie-birdie start and a hat-trick of gains from the sixth saw him jump out of the pack as he turned in 31.
Another gain on the tenth had him two clear of the chasing pack but Ramsay, also a late morning starter, set about reeling him in.
The three-time winner gave an opening birdie back on the 12th but then made gains on the 14th, 17th and third.
Coetzee put an approach to tap-in range on the 15th before Ramsay hit a beautiful approach of his own to around ten feet on the seventh, and he was soon just one back as Coetzee dropped his only shot of the day on the 17th.
Brandon Stone was bogey free as he signed for a 68, two better than Erik van Rooyen.
Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
