Thongchai Jaidee eased his way to an eighth European Tour success after winning the Open de France by four shots on Sunday. Aged 46 years and 238 days, he is the 13th oldest victor in European Tour history and the oldest ever to win the Open de France. The Englishman then missed a six-foot par save at the 17th and found the water on his way to a triple-bogey at the last, closing a one-under 70.
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1 – This victory has pushed Thongchai Jaidee into the top-50 on the Official World Golf Ranking.
Rory McIlroy couldn’t get anything going on the final day.
The seven-time European Tour victor is on track to claim his first title of a season in which he is yet to post a top-10 finish.
Highlights from day four of the 100th Open de France at Le Golf National. His final round contained 16 pars, a birdie and a bogey.
Francesco Molinari finished in second after shooting 66, the lowest round of the day, while McIlroy closed with a 71 to end up third, five shots off the lead.
Nevertheless, this was a solid tournament for the four-time major champion on his return to action after missing the US Open cut at Oakmont, and a solid week on the 2018 Ryder Cup course is good preparation for the upcoming British Open at Royal Troon.
“I tried to play my own game, hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens”. He started fast with four birdies in a row from the 3rd but fell back somewhat with dropped shots at the 9th and 10th.
“Obviously it was a great start”. I’m going to be working every day to try to get it better and will play a bit of links golf to work on the shots I need for Troon as well. The good’s really good and the bad – it’s pretty bad. I’m glad with today.
Firstly, on 15, he bogeyed the tricky par three before finding the water on the next hole and signing for a double bogey seven on the par five as his hopes slipped away. “The game is moving in the right direction”.
The French Open had four spots for the British Open available to the highest players in the top 12 yet to qualify.
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The duo are one shot clear of Austrian Bernd Wiesberger, while as many as five players follow on three under, five shots back – Brandon Stone, Andy Sullivan, Joost Luiten, Alex Noren and Martin Kaymer, who rose 20 places up the leaderboard with his 68.
