George Coetzee and Ryan Fox both signed for 6-under 65 Thursday to take the Day 1 lead at the French Open.
Each player made seven birdies against a lone bogey at Le Golf National, site of last year’s Ryder Cup.
New Zealand’s Fox is eyeing his second European Tour victory of the year after breaking through for his first title at the World Super 6 Perth back in February.
South Africa’s Coetzee is a four-time Euro Tour winner who last took the Tshwane Open in March of 2018.
Parisians will likely be rooting over the weekend for Frenchmen Benjamin Hebert, who sits just one off the pace thanks to a first-round 65. Still chasing his first European Tour victory, Hebert has come out on the wrong end of not one but two playoffs this year — losing the China Open to Mikko Korhonen and the Scottish Open to Bernd Wiesberger.
In an odd bit of news, Germany’s Marcel Siem disqualified himself Thursday after he was hit with 10 penalty strokes. Siem mistakenly thought preferred lies were in place and lifted his ball five times.
