Andrew's Open de Bretagne (HPT) Preview

People say that golf is a game of fine margins. Well, so is golf betting. Last week I ran through eight possible bets. They finished ninth, ninth, 11th, 27th, MC, MC, MC, MC. Guess where the three I eventually backed ended up? So it was another very frustrating week, and Palmer Jackson won it comfortably with a final round 64 for a six shot romp. You’ll need a long memory, but here’s what I said about him as I backed him for the SDC Open. “A college star at Notre Dame, he was eighth in the 2024 NCAAs, and a highly ranked (42nd in the world) amateur… I have a suspicion that we’re dealing with a youngster who is far more talented than a cursory glance at his record suggests.” 

It’s a long time since that tip and I haven’t been back to the well, so I’m not claiming I was unlucky, simply pointing out that he’s a classy operator at this level and we need to cast a wide net to ensure we’re looking at all the potential winners and all the potential routes to the top on this highly competitive tour. I hope Palmer will go on to grab a DPWT card and join a pleasing number of talented Americans (Veerman, Erickson, Bryant, etc.) plying their trade in Europe and looking for a route to the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, the circus rolls onwards towards France!

The Tournament

We’ve taken a longish trip west across Europe and are in Brittany, on the North-west coast of France. To be precise, we’re in Pleneuf, at the Golf Bluegreen course. Like the corresponding event on the KFT, this takes us to a well-established course – with only a Covid break, we’ve been here since 2007. The list of winners includes Eddie Pepperell, Andrea Pavan, Benjamin Hebert and John Parry. If you look at that list, and then think about a coastal course of just 6,488 yards for a par-70, you’ll have a very fair idea of what we’re looking for. This is all about accuracy, and all about the quality of your approach play.

If you know anything about Brittany, and you’ve seen the picture on the HPT website that I linked to above, you’ll immediately start wondering about weather. Yes, this is a highly exposed course and conditions have a major role. There’s a reason why John Parry took 262 shots (-18) to win last year, and Stuart Manley needed nine more to get around in 2023. Well, let me save you the trouble of looking it up – we’re going to get warm and benign conditions throughout. It isn’t windless, but it is fine, and no wave advantages to worry about. Despite that, I am looking for some sort of links experience. Ideally, I’m looking for course experience too, but really this is about class with wedges and the ability to putt for birdies.

Just missing out on my team were Barclay Brown, the former Stanford standout has been playing well on the Clutch Pro Tour but I don’t think this course will suit as he makes just his second start on the HPT this year. He is one to watch for the rest of the year. Former winner Eddie Pepperell makes his return from a break to recharge and I’m rooting for him, but even on a course he’ll love I imagine he’ll have some competitive rust to shift. For all there are a pile of possible winners, as discussed, this week’s team came together quite easily.

Selections

This is the part of the season where start seeing players move from the amateur ranks to bolster the quality of fields at this level. You can expect to see more joining the HPT in the coming weeks after the big European midsummer amateur events (The Amateur Championship is this week and European Amateur in a few weeks) but already joining the professional ranks is Calum Scott. At a time when Scottish golf is coming out of a bit of a lull (Robert MacIntyre finishing solo second in a major, Conor Syme and Ewen Ferfuson picking up debut wins on the DPWT) he is perhaps the most exciting young talent to emerge from the land where golf began in recent years – certainly he has a more impressive amateur record than Bobby Mac! He ended his career at Texas Tech as the 12th ranked amateur in the world (teammate of Ludvig Aberg,) as the low amateur at the 2024 Open and as a 2023 Walker Cup star at St. Andrews. He was also a quarter finalise in The Amateur Championship last year. So, he can play big events, he can play coastal and links golf (as you’d expect for a resident of Nairn) and he’s simply better than most of these players. Of course experience is a worry but I think he’s a must-back while conditions suit.

At the same price, we’re also taking Robin Sciot-Seigrist. He’s a favourite of mine and this is an ideal course for him. Since leaving Louisville (he was a bit of a star and twice ACC individual champion) in 2016 he’s bounced between the Challenge Tour/HPT and the main tour, and in truth his game has a bit of a ceiling. But what he does do is putt well and play tidy tee-to-green golf without any massive length. As a Frenchman with those skills, you’d expect a good record here. 38-38-MC-4-11-29 is pretty good and there’ll be few here with more experience. He’s in decent form currently too, with a fifth in Abu Dhabi the first of five made cuts, and he was 31st last week. This is just set up for him and somehow he’s yet to win a professional event. I think that changes this season and it could very easily be here.

The final name on our team sheet is another metronomically successful veteran, Per Langfors. He was second in this last year, which is obviously a tip in itself, and he has seven top 25 finishes this season, demonstrating that he rarely has a bad week. Twenty-first in the order of merit, he needs one good week to make him a virtual certainty for a DPWT card, something he hasn’t had since 2019. I think he gets there this week. The course obviously suits the form player and he is another rock solid putter who’ll be coming from the best of the fairways all week.

• Robin Sciot-Siegrist, 25/1

• Calum Scott, 25/1

• Per Langfors, 45/1

All 1pt e/w, ¼ odds 5 places, Bet365.