French Open: Steve Palmer's first-round preview, best bets, free golf tips

French Open favourite and defending champion, Alexander Noren, tees off at 8.05am UK and Ireland time in round one at Le Golf National, Paris, with Martin Kaymer and Alexander Levy for company.

When to watch

Sky Sports Golf, 11am Thursday

Best bets

S Sharma
3pts 6-4 Sky Bet

A Canizares
2pts 21-10 BoyleSports

French Open first-round preview

French Open favourite and defending champion, Alexander Noren, tees off at 8.05am UK and Ireland time in round one at Le Golf National, Paris, with Martin Kaymer and Alexander Levy for company.

Noren, who boasts course form figures of 8-10-1 and claimed two points from three matches in the Ryder Cup at Golf National last year, will expect to boss his threeball. Better value options can be found later on the day-one card, though, with Shubhankar Sharma and Alejandro Canizares recommended at healthy prices.

Steve Palmer's tournament tips

• French Open
• CJ Cup at Nine Bridges

Sharma is a class act who appears to have clicked right back into top gear, peppering pins with his approach shots throughout the Italian Open last week, finishing seventh in Rolex Series company. It was a performance which came hot on the heels of an encouraging 17th place at Wentworth in the BMW PGA Championship and the Indian, a two-time European Tour champ, is swinging well enough to handle the difficulty of Golf National.

Sharma can outscore his more erratic playing partners – Ryan Fox and Matt Pavon – in the 12.50pm (UK) threeball. And a similar case can be made for Canizares against Renato Paratore and Kalle Samooja in the 1pm meeting.

Canizares is a methodical plodder who appreciates layouts like Golf National, where there is a premium on hitting fairways and greens, and 17th place in the Spanish Open last time out was an encouraging effort. He improved his score each day – 72, 69, 68, 66 – and headed to Paris with renewed self-belief.

Canizares, who tied for second place in the 2010 French Open at Golf National, is worth chancing as the outsider against loose Italian Paratore and course debutant Samooja.

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