[joepa66]

OPEN DE FRANCE - EUROPEAN TOUR


SIMON KHAN 40 / 1 - Last year Khan finished T12th @ -4 while the winner finished with a -12. So far this season his best finishes are a T7th @ -9 in the BMW International last week, and an 11th place finish in the Telecom Italia Open. He definitely has the fortitude to go the distance as he came back from a 4 shot deficit over the last 7 holes of the Celtic Manor Open to defeat Paul Casey in a sudden death playoff in 2004, shooting a course record 61. In 2006 he had 6 top 10s with the highest being 2nd place in the BMW Championship bumping him to a 25th place on the order of merit. Khan hits GIR in 70% fashion, has a scoring average of 71.11, is currently ranked 25th on the European Tour, and drives the ball 286 yards with 64.65% accuracy.


JYOTI RANDHAWA 50 / 1 - Ranked 22nd on the European Tour on the strength five top 10 finishes this season. He has two top 10 finishes in a row, ending 9th in the HSBC Championship with a -7, 3rd in the UBS Hong Kong Open @ -12, 7th in the Dubai Desert Classic @ -13, 8th in the Singapore Masters @ -8, and 2nd in the Open de Espana @ -15, in addition to strong showing in last weeks T11th place finish with a -7 at the BMW International, and T17th with a -8 in the Celtic Manor Wales Open. Randhawa has a 70.53 scoring average, GIR is 69%, and he hits the ball a ton at 291 yards off the tee but just 58.56%......that's where his GIR comes into importance when missing fairways and he's done it well.


ANDERS HANSEN 14 / 1 - Hansen probably wishes that this week's tournament was sponsored by BMW! He tied for 4th place last week @ -10 in the BMW International (the winner finished -13), and he won the BMW PGA Championship earlier in the season with a -8. He's currently ranked 9th on the European Tour with a scoring average of 70.79, driving distance of 270 yards, driving accuracy of 74.76%, GIR of 75.56, and sand save average of 58%. And, he just keeps getting better.....in 2000 his first year on tour, his GIR was 68.77% which has risen to 75.56% this season. In 2004 his best driving year, he averaged 292 yards off the tee but sacrificed hitting fairway with a 65.46% average. This year his averages 22 yard less on drives but hits the fairways with higher accuracy at 74.76%.