October 17-20
Le Golf National, Paris
€1,600,000
Live leaderboard
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

George Coetzee and Ryan Fox opened up a one shot lead at the top of a congested leaderboard after day one of the Amundi Open de France.

“It was almost perfect," said Coetzee. "Played really well. Just dropped one on 17, but I can't complain. It's nice to be in the mix again. It's been kind of a hard, long year, but it feels like the game is coming along nicely.

“I think you find which holes you can attack when you get to the green. There's no real aggressive game plan on this golf course. Just keep the ball in play and give yourself opportunities, and there's obviously a couple of holes where you've got to be careful.”

South African Coetzee fired his lowest opening round of the season to set the target at six under par with his round of 65, and Fox matched him in the afternoon as the New Zealander also carded seven birdies and a single bogey to join him at the summit.

“I'm pretty happy," said Fox. "This is a golf course that can kick you pretty quickly. I played really solid today. Holed some putts. Played those tough holes, that closing stretch, really well. I could have potentially grabbed a couple more on those last four, which is always a bonus, but very happy to walk away with a 65 around here.

“ You've got to drive it really well. For the most part I did a really good job of keeping it in play. A couple holes I hit poor tee shots and I managed to scramble and make pars from there, which is nice. But yeah, you just keep yourself out of trouble."

Benjamin Hebert - currently the leading French player on the Race to Dubai - delighted the home fans at Le Golf National with a birdie on the last to sit one shot off the lead alongside American Kurt Kitayama and Scotland's Richie Ramsay.

“I putted very well today. I've worked on my putting since the start of the week. I had a private lesson with Mr. David Orr, who is a big putting expert. We changed some stuff and it works very well. So, I'm pretty happy," said Hebert.

“ I feel good support from the French public. We have only one tournament a year, so it's very important for us to represent this week.”

Victor Perez became the latest player from France to win on the European Tour when he took the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship title last month, and he is just two shots off the lead at four under par, alongside South African trio Darren Fichardt, Jaco Van Zyl and Justin Walters, Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium, Dane Nicolai Hogaard and Kalle Samooja of Finland.