Armitage sets early pace in Paris

Stimpmeter · September 19, 2025, 11:00am

Marcus Armitage carded a seven-under 64 to take a two-shot lead after the opening round of the FedEx Open de France.

A run of eight birdies in 10 holes powered the Englishman to the top of the leaderboard at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche in Paris, with home favourite Julien Guerrier and Australia’s Min Woo Lee his nearest challengers.

Armitage birdied the 2nd and, though he gave the shot straight back, he hit his approach to two feet at the 6th to kick-start an extraordinary run.

He birdied the 8th and 9th for a front nine of 33 and extended his streak to six birdies in a row, with pinpoint approaches at the 10th and 13th and putts from 18 and 13 feet at the 11th and 12th.

“I was hitting it pretty close and just the putts started to drop,” he said. “I think I one-putted every green for that space of holes. Yes, that will work.”

Another 12-footer followed at the 15th and, despite an untidy bogey at the par-four 17th, he ended the day two clear.

“Once you see a few go in, you get on a run and then you just feel like you’re just moving the putter and picking it out of the hole,” Armitage added.

“You definitely feel it with the putter. Sometimes you get it with your irons and drivers become automatic, but mainly the putter – you get a lot of momentum with it.”

Armitage is 45th in the Race to Dubai rankings going into this week and said: “I’d love to get a top-20, top-15 on the Order of Merit and press forward from there. That’s a big goal for me, and this is an important week for the Race to Dubai.

“Just three more of them and we’ll see where we are.”

A chip-in from a greenside bunker at the 9th was the highlight of Guerrier’s 66, which featured six birdies and a lone bogey at the 12th, while he saved par from another bunker at the last.

“Very proud,” he said. “Because the last few weeks I was playing good but I didn’t score. And this time I was playing okay and the scoring, the momentum when I holed on nine and 18 – two bunker shots – it helps.”

Lee, starting on the more difficult back nine, closed with four straight birdies to also sit at five under.

“A few putts didn’t drop early (but I) finished off with four birdies in a row which is very, very nice – it was deserving, I guess, with the shots that I was hitting,” he said.

Guerrier’s compatriot Ugo Coussaud was in a large group at four under with Maximilian Kieffer, Marcus Kinhult, Jens Dantorp, Keita Nakajima, Jorge Campillo and Sam Bairstow.

Englishman Dan Bradbury began his title defence with a one-under 70, while Spain’s Pablo Ereno made a hole-in-one at the 153-yard par-three 7th in just his fourth DP World Tour event.

– Edited report from DP World Tour website

Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

Article Link: Armitage leads Open de France after birdie blitz