Remesy in Ryder Cup equation

There is a real chance of 40-year-old Jean-Francois Remesy making Europe’s Ryder Cup team after he today became the first home winner of the French Open for 35 years.

Six years on from being close to giving up the sport following a 12th consecutive visit to the qualifying school, Remesy leapt from 24th in the cup race to seventh with a massive seven-stroke victory – the biggest of the season so far – at Le Golf National near Paris.

“I don’t realise for the moment what it means,” he said after being thrown in the lake by the 18th green.

“Look back a few years and I could not imagine this. Other than a major I can’t win anything bigger.”

Despite the failure of the star names to make their presence felt again, the nerve of the 161st-ranked golfer in the world was fully tested in a final round which began with him driving into water.

He double-bogeyed the hole, but recovered to shoot a level par 71 and took the first prize of almost £330,000 (€495,500) with a brilliant 12 under par total of 272 on a course set up tougher than ever before.

Australian left-handers Richard Green and Nick O’Hern were joint second after Green, the only real challenger on the final day, went in the water on the last, while joint halfway leader Ian Woosnam also closed with a double bogey six and dropped from fourth to joint sixth.

It continues a remarkable sequence of surprise winners in Europe.

Scotland’s Scott Drummond had a world ranking of 435 when he captured the Volvo PGA championship, England’s Simon Khan and Miles Tunnicliff stood 255th and 261st respectively at the Wales Open and Diageo Championship and last week’s St Omer Open champion Philippe Lima was 542nd.

Remesy had won only one of 203 previous tour events, the 1999 Estoril Open when he was not even a member of the circuit, and it was only after a series of visits to a sports psychologist the previous winter that he decided to stick at golf. He is now fourth on the Order of Merit.

The 1985 French amateur champion, once he had dried off and changed clothes, fittingly received the trophy from 1969 winner Jean Garaialde.

Green was only one behind at the turn, but then bogeyed the 10th, 13th and 14th. He did birdie the short 16th, but Remesy had already hit his tee shot to three feet and followed him in.

When Green dropped another shot at the 17th Remesy could be cheered all the way down the the last.

It was only last October that Maarten Lafeber became the first home winner of the Dutch Open, another of Europe’s oldest events, since 1947.

Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, winner of the Italian Open in May and runner-up in the Diageo, finished with a new course record of 64 and moved up from 30th to fourth. It also earned him a £2,000 (€3,000) Rolex watch for the low round of the weekend.

The 24-year-old, a member of the winning Walker Cup team in America only three years ago, is now 13th in the Ryder Cup standings.

“I said to my dad last night I couldn’t get it going on this course,” he said. “Any time I hit it in the thick stuff I was in big trouble, but this time I was only in it once and got on a roll.

“The Ryder Cup was never a goal for this year and I still need to play some good golf between now and then.

“My goal was to win in six months and finish top 30 in Europe. I’ve moved the goalposts now to top 15 and win again.

“I’m a goal-orientated kind of person and I react well of those kind of things. I’m hitting all of them on the nose.”

Colin Montgomerie was only 48th – his closing 72 included a nine on the long ninth and seven birdies – and Justin Rose down in 72nd place after finishing 15 over par for the second week in a row.