DATE: July 5-8, 2012

LOCATION: Le Golf National, Paris, France

European Tour Golf Betting Odds: One of the oldest tournaments in Continental Europe, the Alstom Open de France celebrates ten consecutive years at Le Golf National outside Paris. In 2010, Miguel Angel Jimenez became the oldest winner of the title at the age of 46 when he defeated compatriot Alejandro Canizares and Italian Francesco Molinari in sudden death after he had gone in the water when two clear on the final hole of regulation play.

First played in 1906, the tournament has been won be some of golf's greatest names, including Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Greg Norman, Sir Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie.

The player known for his love of cigars, Jimenez earned his 17th victory on the European Tour and the 20th of his career, as well as becoming the oldest golfer to win the Alstom French Open, at the age of 46. With 500 tournaments behind him, he also joins the ranks of the top 10 all-time oldest winners on the European Tour. Immediately recognizable thanks to his long curly hair, Jimenez is a devotee of fine cars, an enthusiast of fine wines and gourmet cuisine, and even claims to be allergic to working out in the gym. That's refreshing – to see a man in his mid-forties, with a pot-belly, smoking a cigar and whipping up on all the fitness oriented youngsters of the game.

The Open de France ALSTOM is the oldest national open championship in continental Europe, dating back to 1906. Pablo Larrazabal became the first qualifier to win the event in 2008, and only the eighth player in history to win a European Tour event after coming through qualifying.

The Open de France is currently played at Le Golf National in Paris, and has been since 1991 with the exception of two years. Prior to 1991, the tournament visited many courses in France, including La Boulie, Chantaco, Biarritz, Saint-Germain, Chantilly and Saint-Cloud. The Le Golf National-Albatross course has been ranked as high as the 3rd best European Championship Course in a European Tour Professionals survey and 4th amongst European courses by the British golf magazine, Golf World.

The Albatross was designed by golf architects Hubert Chesneau and Robert Von Hagge in the late 80's and adapts magnificently to the flat corn farmlands of the vast Guyancourt region, cunningly combining the typical features of a Scottish links course with the target golf style setup so popular in the USA. It is made up of well trimmed, slick greens and vast undulating fairways dotted with innumerable links bunkers, sand traps, large and small water hazards, fescue roughs, tree obstacles and the rigid slopes of its artificially-created sand mounds. Perhaps the most famous holes at the Le Golf National-Albatross course are its last four holes which are all pretty decisive and in degree of difficulty, can be equated in some respect, with Amen Corner at Augusta National.

With the Open Championship a few weeks away, many of the top players will be on hand in Paris for this year's ALSTOM Open de France, July 5-8.

2011 ALSTOM French Open Winner - Thomas Levet Wins French Open 25 Years After Playing it for the First Time

Thomas Levet described himself as living out a dream on Sunday when he finally captured the Alstom French Open 25 years after first playing in the tournament.

Tipped as a possible captain when the Ryder Cup is staged at Le Golf National in 2018, the 42-year-old local hero triumphed on the Albatross Course by a shot over England's Mark Foster and Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen. Levet came into the event ranked 352nd in the world, but from three behind with a round to go, a closing 1-under-par 70 gave him a nail-biting victory.

With Levet, the runner-up to Ernie Els in the 2002 British Open after a five-hole playoff at Muirfield, having qualified for Royal St. George’s last month, the one British Open place in the event up for grabs this weekend went to Olesen rather than Foster because of his higher world ranking.