Rasmus Hojgaard leads Open de France after course record, Patrick Reed off the pace at Le Golf National

Rasmus Hojgaard gave a demonstration on why he is rated so highly with a blistering start to the Open de France, as LIV Golf’s Patrick Reed struggled at Le Golf National. Hojgaard and his twin brother Nicolai are viewed as future stars for Europe at the Ryder Cup, possibly as soon as next year, and playing alongside one of Luke Donald’s assistants, Thomas Bjorn, the youngster made a difficult track look simple. Ad The 21-year-old made 10 birdies to open up a two-stroke lead after the opening round.

Cazoo Open de FranceOpen de France betting tips as LIV Golf's Reed heads the field at Le Golf NationalYESTERDAY AT 09:42 Hojgaard has oodles of talent, with an all-round package of length off the tee, excellent iron play and a tidy short game. He played front-foot golf all day and was rewarded with a course-record round of 62 to get to nine-under. One of the highlights was a tap-in birdie on 11, which was within about two inches of a hole in one.

A brilliant putting stroke was not needed on the 11th, but on the fourth it was as he drained a monster from 72 feet for a birdie. “Today was very good,” Hojgaard said. “To be fair I don’t think I was that good off the tee, but I feel my approach play was very good alongside a very good putter.

“I just tried to go out and play as good as I could. I feel like I’ve been playing decent the last few weeks. “My goal this week was to limit the mistakes and see what I get out of it.” In contrast to Hojgaard, Reed found life extremely tough on the outskirts of Paris.