The birdie blitz in the middle of his round powered Armitage to an opening seven under par 64 at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche, Paris, with home favourite Julien Guerrier and Australia’s Min Woo Lee his nearest challengers on five under par.

The Englishman, who is coached by Liam James from JA the Resort Dubai, birdied the second and though he gave the shot straight back, he hit his approach to two feet at the sixth to kick-start an extraordinary run of scoring.

He birdied the eighth and ninth for a front nine of 33 – three under – and extended that run to six birdies in a row, with pinpoint approaches to the tenth and 13th and putts from 18 and 13 feet at the 11th and 12th.

MORE: Here’s the prize money breakdown for each golfer at the 2025 FedEx Open de France

Nine birdies in his opening round

Marcus Armitage sets the clubhouse lead of -7 #FedExOpenDeFrance

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) September 18, 2025

Another 12-footer followed at the 15th and despite an untidy bogey at the 17th, he ended the day two clear of Australian Lee and Frenchman Guerrier, who holed out for par from the greenside bunker at the par three 18th to continue his momentum into Friday’s second round.

Guerrier’s compatriot Ugo Coussaud sits in a seven-way tie for fourth on four under with German Maximilian Kieffer, Swedes Marcus Kinhult and Jens Dantorp, Japan’s Keita Nakajima, Spaniard Jorge Campillo and Sam Bairstow, from England.

Five-time major winner, Brooks Koepka signed for a two-under par 69, which could’ve been two better had he not had a double bogey six on his final hole of the day, the ninth.

Spain’s Pablo Ereno, playing in just his fourth DP World Tour event, made a hole in one at the 153-yard seventh hole, with his ace counting as one of 13 eagles carded on day one in France, which will result in 13 trees being planted as part of the tournament’s Eagles for Good initiative, in collaboration with FedEx and the Arbor Day Foundation.

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Koepka’s European summer swing continues. After his invite to The K Club for the Amgen Irish Open, where he missed the cut, he then crossed the Irish Sea for the BMW PGA Championship on invitation, the DP World Tour’s flagship event, where he also failed to make the weekend.

Now the 35-year-old heads to France to compete in continental Europe’s oldest national open, the 107th edition of the FedEx Open de France, taking place at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche from 18–21 September 2025.

Brooks Koepka 2023 US PGA Championship – Newsmaker

The last time Koepka teed it up on French soil was in 2018 at the Ryder Cup, just up the road at Le Golf National, the former venue of the FedEx Open de France. Ranked World Number Three at the time, he went 3-1-0, producing the best record of the week for Team USA, despite the Americans failing to retain the Ryder Cup.

Koepka has played in France’s national open once before, in 2014, where he missed the cut. The year prior, while still grinding it out on the former Challenge Tour (now HotelPlanner Tour), he recorded a tie for 11th in the Najeti Hotels et Golfs Open at the testing Aa Saint-Omer GC.

Having finished the 2025 LIV Golf season in 31st place in the individual standings, the former DP World Tour member has now slipped to 325th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is set to return to the Tour’s schedule in October at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Home of Golf.

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