Jordan Smith bottles 6-shot lead as Ryo Hisatsune wins the French Open at Le Golf National

After entering Sunday's final round of the French Open with a 6-shot lead, Jordan Smith scored a disappointing round of 1 over 72 at Le Golf National to lose the tournament to Ryo Hisatsune by a margin of 2 shots.

Hisatsune shot a sensational round of 5 under 66 on Sunday to register his first DP World Tour title win. He achieved a feat that only two of his compatriots have ever had at the tournament.

The 21-year-old became the third Japanese golfer to win on the Tour since Isao Aoki in 1983 and Hideki Matsuyama in 2016. Speaking of his blistering win at the French Open, Ryo Hisatsune was quoted by the BBC as saying:

"I had confidence today and also a lot of luck. I didn't think of the result on the back nine, just concentrating on my golf."

Ryo Hisatsune's victory came at the venue which is set to host the golf event of the 2024 Olympics, the Le Golf National.

The 21-year-old Japanese golfer was consistent throughout the French Open. He started his campaign with a staggering 5 under 66. Then on Friday and Saturday, he shot a similar score of 2 under 69. However, in the final round, he managed to pull out some sensational golfing skills to score 5 under 66 and win his first-ever DP World Tour title.

Meanwhile, Englishman Jordan Smith started off his French Open campaign with 5 under 66 on Thursday. In the second round of the event, he bettered his stats to score 7 under 64. However, his weekend was not that great as he shot 1 under 70 on Saturday and a forgettable round of 1 over 72 on Sunday.

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Final leaderboard of the French Open at Le Golf National

The top story at Le Golf National was Kiwi golfer Ryan Fox, who won the BMW PGA Championship just last week. He missed the cut after the end of the first two rounds.

Meanwhile, the European Ryder Cup team member Robert McIntyre also missed the cut at the tournament and that would surely raise concerns for Luke Donald.

Below is the final leaderboard of the French Open at Le Golf National:

• 1- Ryo Hisatsune -14
• T2 - Jeff Winther -12
• T2 - Jordan Smith -12
• 4 - Rasmus Højgaard -11
• 5 - Lukas Nemecz -10
• T6 - Tom Kim -9
• T6 - Julien Brun -9
• T6 - Yannik Paul -9
• T6 - Kazuki Higa -9
• T10 - Calum Hill -8
• T10 - Thorbjørn Olesen -8
• T10 - Zander Lombard -8
• T10 - Ewen Ferguson -8
• T14 - Nathan Kimsey -7
• T14 - David Law -7
• T16 - Andy Sullivan -6
• T16 - Adrien Saddier -6
• T16 - John Axelsen -6
• T16 - Adrian Otaegui -6
• T20 - Alexander Levy -5
• T20 - Billy Horschel -5
• T20 - Richie Ramsay -5
• T20 - Nick Bachem -5
• T20 - Rafa Cabrera Bello -5
• T20 - Bryce Easton -5
• T20 - Alfredo Garcia-Heredia -5
• T20 - Matthew Southgate -5
• T28 - Santiago Tarrio -4
• T28 - Jens Dantorp -4
• T28 - Edoardo Molinari -4
• T28 - Freddy Schott -4
• T28 - Johannes Veerman -4
• T28 - John Parry -4
• T28 - Richard Mansell -4
• T35 - Matthew Baldwin -3
• T35 - Louis de Jager -3
• T35 - Darren Strachan (a) -3
• T35 - Thriston Lawrence -3
• T35 - Thomas Detry -3
• T35 - Andrew Wilson -3
• T41 - Marcus Kinhult -2
• T41 - Daniel Brown -2
• T41 - Jorge Campillo -2
• T41 - Wil Besseling -2
• T41 - Simon Forsström -2
• T41 - Sebastian Garcia -2
• T47 - Renato Paratore -1
• T47 - Guido Migliozzi -1
• T47 - Laurie Canter -1
• T47 - Kiradech Aphibarnrat -1
• T51 - Callum Shinkwin +1
• T51 - Hennie Du Plessis +1
• T51 - Daan Huizing +1
• T51 - OJ Farrell +1
• T51 - John Gough +1
• T56 - Angel Hidalgo +2
• T56 - Ricardo Santos +2
• T56 - Andoni Etchenique +2
• T56 - Marc Warren +2
• 60 - Kristian Krogh Johannessen +3
• 61 - Paul Waring +4
• T62 - Gudmundur Kristjansson +6
• T62 - Maximilian Schmitt +6
• T64 - Min Woo Lee +7
• T64 - Christoffer Bring +7
• 66 - Alejandro Del Rey +8
• T67 - Joël Stalter +10
• T67 - Ross McGowan +10

After the successful conclusion of the French Open at Le Golf National, the DP World Tour will take a week's hiatus for the Ryder Cup 2023. They will return in the first week of October for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews, Scotland.