France has been good to Ryan Fox in his professional career and he will be hoping that love affair continues this week at the lucrative French Open, the third of eight Rolex Series events for 2018.

Being played at the Ryder Cup venue, Le Golf National in Paris, it was at this tournament last year that Fox began a remarkable run that netted him more than €680,000 in just three weeks.

Fox’s first international victory came in France at the Challenge Tour’s Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge in 2015 and his sterling play here last year will have him confident again this week.

A top-10 at the second of this year’s Rolex events, the Italian Open, suggests the long hitting New Zealander is in good form and he will have plenty of good memories to draw on as the week goes on.

Scores of 73-67-70-67 on the demanding layout were enough to secure a sixth place finish last year and he backed that up with T4 results at both the Irish and Scottish Opens the following two weeks.

A similar run this year would be welcome as he tries to eclipse his 34^th place finish in the Race to Dubai last year.

Fox is one of 11 Australasians in the field this week as 14 of the world’s top-50 tee up, World Number 2 Justin Thomas among big names drawn to the event.

Wade Ormsby, Sam Brazel, Scott Hend, Marcus Fraser, Jason Scrivener, Brett Rumford, Andrew Dodt, Adam Bland, Jason Norris and another New Zealander, Josh Geary, join Fox in Paris for what promises to be an exciting week.

Last week’s top Australasian, Scott Hend, will be among those to watch as he brings not only form from last week but also at this course to the first tee.

Hend has played three times at Le Golf National and, despite the penal nature of the course not seeming to suit his aggressive style of play, he is yet to miss a cut here.

Last week’s venue in Germany also looked to be one that would trouble Hend but he played brilliantly despite the narrow fairways and thick rough and that will give him plenty of confidence ahead of this week.

Le Golf National has not been a particularly happy place for the remainder of the Australasians in the field, Brett Rumford finding the course particularly difficult with eight missed cuts, two withdrawals and a best of T74 in 12 starts.

Marcus Fraser’s T3 in 2006 stands out on his record while Wade Ormsby has only twice played the weekend in eight starts.

Andrew Dodt has found the going just as tough with three weekends played in seven appearances, Sam Brazel failing to advance in his only appearance to date in 2017.

Jason Scrivener has two mid-field finishes and a missed cut in three starts while Jason Norris, Adam Bland and Josh Geary all make their debut this week.