Julien Favre

I learned golf on tight, tree-lined courses around Geneva, where the lake wind and a narrow miss teach you fast that the game is about managing mistakes rather than manufacturing miracles. That early lesson set the way I analyse it now — the players who win week to week are rarely the most thrilling, just the ones whose game quietly fits the test in front of them. My tips are built on course fit before anything else: whether a layout rewards raw length or pinpoint approach play, how a player's ball-striking and scrambling match the demands of the week, and what recent form really says once you strip out the noise of a single hot or cold round. I spend genuine time on outright value and each-way structure, because in a field of 150 the price is the whole battle. Eight years in, I've made my peace with how cruel golf can be to a good read — a freak side of the draw or one wayward afternoon can sink a player who did everything right. So I stay anchored to process and fair prices, and I explain my reasoning rather than pretend any name is a lock. — Julien Favre