I'd been expecting to preview the Korn Ferry Tour Championship this week but after a bit of bad luck on that circuit last time, and with almost none of its best players having played the course well or even played it at all, I don't know as there's a great deal of value to be found by digging deeper.

As I wrote ahead of the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship, Joe Highsmith was at the top of my list for the final two events but after finishing second there, he's now vying for favouritism. Highsmith is also just inside the cut-off for PGA Tour cards and might be looking over his shoulder somewhat, so while a player I think we'll hear plenty more of, he can go unbacked at 22/1.

Focus instead switches to the Challenge Tour's Open de Provence, played on a course designed by Seve Ballesteros to keep the Ryder Cup theme going for another week.

Golf International de Pont Royal is short and its best defence is that it's exposed to the elements, but the forecast for the week could hardly be better with barely a breath of wind. In fact as temperatures edge towards 30 degrees, players might be yearning for conditions they've had here in the past and while the course ought to have some bounce to it, we should see low scoring.

All four par-fives are very short and there's only one par-four that stretches beyond 450 yards, so this is a course where anyone and everyone can compete and if anything ties past champions together it's accuracy, plus generally good touch around the greens.

That said, with the weather as it is a few bigger hitters might make hay and among them, Sebastien Gros was the first name I turned to at 66/1.

Gros has rediscovered his form since the middle of summer, contending in Germany, placing for us at three-figure prices in Finland, and then defying a slow start for another top-20 finish in Spain.

At 107th on the Road to Mallorca it's still a big price that he gets to the Grand Final and that's part of the reason he was at Qualifying School last week, finishing third in a decent field to underline that a missed cut in Portugal shouldn't worry us too much.

Between that weekend off and Q School he actually won a small event back in France and it's clear he's in a good place, which has never previously been the case when teeing it up in this event.

Despite that, Gros closed 67-66 last year to finish sixth, comfortably his best result of the season, and as a past winner in France at this level definitely has what it takes to go close in a fairly weak event to ignite his prospects of getting back onto the DP World Tour.

However at 40/1 in places and with all the 66/1 gone, Gros is no longer value in my eyes so I'll take UGO COUSSAUD to lead the home challenge.

The Road to Mallorca leader is easily excused a missed cut in the Open de France two weeks ago, where he hit the ball to a good standard in much better company, and before that had gone 2-69-29 at Challenge Tour level.

Although not as consistently excellent as he was at the beginning of the campaign, he doesn't look far away and this rates a great opportunity to rubber-stamp promotion, as he's contended in the Open de Provence in each of the last two seasons.