The European Tour heads to the island of Mauritius for its offering this week as the Mauritius Open gets played out in what is the second tournament of the new campaign. Pablo Larrazabal took the early lead in the Race to Dubai quest last week and others will be looking to keep up with him here.
It was Kurt Kitayama who began a wonderful season by winning this tournament last term. He is not here to defend the title though so we are guaranteed a different name on the trophy come the end of the week.
Recent Winners
2018 – Kurt Kitayama
2017 – Dylan Frittelli
2016 – Jeunghun Wang
2015 – George Coetzee
The Course
We return to the Heritage Golf Club for the tournament this year. This is the third time this track has staged the event, with it seemingly getting it in the odd years. This is a course which overlooks the Indian Ocean on more than half of the holes with water in play pretty much all the way round as well. Given its location it is exposed to the elements so we need players who are comfortable in the wind.
The course is a par 71 which measures just 6,987 yards so it is anything but a brute of a track, however there are a couple of drivable par fours on it, so length could be significant this week. A decent short game is always handy round here as well. The greens here are huge which is another reason to favour those with power over accuracy.
The Field
Clearly this time of the year and this area of the world isn’t going to bring out too many in the way of the global superstars, and actually this can only be described as a pretty ordinary field. It does have some recent winners in it though with Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Thomas Pieters and Nicolas Colsaerts all winning tournaments last year and taking the chance to tee it up this week.
George Coetzee is a former champion here looking to regain the title while the likes of Zander Lombard, Thomas Detry, Justin Harding, Romain Langasque and Brandon Stone will all be looking for positive weeks. Shubhankar Sharma could be the standout player in the field while Benjamin Hebert has been threatening a breakthrough as well.
Market Leaders
It is the Czech Masters winner Thomas Pieters who is the favourite to win the tournament this year. He can be backed at 11/1 to pick up a second title and with his length you wouldn’t want to be against him I think it is fair to say. On the flip side of that he doesn’t win nearly as much as someone with his talent should do, so I’m a little reluctant to back him at a pretty restrictive price it has to be said.
His countryman Thomas Detry is the 14/1 second favourite to land the title. Once again, he looks to have the tools to be more than competitive but he hasn’t won a solo event on the European Tour so that has to be a concern. That said, he rarely competes in fields as weak as this one but we’ve seen a number of players in recent weeks struggle to get over the line for their first win when well in contention so I certainly don’t want to be on one this short.
George Coetzee is a 16/1 shot to regain the title he won here four years ago and having won in his homeland a few weeks ago he will come here with a lot of confidence. Coetzee has shown in plenty of events on exposed courses that he likes the test and we know from experience that this course is one he fares well at as he was in the top 10 here in 2017 as well. He looks to be a leading chance.
There are three men who come next in the betting at 20/1. The South African pair of Zander Lombard and Justin Harding are two of them and the other one is the French player Romain Langasque. All three have their attractive points but at the same time they are all looking for their first win at this level and that is the issue for me to get involved. I would probably be on Lombard again if his putter wasn’t as cold as it was last week. As it is none of them interest me.
Main Bets
George Coetzee is my main bet this week. His spin at Leopard Creek last week was actually not bad when you look deeper into the numbers. He finished 11 off the winning score but he played one par 3 in seven over par so even if he only played that in level par he would have been within four on a course which doesn’t really suit his strengths. This one does though, as we have seen in the past, and even at 16/1 I think given how he has been playing over the last couple of months or so, there is enough value in him to merit a bet.
Calum Hill has been on my radar for a good while and this feels like a decent week to get involved in the Challenge Tour star. He won twice on the Challenge Tour last season and is surely a winner in waiting on the European Tour. He carded 15 under in the Scottish Open and Dunhill Links last season which shows that he can handle the windier conditions and he was in the top 15 on a very tough Leopard Creek track last week. Let’s be honest, this is basically a glorified Challenge Tour field with the odd exception so I think he is going to have every chance of claiming his first European Tour title here.
Outsiders
Alejandro Canizares is too good not to be getting involved in the business end of these tournaments. He might not be the longest hitter known to man but sometimes the class of the irons can make a difference and I will pay to see whether that is the case for the Spaniard here. He hasn’t pulled up trees since he returned to the Tour but this is a chance not only to go a long way to securing his playing rights for another season, but actually to get right in the mix, push for the win and the exemptions that come with it. At his best he is more than good enough to get involved here at a decent price.
Clement Sordet gives it a good biff off the tee and he was second in a lower level event in Oman last season so this should be an event that is right up his street. Given the complexity of the course last week he put up a spirited effort in the Alfred Dunhill Championship which bodes well for us here on a course which is surely going to play to his strengths a lot more than last week. Sordet was another one who was a regular winner on the Challenge Tour and I never think that is a bad thing on these lower level events. He’s a huge price but could well outrun it here.
Tips
Back G.Coetzee to win AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 17.00 with Betway (1/5 1-7)
Back C.Hill to win AfrAsia Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Betway (1/5 1-7)
Back them here:
Back A.Canizares to win AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-6)
Back him here:
Back C.Sordet to win AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Sky Bet (1/5 1-7)
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