The final tournament of 2024 on the DP World Tour takes the show to Mauritius this week for the Mauritius Open, a tournament which is co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour and offers up the last earning chance of the year.
Louis Oosthuizen won this tournament a year ago but he is not in the field this time around so we are guaranteed a different winner of an event which is becoming quite a regular affair on the DP World Tour. A competitive field will look to take the title.
Recent Winners
2023 – Louis Oosthuizen
2022 – Antoine Rozner
2019 – Rasmus Hojgaard
2018 – Kurt Kitayama
2017 – Dylan Frittelli
2016 – Jeunghun Wang
2015 – George Coetzee
The Course
We are back at the Mont Choisy Le Golf course in Grand Baie this week. This course hosted the tournament back in 2022 when Antoine Rozner was the champion. The track is a par 72 which only measures 7,052 yards so it isn’t a long course by any stretch of the imagination. It might still favour the longer hitters though because this is one of those quirky tracks which has five par 5s on it and five par 3s rather than the traditional four of each.
This is a very exposed course so successive players around here are likely to be very good when the wind blows, which is likely to be the case this week with this an island track. This is a picturesque track where the volcanic rock, ponds and other water hazards add plenty of character and defence to the course. We’re looking for good wind players who have a strong iron game and who hole some putts to come to the fore here.
The Field
When you consider that world number 145 is the highest ranked player in the field this week I think it is fair to say that this is one of the weaker fields we are going to have on the DP World Tour this season, although the proximity to Christmas and the fact it has been an extremely long year of golf, it probably isn’t a surprise that the field is so week. The last winner on this course, Antoine Rozner, is the only player ranked inside the top 150 in the world rankings teeing it up here.
We have four players in the top 10 of the Race to Dubai rankings who will be looking to steal a bit of a lead towards the top end of the standings ahead of the big players coming out to play in 2025. They are John Parry, Ryan van Velzen, Angel Ayora and the man who led going into the final round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship in Marcus Kinhult. A few others to note include Wenyi Ding, Casey Jarvis and Jayden Schaper.
Market Leaders
Antoine Rozner could be forgiven for being considered as the defending champion this week as he was the last man to win on this course and he is no bigger than 9/1 to claim a second AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open title. We know he can handle the course and the conditions and we know he is an excellent iron player so he does feel like a worthy favourite in this one but even in a fairly weak field like this, it is hard to argue that there is a great deal of value in the Frenchman.
Angel Ayora has made the frame on a number of occasions in the new season without getting over the line but in terms of form he certainly ticks the boxes here. The young Spaniard has gone T6-T23-T5 in the first three weeks of the campaign. He played in this tournament last year and finished in the middle of the field but this will be the first time he tastes this course. He is 18/1 to win the tournament but that is probably only a fair price rather than outstanding value.
John Parry is another player who has made a decent start to the season and he is 22/1 to come out on top in this tournament. He has two top 10s in the first three tournaments in this campaign including a T2 last week in the Alfred Dunhill Championship. Parry was T5 in the only previous time he played this tournament back in 2015 but you sense he is in the sort of form that could make him dangerous this week. There is a lot to like about him.
There is a trio of players who are 25/1 on the best prices this week. They are Wenyi Ding, Casey Jarvis and Richard Mansell. Ding hasn’t had a bad start to the season in better fields than this while Jarvis was just outside the top 10 last week and went well for 36 holes here a couple of years ago when he was T5 at halfway only to lose his way in the second half of the weekend. He will be popular. Mansell opened up his campaign with a middle of the road effort last week and will be wanting more here.
Main Bets
I suspect form is going to be a big thing this week because with the odd exception the field is going to be much of a muchness so it makes sense to take the man who currently has the highest Race to Dubai ranking heading into the tournament and that is John Parry. The fact that his ranking was helped by a top 10 in similar conditions at the Australian PGA Championship certainly helps and although it wasn’t on the same course, a T5 in his only previous appearance in this tournament is certainly no bad thing. Even at 22/1 I think he’s worth a bet.
It is only a couple of months or so ago that Sean Crocker was third in the Open de Espana and that is a decent form guide to use in this field. It might be a disadvantage that he plays this tournament for the first time but there are a lot of players who haven’t played this event on this course so that would make up for that. Crocker has won on the DP World Tour before which is another decent sign that he could go well here and as well as his third placed effort in Spain, he was third in Italy last season too. He could be overpriced.
Outsiders
I’ll take a couple at big prices. Wilco Nienaber hasn’t really done much at this level for quite a while but there is no doubt that there is talent in his body and if he can bring it out this week then this might be the sort of weak field that he can capitalise on. He has largely played the Challenge Tour over the last 12 months but this is a man who at his best has a number of top 10 finishes on the DP World Tour and if he can have a good week here he shouldn’t be outclassed. I’ll pay to see how he gets on here.
The other bet is a real stab in the dark but Renato Paratore has won twice on the DP World Tour and there certainly aren’t too many in this field that have that sort of CV to their name. We should acknowledge that the 2024 season was an absolute mess but he has been T2 in this tournament in the past and it was only a year ago where he was T2 in the South African Championship so some of his best golf tends to come in December. Some of that might be down to the weakness of the field and some of it might be that he enjoys the countries where he plays. Either way, at a monster price I’ll pay to see what he has got this week.
Tips
Back J.Parry to win AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back R.Paratore to win AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 176.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back them here:
Back S.Crocker to win AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 31.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back W.Nienaber to win AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 71.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
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