The final event of 2022 on the DP World Tour takes place this week when the Mauritius Open returns to the schedule to offer those in the field one last chance for a pre-Christmas pay day in what was a good event before the pandemic deprived us of it.
Rasmus Hojgaard was the last winner of this tournament back in 2019 but he has chosen not to make the trip to defend the title and so we are guaranteed a different winner as we close out the calendar year.
Recent Winners
2019 – Rasmus Hojgaard
2018 – Kurt Kitayama
2017 – Dylan Frittelli
2016 – Jeunghun Wang
2015 – George Coetzee
The Course
The tournament returns at a new course having been played at the Heritage Golf Club previously. We are at the Mont Choisy Le Golf course this week which is a par 72 which measures just 7,061 yards so unlike a couple of the weeks in South Africa, length certainly isn’t a huge requirement around here. This is the first time a professional event has been held here with the course only opening in 2017 so everyone tastes it competitive for the first time here.
The first thing to note on the course is that there are five par 5s. They are all between 519 and 598 yards long so the majority of them are going to be reachable in two for most of the field so even though the winds are forecast to be relevant, we should be looking at a low scoring week. The fairways are said to be extremely generous but the natural undulations and the water features that have been added to the landscaping ensure that ball strikers will stay in the game.
The Field
As you would imagine with just a week to go until Christmas when this tournament ends, the stars of the game have decided to give this event a miss which means we are left with African players and those chasing ranking points. As a result we have just two members of the top 100 in the field this week. They are Dean Burmester and Thomas Detry, the latter who is still looking for a maiden DP World Tour title.
We do have a number of players who have made a good start to the season on show though. Eight members of the top 20 on the early Race to Dubai rankings are in the field including two from the top 10 in Sami Valimaki and Ryo Hisatsune. Jens Fahrbring, Alejandro Canizares, Laurie Canter, Dean Burmester, Oliver Bekker and Marcel Siem are the other players in the top 20 teeing it up. The winner last week in Ockie Strydom, Antoine Rozner and Louis de Jager are other notables in the field.
Market Leaders
Dean Burmester is the 13/2 favourite to win the tournament this week. He has started the new DP World Tour season with a pair of top 10 finishes and it could be argued that he could have won both of the tournaments but for quieter final rounds than he would have wanted. That is a concern when backing someone short but the wide fairways here do make him extremely likely to be in contention once again. Whether he gets over the line this time remains to be seen. He is the official ambassador for the venue but that in itself brings strains on his time. He is respected but isn’t for me at the price.
Thomas Detry is a shade bigger than Burmester at 8/1. There are a couple of immediate negatives around him. The first of those is that he hasn’t won on the DP World Tour and has bungled a few chances to get over the line. I don’t want to be on anyone at 8/1 with that being the case. The second is that this is his first start of the new season and while the rankings will tell you he’s the second best player in the field, rust can build on anyone who hasn’t played for five weeks and that isn’t what you want in a low scoring week.
Antoine Rozner is a third favourite this week at 16/1. He missed the cut in his first event of the new season last week which isn’t exactly a positive but in the two editions of the Mauritius Open that he entered he did finish 7-2 so he clearly enjoys it on this island even if this course is different to the one he has had that success on. He is long enough off the tee to take advantage of the holes which you need to take advantage of but he hasn’t really jumped out at me as someone about to win. I’ll swerve him.
Laurie Canter probably wouldn’t be a popular winner with the DP World Tour hierarchy given his LIV ties but he is the only other player shorter than 20/1 in the betting. He is 18/1 to win this week and comes in here off the back of a third placed finish at Leopard Creek last week where a closing 64 confirms he is hitting the ball well. He will be looking for plenty of world ranking points this week and has the length to go well here. His tee to green game was excellent last week and a repeat of that will have him in the mix but he continues to flatter to deceive with the short stick which turns me off him.
Main Bets
I’ll go with a couple of main bets this week. A Scandinavian player won this tournament the last time it was staged and I fancy Sami Valimaki will keep the title in that part of the world. The Finn is a long hitter of the ball which is the requirement I want here but he has been putting very well and at the Joburg Open at the beginning of the season he ranked ninth in greens in regulation in finishing second. He hasn’t been as good in the two weeks since then but Leopard Creek probably didn’t suit his strengths. This place should do and but for a couple of poor final rounds the last two weeks his form would have looked much stronger. If there is a concern it would be that this is his fourth week in a row but he’ll know he gets a few weeks off after this so I’m expecting him to give it his all here. I think he’s a solid punt.
Louis de Jager has missed his last two cuts but he is another who I’m not sure was suited to an 8000 yard track and a tighter one at Leopard Creek so I’m going to back him to get back on track here where there are no real demands off the tee. He is long enough to tame this course and given that he opened the season with a fifth placed finish in the Joburg Open we know that he doesn’t need to do a huge amount to be in the mix here. At that Joburg Open he led the field from tee to green and in the start before in Mallorca he was second for putting average so if he can combine the two he should be in business. He was fourth in Mauritius the last time this tournament was played so there is enough to think he can go three better here.
Outsiders
After landing a bet at a big priced winner last week I’m going to chance a couple at monster prices this week with the first of those coming in the South African big hitter James Hart du Preez who is a monster hitter of the ball which should suit him well this week because he can get the driver out and give it a good lash. What I like about him though is although he has no real form to speak about in the last four cuts he has made he has ranked 5-9-14-5 for putting average. Some of those numbers are caddy inputted so they are not set in stone but it suggests he is putting well and on a course very few in the field will have seen before that putting stroke could be useful. At 200/1 I’ll pay to see how he performs.
Finally I’ll have a small go on Thomas Bjorn at 200/1 here. We all know that confidence is a huge thing in this sport and while it was only a Champions Tour event that he won last week he won it on this island so he won’t have had all the flying and acclimatising and everything else that plenty of others in the field will have to do. It might be that the longer hitters have the edge on Bjorn but the Dane remains elite with a wedge so it isn’t as though from 120 yards and in he can’t be competitive. I wouldn’t usually take Bjorn but this isn’t the strongest field ever, he has the confidence of winning and nobody has seen much of the course to have a genuine advantage so at the price I think he’s worth a poke.
Tips
Back S.Valimaki to win AfrAsia Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back L.de Jager to win AfrAsia Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-7)
Back J.Hart du Preez to win AfrAsia Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 201.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-7)
Back T.Bjorn to win AfrAsia Mauritius Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 201.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-7)
Back them here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022
