Mauritius Open: Knappe backed at 125/1 with big hitters set to relish Mont Choisy

• Wide open Mont Choisy to suit the bombers

• Burmester fancied to contend at familiar venue

• Big hitting outsiders chanced

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Tournament History

This is the sixth edition of the Mauritius Open - an event co-sanctioned between the DP World Tour and the Sunshine Tour - but it's the first renewal in three years.

The tournament used to alternate between the Four Seasons Golf Club at Anahita and it's original venue, the Heritage Resorts, Domaine de Bel Ombre.

This year we're off to a brand new venue - Mont Choisy Le Golf in Grand-Baie in the north of the island.

Venue

Mont Choisy Le Golf, Grand Baie, Mauritius

Course Details

Par 72, 7051 yards

Situated on the north-western tip of the island, Mont Choisy Le Golf is a wide and exposed track that only opened as recently as 2017.

Designed by the renowned South African architect, Peter Matkovich, Mont Choisy has an unusual par 72 layout with five par threes and five par fives. The vast majority of par 72s have only four short and long holes.

According to the Sunshine Tour's website, Mont Choisy Le Golf features unique Mauritian landscaping and black volcanic rock outcrops. Ponds and other waterpoints add character to the course, while natural sand hazards blend seamlessly with the grassy surroundings.

The fairways are laid to Bermuda and the greens are Seashore Paspalum.

The hole-by-hole guide on the golf club's website provides more visual clues about the venue and the video below demonstrates just how wide and generous the fairways are.

With five par fives and a couple of drivable par fours, we can expect low scoring despite the ever-present winds forecast.

Weather Forecast

TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, beginning at 08:30 on Thursday

First Five Tournament Winners

2015 - George Coetzee -13 (playoff)
2016 - Jeunghun Wang -6
2017 - Dylan Frittelli -16
2018 - Kurt Kitayama -20
2019 - Rasmus Hojgaard -19 (playoff)

What Will it Take to Win the Mauritius Open?

The course is short and wide with five par fives and at least one, and possibly two, driveable par fours, so the longer hitters are likely to devour it.

The bigger hitters very often come to the fore at short resort courses and I suspect that will be the case again this week.

Are there any angles in?

It's never easy to assess a tournament at a new venue but this one definitely looks wide-open with a links-like feel. I'd consider form at links tracks as a bonus.

Matt Cooper confirms that in his each-way piece, but the course most likely to correlate is the Heritage Course - used for this event in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

Like Mont Choisy, the Heritage Course was also designed by Peter Matkovich and I suspect if any venue is going to provide plenty of clues it will be that one.

We don't encounter Paspalum greens very often so you may want to scan back to the start of the year to the Abu Dhabi Championship and the Saudi International. Maybe look back also to the spring/summer of 2021 when we visited the Golf Costa Adeje for back-to-back events - the Tenerife Open and the Canary Islands Championship.

Golf Costa Adeje has Paspalum fairways and Bermuda greens but that too is an exposed and very easy resort course. I suspect this venue may provide a similarly easy test.

Interestingly, the Tenerife Open was won by South Africa's Dean Burmester in 25-under-par and the follow week, fellow South African, Garrick Higgo, shot two shots lower to win by six. Both are huge hitters.

South Africans tend to fare well in Mauritius as it's a popular tourist destination for them and Burmester is a particularly interesting runner this week as he's the venue's official ambassador.

Market Leaders

Thomas Detry heads the market narrowly over Dean Burmester but they're the wrong way round.

The Belgian star turns 30 next month but despite his undoubted talent, he's still in search of his first win on the DP World Tour.

His fourth placed finish around The Heritage Course in this event in 2019 certainly gives him a chance but that was just one of many examples of when he really should have won.

This is the first time Detry's played in a month but he was in reasonable form prior to his break.

He finished 15th at the Nedbank Golf Challenge after finishing 15th in World Wide Technology Championship, around a course with the same greens as this venue. Before that he finished runner-up in the Bermuda Championship on the PGA Tour.

As highlighted in Monday's Debrief, Burmester was matched at just 2.3411/8 as early as Friday morning last week when he lead the Alfred Dunhill Championship, but he was disappointing after a good first round and a fast start to round two.

Burmester will welcome a chance to improve on last week's frustrating seventh placed finish, which came a week after he'd finished fifth at the South African Open, and he's the one to beat.

Burmester should know the course better than most and it really should fit his game perfectly.

Antoine Rozner was beaten in extra-time in the last renewal of this event in 2019 so the venue should suit him too. But I'm happy to swerve Rozner after last week's missed cut.

Selections

I wouldn't put anyone off backing Burmester, even at a single-figure price, but I've backed a couple of big hitting youngsters who should also enjoy the venue.

Alexander Knappe looks a perfectly fair price at an industry-best of 125/1 with the Sportsbook.

I've also chanced Alejandro del Rey at 150.0149/1.

Both men hit it a country mile off the tee and both won on the Challenge Tour over the summer.

Selections:

Alexander Knappe @ 126.0125/1 - each-way Sportsbook
Alejandro del Rey @ 150.0149/1

Given the relative weakness of this week's sole event, I won't be publishing a Find Me a 100 Winner column, an In-Play Blog or a Debrief, so that's it from me until 2023 when I'll return with my preview for the Sentry Tournament of Champions which starts on January 5.

All that remains is to thank you for reading and to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter