Mauritius Open: Rozner a great bet at 9/1

• Look to the big hitters to enjoy the par fives

• Oman form well worth checking out

• French and South Africans likely to prosper

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Tournament History

This is the eighth edition of the Mauritius Open - an event co-sanctioned between the DP World Tour and the Sunshine Tour.

The tournament originally alternated between two venues - the Four Seasons Golf Club at Anahita and its original venue, La Réserve Golf Course at Heritage Resorts, Domaine de Bel Ombre.

However, after a break of three years due to the pandemic, the tournament returned to the schedule in 2022 at a brand new venue, Mont Choisy Le Golf in Grand-Baie in the north of the island, and having visited another new venue last year, La Réserve Golf Links, at the Heritage Resorts, the event is returning to Mont Choisy for a second time.

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Venue

Mont Choisy Le Golf, Grand Baie, Mauritius

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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.

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.

It's a simple enough resort course and with five par fives and a couple of drivable par fours, if the wind isn't too strong, the scoring will be low.

Frenchman, Antoine Rozner, won here by five strokes two years ago, reaching 19-under-par.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 8:30 on Thursday morning

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First Seven Tournament Winners

2015 - George Coetzee -13 (playoff)
2016 - Jeunghun Wang -6
2017 - Dylan Frittelli -16
2018 - Kurt Kitayama -20
2019 - Rasmus Hojgaard -19 (playoff)
2020-21 - No Tournament
2022 - Antoine Rozner -19
2023 - Louis Oosthuizen -17

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What Will it Take to Win the Mauritius Open?

Prior to the off two years ago, I suspected that the bigger hitters would be advantaged.

Mont Choisy is a short resort course with very wide fairways so in theory, you can just bomb it off the tee and be aggressive and to a degree, it did pan out that way.

The winner, Rozner, only ranked 12^th for Driving Distance, so he wasn't monstrously long but only two players inside the top-10 ranked any worse than 23^rd for DD so length is clearly advantageous.

With only one renewal at the venue, we can't give the stats too much credence but for the record, Rozner ranked first for both Greens In Regulation and Strokes Gained: Putting.

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Check Out Previous Renewals and Form in Oman

The venue has a linksy feel so fine links exponents need to be considered carefully but the best events to look back on are the previous renewals of this event in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2023, and any event staged at Al Mouj Golf in Oman.

Both Heritage Resort courses used for this event were also designed by Peter Matkovich. Form crosses over nicely between all three tracks and form at Al Mouj works out nicely here too.

Al Mouj is now used on the LIV Golf Tour but prior to that it was the host course for three editions of the Oman Open on the DP World Tour and form crossed over between that event and this one, no matter which venue was used for the Mauritius Open.

Kurt Kitayama won both events, Mauritian winners, George Coetzee, Rasmus Hojgaard and Rozner all finished inside the top ten in Oman in 2020 and last year's winner, Louis Oosthuizen, finished runner-up there on the LIV Tour in February.

Sami Valimaki beat Brandon Stone in a playoff at the last edition of the Oman Open in 2020 and the pair finished tied for 11^th at this track two years ago.

And it's worth highlighting that Valimaki was leading after rounds one and two.

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South Africans and French Worth Following

South Africans tend to fare well in Mauritius as it's a popular tourist destination for them.

Coetzee won the inaugural edition in 2015, Dylan Frittelli was victorious two years later and Oosthuizen won nicely 12 months ago.

After two consecutive tournaments in their homeland, a trip to Mauritius is the perfect way to wrap up the year for the South Africans.

As demonstrated perfectly by Antoine Rozner here two years here, the French also enjoy it here.

In addition to winning two years, Rozner was also beaten in a playoff in 2019, Matthieu Pavon finished second at Anahita in 2018, and Frenchmen Julien Brun and Jeon Weon Ko finished third and fourth here two years ago.

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In-Play Tactics

Rozner sat tied for 26^th and eight off the lead after round one two years ago but he was tied for the lead at halfway following a 64 in round two.

The Frenchman then led by two with a round to go and he went on to win by five so he overcame his slow start brilliantly but again, can we give one edition to much credence?

As expected, the five par fives were the five easiest holes on the course two years ago and the trickiest section of the track was around the turn.

The par five seventh was the second easiest on the course but holes six, eight and ten were the hardest three encountered and the par four ninth ranked as the seventh toughest, averaging 4.18.

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Rozner a great bet at 9/1

This is a very weak renewal, with the favourite, Antoine Rozner, the only player inside the top 150 in the Official World Rankings, and he's only ranked 145^th.

He lost his way a bit this season after finishing fifth at the Italian Open at the end of June, an event he arguably should have won given he was matched at 1.538/15 when he led after 12 holes on Sunday, but he's been in fine form of late.

The 31-year-old Frenchman finished fourth in the Genesis Championship in Korea at the end of October, sixth at the Abu Dhabi Championship and third at the DP World Tour Championship last time out so he's finishing the year in style.

In addition to winning here two years ago, the Frenchman was also beaten in a playoff at La Réserve Golf Course at Heritage Resorts in 2019 and he led after round one when defending last year.

He lost his way to finish 29^th 12 months ago but he clearly feels at home in Mauritius and given the strength of the field, he's a very fair price at 9/110.00.

I'll have a couple of outsiders for the Find Me a 100 Winner column later in the week but for now my only other selection is England's Dan Brown, who finished third last year on his only previous appearance in the event.

Having finished only 55^th at the Nedbank two weeks ago, he missed last week's Alfred Dunhill Championship but given how gruelling conditions were last week, that's a big plus.

It was extremely hot in South Africa and Brown will be nicely refreshed compared to anyone that played four rounds at Leopard Creek.

Brown is a bit of an in-and-out performer, but he's contended strongly at the Open Championship, the Irish Open and the Andalucía Masters recently and I was more than happy to back him at 65.064/1.

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*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter

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