The AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open is poised to provide a spectacular finale to the 2022 golf year as it brings together an exciting field of Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour winners, and rising stars and Ryder Cup heroes in an international showcase of the new host venue of Mont Choisy Le Golf.
As the island of Mauritius welcomes the return of this Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour event for the first time since 2019, it does so with a global television audience of 400 million households set to witness what has become known as “The Most Beautiful Week in Golf”. The official press conference on Tuesday featuring a star lineup of players including Dean Burmester, Thomas Bjørn, Nicolas Colsaerts, Antoine Rozner, Thomas Detry and Mauritius’s Pierre Pellegrin as well as the sponsors and partners set the tone for the week to come.
This week’s field certainly has something for every golf fan to look forward to when the first round tees off on Thursday.
South Africa’s Ockie Strydom is the most recent DP World Tour winner in the field following his breakthrough triumph in last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship.
He bolsters a field headlined by Nicolas Colsaerts and Thomas Bjørn, both Ryder Cup heroes and the current vice-captains on Luke Donald’s European team.
Bjørn, the victorious 2018 European Ryder Cup captain, heads to Mont Choisy Le Golf in winning form, having already won a title on Mauritian fairways this year on the Legends Tour.
Thomas Detry brings his incredible form on both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour to this week’s tournament. The young Belgian had three top-10s on the DP World Tour this year and made 15 out of 18 cuts. He took his game to the PGA Tour in 2022 and was just as successful there, finishing no worse than 12th in the three tournaments he played including runner-up in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
South Africa’s Dean Burmester also impressed in his rookie season on the PGA Tour with a finish of fourth in the Sanderson Farms Championship before returning to the Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour and coming close to a victory in last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship before securing seventh place there.
The list of DP World Tour champions in action this week includes Brandon Stone, Antoine Rozner, Sami Valimaki, Richard Sterne, Thomas Aiken, Hennie Otto and Lucas Bjerregaard to name a few.
Sweden’s Simon Forsström tees it up as the winner of the DP World Tour Qualifying School, while Nathan Kimsey is in Mauritius as the Challenge Tour’s recent Road to Mallorca champion.
The next generation of stars in the field includes South Africa’s Casey Jarvis who challenged for a maiden win in the recent Joburg Open and is currently leading the Sunshine Tour’s Rookie of the Year race.
Mauritius’s own Pierre Pellegrin will be playing in his first AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open as a professional, while Italy’s Filippo Celli – winner of the 2022 European Amateur Championship – is also fresh into his professional career having only joined the paid ranks in September.
Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin, who multiple Major winner Padraig Harrington has said has the talent to be a major force on the DP World Tour, makes his first appearance in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
And top South African amateur Aldrich Potgieter, the 2022 Amateur champion, adds to the young stars in the field.
The 2022 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open has also drawn a glittering array of blue-chip sponsors including Beachcomber Resorts & Hotels, Mont Choisy Group, Jaguar, Rogers, Heritage Resorts, IBL, the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA), 3G Mobile, Phoenix Beverages, Air Mauritius, Mautourco, Fenix XCell Apparel, Hertz, Jacobs, C-Care, Emtel, PRO CARTS, IT Solvz, Häagen-Dazs and Dragon Electronics.
