The Sunshine Tour will end its year with the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, a tournament that has had three South African champions in its seven editions to date. But when it comes to the best South African professional never to have won the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, then Oliver Bekker stands out head and shoulders above the rest.
Bekker will head to Mont Choisy Le Golf in Grand Baie, Mauritius, from 19-22 December, hoping to earn what would be a well-deserved victory in a Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour event where he has a phenomenal record of consistency.
The South African has played every single edition of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open and has on only two occasions not managed to finish inside the top 10.
His record in this tournament includes finishes of eighth, 18th, ninth, seventh, ninth, seventh and 34th.
“I generally play well in Mauritius. It’s a place where I feel very comfortable playing. It’s nice to be able to relax after a long year, come off the course and go to the beach and forget about golf for a while and recharge,” says Bekker.
RELISHING RETURN
He’ll be relishing a return to Mont Choisy Le Golf in particular where he finished seventh behind winner Antoine Rozner of France in 2022.
That year Bekker opened with a 64 to place him only two shots off the first-round lead. He was one shot off the lead going into the weekend, and then just three shots behind Rozner going into the final round.
“Mont Choisy Le Golf is the kind of golf course where you can make quite a few birdies. We’ve seen 62s and 64s there before. The golf course almost has a links feel to it, with no trees and a lot of run-offs and hills and bumps and things. Your short game is very important there. But it’s a good fun week where the weather is the main contributor to the scoring,” he says.
The South African record in this tournament includes winners George Coetzee, Dylan Frittelli and Louis Oosthuizen, while there are a number of other South Africans with impressive records in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open but who have yet to lift this trophy.
Thomas Aiken has had finishes of fourth and seventh in this event. Brandon Stone’s AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open journey has been highlighted by top finishes of sixth, 13th and 11th. Louis de Jager has had two fourth-place finishes in Mauritius. And Jayden Schaper has finished ninth and sixth here.
But Bekker’s record stands above them all as possibly the one South African who deserves to add his name to this trophy.