In his final pre-tournament preview of the year, Ben Coley has six each-way selections for the Mauritius Open.
Wind forecast at exposed golf courseSchaper favourite to go back-to-backFinal event of the DP World Tour yearGolf betting tips: Mauritius Open
2pts e.w. Christo Lamprecht at 30/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
2pts e.w. Jacob Skov Olesen at 33/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1.5pts e.w. Alex Fitzpatrick at 40/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)
1pt e.w. Oihan Guillamoundeguy at 90/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Scott Jamieson at 90/1 (Betfred 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Cameron Adam at 175/1 (Betfred 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
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Another year on the DP World Tour draws to a close in Mauritius, where the turnout is not surprisingly poor, but poor nonetheless. It would’ve been asking a lot to get Christiaan Bezuidenhout out here and even Dean Burmester, whose attachment to Mont Choisy Le Golf gave him an excuse when the venue changed to Heritage La Réserve. Louis Oosthuizen though not only co-designed the course along with Peter Matkovich but won when the DP World Tour first visited it two years ago, so it’s a real shame that he’s not among the entries.
Instead, the market is headed by one of the new stars of South African golf, Jayden Schaper, who produced a dazzling finish to capture the Alfred Dunhill title on Sunday. He’d been cut from a general 16/1 into 12s at the beginning of the week – a source of regret for this column – and with his form outstanding and those classy compatriots all absent along with Branden Grace, Thriston Lawrence, Dan Bradbury, Joost Luiten and Aldrich Potgieter, there was really no arguing with 9/1 to go in again. That too has disappeared.
The sticking points, aside from how tough it is to contend three times in a row, are the course and conditions. La Réserve was described as a ‘contemporary links’ prior to the 2023 Mauritius Open and we saw exactly why, with pot bunkers, infinity greens, and exposure to what at times were strong winds. Oosthuizen won primarily because he was by far the best and most decorated golfer in the field and he was at the top of his game at the time, but it definitely didn’t hurt that he’s an experienced former Open champion who grew up by the sea.
Schaper did refer to the need for accuracy and sensible shot choice and how that helped him record a top-10 finish, while revealing that his home course is also designed by Matkovich, and that brings us to the conundrum presented by Oosthuizen first, Laurie Canter second, but largely shorter, straighter drivers in behind. Were these two significantly advantaged by their driving prowess, or were they just too good because they’re both very good?
With the wind this week expected to be a factor, but not enough to cause chaos, I’m leaning only slightly towards the idea that strong drivers could have an edge and the reason for this is precisely how Oosthuizen won. He was 17-under overall, but he was also 17-under for the four par-fives and the driveable sixth hole. Canter was 15-under overall and 15-under for those holes; surprise contender Jacques de Villiers played them in 17-under, the rest of the course three-over; Dan Brown was 14-under both overall and for the five.
Throw in the 13th, also a driveable par-four, and there are six massive scoring opportunities which in effect determined the outcome of the tournament two years ago. Should they do so again, then perhaps it will be those with more guns than Schaper – for all his brilliance – who end up dominating. To me it seems worth at least contemplating this possibility and, one way or another, settling on players who are as likely to improve for the wind as they are to be derailed by it.
As far as Schaper goes, whether his lack of firepower off the tee matters or not, like everyone he loses some control because of the weather. When the wind blows, when the emphasis on fortune is heightened, desire to take single-figure prices dips. We’ll bow out for the year with six each-way selections and take our chances.
In some ways the riskiest but in others the most exciting is CHRISTO LAMPRECHT.
The giant South African earned his PGA Tour card thanks to an excellent rookie campaign on the Korn Ferry Tour, one which ended strongly with a win in Nebraska and then a solid run through to eighth place at the Tour Championship.
Having taken a couple of months off after that, 33rd in the Nedbank on his return was fine by me all things considered and for most of the tournament he was a good deal better than his finishing position. Lamprecht played the par-five ninth in four-over, despite laying up every day following wayward drives, twice dumping wedges from the fairway into the water guarding the green.
Given his size and speed, the big challenge for Lamprecht is going to be dialling in those wedges and just as they cost him up to eight shots on one hole at Sun City, they might’ve cost him this title a year ago. Playing at Mont Choisy, also designed by Matkovich, he was sailing along in the lead in round three only to make seven with lob wedge in hand at the par-four sixth, his only major mistakes prior to that also having come with approach shots.
Sunday’s bogey-free 65 was a fine way to respond, enough to finish second, and while I’m sure he’d have liked another crack at that course, I wonder whether this one could suit just as well if not better. He’s losing a par-five – Mont Choisy has five of them – but there are those two driveable par-fours, while the more links-like aesthetic could suit a former winner of the Amateur Championship at Hillside in England.
Lamprecht later went on to blast his way to the first-round lead in the Open at Hoylake and backers here ought to know what they’re buying into. He’ll hit driver wherever he can and try to take on this golf course, a prospect which could result in anything from multiple eagles to a double-bogey here or there. This is very much the deal, but La Réserve feels like a good place to get aggressive.
JACOB SKOV OLESEN succeeded Lamprecht as Amateur champion in 2023 and has since underlined that he absolutely loves playing golf in the wind.
We first saw it as a professional in this event last year, when he spent all week inside the top 10 and eventually settled for ninth, then he too shone on day one of the Open. Olesen spoke there about how confident he feels battling the elements under links conditions, which he’d done in qualifying at Burnham & Berrow.
Soon after the Open he defied some of the strongest winds faced all year on the DP World Tour when third in the Nexo Championship at a links course in Aberdeen, then he bagged a big cheque when fifth in the Dunhill Links, so already in his young career the talented left-hander has marked himself down as something of a specialist.
As such, he was always going to be high on the shortlist for this after excellent finishes of 23rd and 11th in two high-class events to end last season, and he’s done enough since to believe he can contend in Mauritius again. Yes, his first two rounds in the Nedbank were poor but he warmed to the task at a course that takes some knowing, then last week a sloppy back-nine masks plenty of good work. Level par home and he’d have been inside the top 10; 40th on a rain-soaked course does not do him justice.
Olesen has also said that he was hugely inspired by seeing Kristoffer Reitan win the Nedbank on the same day Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen won the Australian Open and this quality young Scandinavian, whose skills are rather different to those two, can produce another display of shot-making, nous and short-game skills to threaten a breakthrough victory.
Strictly based on the 2023 statistics, you can make an argument that approach shots and work around the green was the formula and that is sometimes true under links conditions. Finding the right parts of greens or missing on the right side is part of the game as it used to be, as is getting up and down efficiently, and it’s notable at least that three of the main protagonists were excellent at the latter.
This formula plus form in the wind leads to ALEX FITZPATRICK, who is about the same price as he was to win the Australian PGA Championship but should really find this much easier.
Granted, those fields in Australia do thin out but the same is true of this one and if we compare the top names in the betting, I can’t really understand why a player like Fitzpatrick wouldn’t be cut. There he had Joaquin Niemann, Min Woo Lee, Marco Penge, David Puig, Adam Scott, Carlos Ortiz, Neergaard-Petersen, Ryan Fox, Marc Leishman and others to beat. Any of those would be favourite for this or very close to it.
Tom Vaillant has just about halved in price as have others like Stefano Mazzolli and Eddie Pepperell and while Vaillant did finish just ahead of Fitzpatrick, the latter’s top-20 finish after a quiet Sunday on a soft course was a perfectly sound effort. Thereafter he was less impressive in the Australian Open, but from four-over through five holes he did exceptionally well to make the cut.
Coming here to Mauritius for the first time, Fitzpatrick can lean on an excellent top-20 finish in the 2023 Open Championship, third in windy conditions at the Scandinavian Mixed (which Sebastian Soderberg, third here, should’ve won) and ninth in an elite field at Royal County Down, and his game really is ideal for the style of golf demanded by a course like this.
Fitzpatrick is first and foremost dynamite around the greens, ranking first or second three times in his last seven starts and seventh for the season on the DP World Tour, but he’s also clicked with his irons lately and that could make for a dangerous combination. That he was in the mix over the first two rounds of the Nexo and finished so well in a windy KLM Open adds to the case and he’s played well on all visits to Africa so far.
Joakim Lagergren was runner-up in that KLM Open when we were on at huge prices and he has to be respected, having also hit the crossbar in the Irish Open since. He played well here two years ago when badly out of sorts, such that he had to drop down to the Challenge Tour afterwards, and by now we know all about the coastal profile of this Rocco Forte Open winner with an exceptional Dunhill Links record.
His long-game just has not been firing in quite the same way lately and while a strong weekend at the DP World Tour Championship did catch the eye, there wasn’t enough there to take a chance at less than 50/1. In general he’s one I’m far more comfortable being on under the right conditions at big prices, rather than when well found in the market with seemingly loads in his favour.
More tempting was Casey Jarvis, the same price for this as he was a stronger Alfred Dunhill and a player I like a lot. He was 13th in the Nexo and played fantastic golf over the final 54 holes of the Grand Final a couple of years ago, that event taking place by the coast in Mallorca, and he had looked in good touch before a massive mistake on the final hole of round one when selected last week.
That being said whereas in Joburg he was playing a course where he’d been dominant as an amateur, 25th on debut at this one two years ago isn’t enough to give him the benefit of the doubt given that he would probably prefer a shootout akin to those he’s won at a lower level recently. If he does win it’ll be enormously frustrating, but with the wind set to blow I feel sure he’ll run up too many big numbers again.
With the middle of the market not at all appealing, next up is OIHAN GUILLAMOUNDEGUY, perhaps the pick of a French challenge which is nowhere near as strong as has often been the case.
Antoine Rozner won this three years ago having gone close to doing so previously and he’s far from the only player from France to get comfortable on this French-speaking island, where so many of them have played smaller tournaments or spent time practicing, some even having sponsorship arrangements with the leading golf courses.
I’ve been generally keen to get one or two French players on side for that reason but with Vaillant short enough in the betting, it was Gullamoundeguy and Clement Charmasson who appealed most, the former in the end preferred.
I like that Gullamoundeguy improved with each round last week, shooting 73-68-67 and coming home in 30 on Sunday. He was solid through the bag, if anything just not holing his share, and that goes down as a lovely reintroduction having been absent since the Grand Final. Collecting a cheque on your debut as a DP World Tour member should always be seen as a positive.
Improvement should be forthcoming here in Mauritius, where he was inside the top 10 entering the weekend as a teenager back in 2022 and missed the cut by one last year. Granted, he did struggle at this course in between but he’d gone off the boil on the Alps Tour and had been absent for a while, so it’s not something we need to dwell on given his inexperience.
It’s been an excellent, breakout year for the 21-year-old, clearly one of the most promising graduates from the HotelPlanner Tour, where he won under windy conditions at Killeen Castle. He’s long off the tee and, back on the island where he made his professional debut, I can see him continuing the tradition of the tricolore appearing on this leaderboard.
Charmasson is one to keep an eye on but we’re still learning about him, as we are Rocco Repetto Taylor, who in three DP World Tour starts so far has marked himself down as an imperious driver of the ball. That promises plenty and I’m eager to see more from the Spaniard, without expecting him to put everything together quite yet unless this really is bombs away.
Scots at home by the sea
Daniel Rodrigues was excellent in Australia and is another one for the future but while the same could be said of CAMERON ADAM, I want to have both him and veteran compatriot SCOTT JAMIESON on side.
Adam follows Wenyi Ding in earning DP World Tour membership as part of the Global Amateur Pathway and while he’ll do well to match the exploits of the Chinese, he’s undeniably a player of big potential, one who should be at home in these conditions.
Hailing from Edinburgh but having grown up in Fife, his links skills have helped capture the Scottish Amateur at Royal Dornoch in 2023 and the St Andrews Links Trophy this year, while he struck the ball very well in the Open only to miss the cut on the number.
Adam then contended for the British Masters while still an amateur and having now turned pro, a missed cut in the Australian PGA was followed by a much improved 35th in the Australian Open a week later, where again his iron play impressed. Royal Melbourne of course isn’t links golf but the same skills are needed, hence Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (2nd Doha, 4th Dunhill Links) beating an Open champion in Cam Smith.
I thought Adam showed abundant promise there and this is a good deal less competitive, it will ask questions he’s used to being asked, and at three-figure prices it seems the best chance we’ll have to take a chance on a player whose potential is significant. Remember, Skov Olesen contended for a windy Mauritius Open last year, similarly early on in his professional career, and Adam might be up to doing the same.
Prices vary quite a bit, not surprising given the unknowns, but I’m comfortable taking anything 100/1 and bigger given the forecast and how good an opportunity this could prove to be for a young player on the up.
Cameron Adam has conquered The Open Amateur Series.
The top-performing amateur golfer across the St Andrews Links Trophy, The Amateur Championship and The European Amateur Championship now has a precious place at Royal Portrush. pic.twitter.com/K4xMqqgrV1
— The Open (@TheOpen) June 28, 2025
Finally, Jamieson strikes me as a big price at 66s and up even if we have to accept he does find winning difficult. Indeed he’s done so just once on the DP World Tour and that in a bit of a farce courtesy of the now-defunct Nelson Mandela Championship.
Still, he’s a class act for this grade, that win did come in Africa, and he fired a closing 64 for ninth place on his Mauritius debut last year. The change in course is an unknown but he’s proven by the coast, his best golf this year having come in a windy SA Open (Canter second) and more recently when fifth in the Dunhill Links, so there will be something about this place he likes I’m sure.
In each of the previous two seasons the Scot had done his best work at Doha, a course known for correlating well with links golf and one where Oosthuizen’s record was always strong, and prior to last week we’d seen him finish the season with a round of 66 for 21st place in Korea.
His comeback spin in the Alfred Dunhill saw him miss the cut by one after a good second round, ideal in terms of keeping the price nice and high, and he’d have much preferred that event to have been held at his beloved Leopard Creek anyway.
Notably, Jamieson hit the ball well and if he can remain in the argument off the tee, his putting potential (first in two of his previous four starts) and solid iron play can see him threaten the top of the leaderboard. What happens if and when he gets there, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Posted at 09:00 GMT on 16/12/25
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