Month: November 2019

European Tour champions George Coetzee, Justin Harding and Brandon Stone have added their names to an already strong field for the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at the Heritage Golf Club from 5-8 December.

The trio of South Africans join a field including Major winner Paul Lawrie, Ryder Cup stars Nicolas Colsaerts, Thomas Pieters and Edoardo Molinari, former Asian Tour Order of Merit winner Shubhankar Sharma, and top amateurs Matthias Schmid and Pierre Pellegrin.

Coetzee returns to the Indian Ocean island as a four-time European Tour champion and the winner of the inaugural AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at Heritage Golf Club in 2015. The South African is seeking to win a European Tour event twice for the second time in his career after he won the Tshwane Open in 2015 and 2018. He also recently claimed his 10^th Sunshine Tour title when he won the Vodacom Origins of Golf Final at the beginning of November.

“I feel like I’m in a good space now and playing pretty well. I’m looking forward to the summer season and hopefully my golf will be good. It’s an exciting time for me,” he said.

Harding, currently ranked 23^rd on the Race to Dubai, made his breakthrough on the European Tour this year with his victory in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, which was his fifth victory in 12 months wherein he also won on the Asian Tour and Sunshine Tour and broke into the top 50 on the world ranking for the first time in his career.

And Stone heads to Mauritius as a three-time European Tour champion, including his Rolex Series victory in the 2018 Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open.

Korean professional Taehee Lee will be amongst those leading the Asian Tour challenge in this tournament as the highest ranked player on the Asian Tour’s Habitat for Humanity Standings in fourth place.

The €1-million tournament is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year as a leading tri-sanctioned tournament between the European Tour, Asian Tour and Sunshine Tour.

Open champion Paul Lawrie has added his name to the field for this year’s AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at the Heritage Golf Club from 5-8 December, joining a unique set of winners of the Claret Jug who have played in this tournament.

The winner of the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie is the fourth Major winner to play in this tournament following fellow Open champions Ernie Els, Louis Oosthuizen and Darren Clarke.

The Scottish professional is also part of a growing list of European Ryder Cup players, captains and vice-captains to have featured in this tournament, which is tri-sanctioned by the European Tour, Asian Tour and Sunshine Tour.

Lawrie represented Europe in the 1999 and 2012 Ryder Cups as a player, and then as a vice-captain in the 2016 Ryder Cup. This year Belgium’s Thomas Pieters and Nicolas Colsaerts and Italian Edoardo Molinari join him at the Heritage Golf Club as fellow European Ryder Cup players, while in the past former Ryder Cup captains Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjørn have also played in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.

The eight-time European Tour winner heads to Mauritius with his game in good form after winning the Scottish Senior Open this year.

But Lawrie is most remembered for his 1999 Open triumph at Carnoustie, where he staged a remarkable comeback in which he made up 10 shots in the final round to win the Claret Jug.

Lawrie adds significantly to a field that also includes Indian star Shubhankar Sharma and Benjamin Hebert, who is currently the leading player from France on the Race to Dubai in 17^th position.

The field will also include two exciting amateur talents in European Amateur champion Matthias Schmid and Mauritian Pierre Pellegrin.

Schmid makes his debut in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open after becoming, at the age of 21, only the second German golfer to win the European Amateur Championship at the Diamond Country Club in Austria in June and with a course record nine-under-par 63 in the third round.

Pellegrin joins the field thanks to his victory in the Rogers Indian Ocean Amateur Golf Open in October, and which was played at Heritage Golf Club.