Mauritius Open 2024 FRL Tips: Three to go low on Thursday

The Mauritius Open begins tomorrow and our golf expert Jamie Worsley has not only given us his outright preview but has also taken a look at who may be best equipped to handle the breezy first-round conditions at Mont Choisy Le Golf.

Here are Jamie's Mauritius Open 2024 FRL Tips...

Exposed and situated close to the coast, Mont Choisy is susceptible to wind and there looks likely to be a steady breeze to contend with throughout the opening day. It starts off reasonably mild for the early starters, who tee off between 06:20 and 08:20 local time, with general wind speeds of 11-12mph and gusts of 20-22mph.

However, it is forecast to increase over the course of the morning and early afternoon, resulting in the later starters (teeing off between 11:20 – 13:20) beginning their first rounds in winds of 15mph, which could gust at around 27mph; and sticking around for much of the rest of the afternoon.

That leads me to favour the early starters tomorrow, and I’ve got three players who I’m hoping can take advantage of the calmer morning conditions to take the first-round lead in our final DP World Tour event of 2024.

1 pt Jayden Schaper each-way (1/4 - 5 places) @ 45/1

Start time: 07:00

First up is Jayden Schaper. The talented South African youngster won an amateur event at Mont Choisy in 2019 and having transferred that ability to perform at the course to this event in 2022, when finishing 9^th, he can take advantage of his early tee time on Thursday.

He was poor when missing the cut in the Alfred Dunhill Championship, but he had been playing solidly prior to that, recording three top 20s in his six previous starts, including a 9^th-place finish in the Open de Espana. Therefore, I’m happy to give him the benefit of the doubt for last week’s display and I’m expecting him to bounce back here at this more forgiving setup.

Schaper won the All Africa Team Championship individual title here in 2019, before then recording that 9^th-place finish at the course in 2022. He started well that week, opening with a 4-under 68 to sit 8^th after the opening round and again in good first-round form in Mauritius last year, when he shot a 7-under 65 to finish the first round in 3^rd place before eventually finishing 6^th, he not only has plenty of form on the island but is accustomed to getting off to a fast start.

1 pt Matthew Southgate each-way (1/4 - 5 places) @ 55/1

Start time: 08:00

Matthew Southgate has been in great form at the beginning of this new season and having gone well at Mont Choisy in 2022, he’ll be confident of getting off to a good start tomorrow.

Southgate lost his card at the end of the previous season and failed to get it back at Q-School. However, he’s still scraped into fields at the start of this season and taken full advantage, finishing top 20 in each event. He started with top 20s in each of the two events in Australia and followed with an 11^th-place finish in last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship.

The Englishman started with an under par round in all of those events, going best when firing a 5-under 66 in the opening round of the Australian Open to hit 8^th place.

Possessing two runner-up finishes in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Southgate is a player at home on these exposed, linksy courses and he showed that at Mont Choisy in 2022, finishing 14^th. When combined with his recent form and strong first-round displays, he made plenty of sense in this market from his early tee time.

0.75 pts Scott Jamieson each-way (1/4 - 5 places) @ 70/1

Start time: 06:30

Scott Jamieson was in fine first-round form before returning from a near two-month absence in South Africa last week. He played solidly enough there, finishing 42^nd and hopefully all the sharper for that, he can make a quick start from this ideal start time.

Jamieson has been reasonably consistent over these latter months of the year, making the cut in four of his last five starts, though has finished no better than 25^th. However, his first-round positions have often promised more.

Five starts ago in the Dunhill Links, the Scot opened with a 9-under 63 at Kingsbarns to sit 3^rd after the opening round. Following a missed cut in France, he then shot an opening 68 to move into 12^th place in the first round of the Andalucia Masters and backed that up with another excellent start in the Genesis Championship in Korea the next week, with a 5-under 67 taking him into 2^nd place.

Although finishing down in 42^nd at Leopard Creek, Jamieson did open with another under par round and regularly doing most of his best work on these open and exposed courses – as shown by his year’s best of 3^rd in Qatar back in February – he can go well on his first spin around Mont Choisy, when the weather will be at its calmest.

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