Rookie Rasmus Højgaard who fired an excellent 66 to share a five-way lead after the first round of AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at Bel Hombre. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

FIVE players including Danish rookie Rasmus Højgaard, fired opening 66s to share the lead at the top of a congested leaderboard after the first round of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.

Rasmus, who played in last year’s Junior Ryder Cup with his twin brother Nicolai, was joined by French duo Benjamin Hebert and Romain Langasque, Rolex Series winner Brandon Stone and Scotland’s Grant Forrest.

The island paradise is hosting players from the European, Asian and Sunshine Tours in the tri-sanctioned event, and the leading quintet took advantage of good conditions to get to six-under par.

A further nine players are in a share for second just a shot further back, with 77 players under par and within five shots of the lead.

Højgaard, who finished 18th on the Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca before finishing fifth at last month’s European Tour Qualifying School to earn his card, said: “It was great, I played well and gave myself a lot of chances.

“Conditions are very good. It’s a course where if you are playing well you can see a lot of chances. I managed to take them today.

“I had a full season on the Challenge Tour, which gave me a lot of confidence in what I am doing. I just need to believe in myself.

“It’s paying off right now and hopefully it will pay off in the long run as well.

“Rookie of the year would be very nice, but it will definitely take some good results to get that. I’ll just try to play as well as I can and see where I end up,” Rasmus Højgaard revealed when discussing his goals for 2020.

Højgaard made his first European Tour cut at last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship at South Africa’s Leopard Creek, and the 18-year-old carried that momentum forward with a bogey-free effort to sit alongside Hebert in the early lead.

Rasmus Højgaard may be playing his first season on the European Tour but the family name has been on golfing lips since 2018 – when he and his identical twin combined with John Axelsen to win the Eisenhower Trophy for Denmark.

Romain Langasque won the Amateur Championship four years ago and is another player tipped for the very top.

After finishing 24th on the 2019 Race to Dubai Langasque is looking to get off to a good start to 2020.

Langasque, who finished third at Bel Hombre two years ago, said: “It was pretty solid all day.

“It was the kind of round I was looking for to start the tournament, so I’m pretty happy.

“I love this place, I feel great, but loving the place and playing well is not the same thing.

“I played well here two years ago and I think this is a course that fits my game really well. I’ll just stay focused on doing my own thing and it worked well today.”

Fellow Frenchman Hebert is also looking for his first win on the European Tour after picking up six titles on the Challenge Tour – three in 2011 and three more in 2014 since his first season in 2009.

The 32-year-old, who has played eight seasons on the European Tour, said: “It’s always nice to start a tournament in this way.

“I enjoy the course. It was a good round of golf and it was pretty fun out there.

“The wind was quiet this morning, a little bit different direction than usual.

“But then it turned and started to blow. The course is in great condition anyway so, if you find a good way to manage the wind it is very scoreable.”

Trio fought windier conditions at Bel Hombre

With increased winds in the afternoon, it looked like Højgaard and Hebert may not be caught. But Forrest, Langasque and Stone played beautifully to reach the summit.

Stone, who won the Scottish Open in 2018 to claim the biggest prize of his career with that Rolex Series title thanks to a final round 60 at Gullane, said: “It got a little bit toasty, a little bit breezy, trickypin location here and there but overall, I’m happy with the round.

“Tee to green, I think I was decent. I hit the irons quite nicely, some really good iron shots earlier on in the round and towards the end there.

“I think we’ve had the best end of the year with these two events,” added Stone, who is looking for a fourth European Tour win since graduating from the Challenge Tour in 2015.

“Woke up to a beautiful island’s summer morning, took a walk on the beach with the wife, and after that I had to come and do a little bit of work and come and shoot a 66.”

Scot Grant Forrest who is in his second season on Tour after graduating from the Challenge Tour in 2018, said: “I made a long putt on my first hole – probably 45, 50 feet, so that’s always a good way to start the round.

“The game is getting there. We’ve done a lot of work over the past few months and it’s been a bit of a struggle on the golf course but we’re starting to see signs now.

Forrest, who played in the 2015 Walker Cup against the USA at Royal Lytham, added: “I had a great start to the tournament last week as well.

“It’s been encouraging the last little while and things are falling into place for the coming season,” said the 26-year-old from Craigielaw Golf Club, who finished 94th on the 2019 Race to Dubai.

The quintet sit a shot ahead of South Africans Jaco Ahlers, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Keith Horne and Zander Lombard, French duo Matthieu Pavon and Antoine Rozner, Belgian Thomas Detry, American Sihwan Kim and Portugal’s Ricardo Santos.

•For live scoring from the second round of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open click here.

The post Rasmus Højgaard races into lead in first round of AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open appeared first on Golf North.

South Africa’s George Coetzee is aiming to add a second AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open title at Bel Hombre, after his play-off victory in 2015. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

FOUR-time European Tour winner George Coetzee is aiming to seal a second AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open title at Heritage Golf Club, after triumphing in a play-off to win the inaugural edition in 2015.

The South African, who finished 60th on the 2019 Race to Dubai, has appeared in all four previous editions of the tournament and is aiming to become the first player to win the title twice.

If Coetzee can achieve that feat it would also be a second European Tour event that he has won on two occasions, following his Tshwane Open triumphs in 2015 and 2018.

George Coetzee said: “Lots of good memories from the first year here. I remember playing the 18th hole a couple more times than I wanted to, but it was a good week.

“It was nice to win a tournament outside of South Africa, and it was just a special week for me.

“It’s very social, very casual but some very serious golf. It’s a nice blend of everything,” Coetzee said about playing in Mauritius.

“I might be burning out a little bit with the amount of golf I have played but I’m still feel like I’m playing pretty well,” said Coetzee, who lost an opportunity to win the French Open at Le Paris National in October.

After a relatively six months after his second place finish in Qatar, in March, Coetzee’s late collapse on the notoriously difficult course that staged the 2018 Ryder Cup, allowed Belgium’s Nicholas Colsearts to claim his first win since 2012.

“At the moment I’m just enjoying the golf and then over Christmas I’ll put my plans together,” added George Coetzee about forming a scheduling for 2020 having played 29 times in the past 12 months.

Coetzee’s victory in Bel Ombre four years ago was a special one, as it represented the first title he had won outside of his home country, after opening his European Tour account with victory at the 2014 Joburg Open.

Lawrie named 2020 Junior Ryder Cup captain

Scottish Major winner Paul Lawrie is looking forward to an altogether different Mauritius double – after making his debut in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, he will tee it up in the Staysure Tour’s season-ending MCB Tour Championship – Mauritius next week.

The 1999 Open Champion – who was announced as the 2020 European Junior Ryder Cup Captain today (Wednesday) – turned 50 in January.

And the two-time Ryder Cup player announced his arrival on the senior circuit in some style, winning the Scottish Senior Open in the summer.

Lawrie’s looking forward to competing with some of the newer faces on European, Asian and Sunshine Tours when the action in the tri-sanctioned tournament gets under way at Heritage Golf Club on Thursday.

But he will also be soaking up all that Mauritius has to offer.

Lawrie said: “It’s my first time in Mauritius, it’s beautiful, absolutely lovely.

“ I looked at the schedule and saw that European Tour was here this week and the Staysure Tour up the coast next week. I thought – it’s the perfect two weeks.

“For the players that are getting older and older like me, and playing seniors more often, it’s weird. You get on the range and you don’t know half the Tour when you come to hit balls.

“That’s a good thing, you need to get young talent in and keep the conveyor belt rolling, as it were.

“The scoring is just brilliant, the standard on the Tour is getting better and better. That’s only going to be a good thing for everyone.”

Langasque looking to go one better

THE field at the second event on the 2020 Race to Dubai also includes a host of promising young players including Romain Langasque – who finished in third place the last time the event was played at this venue two years ago.

Langasque, who won the 2015 Amateur Championship at Carnoustie said: “It’s always a pleasure to come back here, and especially to this course where I finished third two years ago.

“It’s a place where I feel great, so I’m really happy to be here. I’ve been a Heritage ambassador for one year now.

“It’s always good to come back here because of the resort, but also because of the course. It’s a very challenging course, especially with the wind like today.

“This is a place where it is windy most of the time, so we have to learn to play with it.

“But the good thing is that because of the wind there are so many options on this course – you can be offensive or less so,” added Langasque, who won the 2016 Spanish Amateur by beating Hampshire’s Scott Gregory in the final.

The Frenchman is joined on the Indian Ocean island by Final Stage Qualifying School winner Benjamin Poke, from Denmark.

Two other notable debutants are teeing it up in Mauritius – four-time European Tour winner Thomas Pieters, who made his Ryder Cup debut in the heavy defeat at Hazeltine, under Darren Clarke in 2016, and his compatriot and fellow ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf winner Thomas Detry.

•For first round tee times in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open click here.

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