This week the DP World Tour brings the curtain down on the calendar year in Mauritius, an exotic setting to close the season but not one that has favoured Spanish smiles. The AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open is not a cursed tournament, but neither is it a place to look back on with nostalgia, nor that lucky charm to cling to, that’s the truth.
Eight editions have already seen this tournament and the record is cold; it’s true that we have a second place as the best result, but the good news ends there. That single top ten, four top 20s and a detail that sums it all up, never has a Spaniard finished less than five shots behind the winner, even in that second place of Alfredo García Heredia three years ago, he finished at that distance. Five, yes, that pesky little number.
The history is there to remind us, in 2023 Tarrío was eleventh with minus ten, seven shots behind Oosthuizen, in December 2022 Alfredo García Heredia secured the aforementioned second place, but five shots off the champion, Cañizares finished seventeenth at thirteen, in 2019 and 2018 no one even came close to the top 40, in 2017 there were no Spaniards among the top thirty, in 2016 Otaegui finished eighteenth with +5, eleven shots off the lead, and in 2015 Carlos Pigem was top 20 with -5, eight behind George Coetzee.
This year there will be eight Spaniards trying to break that trend: Eugenio Chacarra, Manu Elvira, Iván Cantero, Ángel Ayora, Sebas García, Rocco Repetto, Quim Vidal and Adri Arnaus, a varied group, with very different realities but the same desire, to end the year with more than just good feelings.
Special attention for Eugenio Chacarra, who arrives in great form after the third place in South Africa. A victory would suddenly open the doors to the PGA Championship, as it would propel him into the world’s top hundred. It would be his second PGA Championship after his debut this year at Quail Hollow. There’s a long way to go until May, but getting into those positions is undoubtedly a great objective.
The scenario is very similar for Ángel Ayora, just four places ahead in the world ranking, with the same countdown in mind and the possibility of putting the icing on the cake to a year that is already spectacular no matter what happens and thus start 2026 within the card positions of the PGA Tour, his great dream.
For the rest, the equation is different but just as important, Mauritius is one of those weeks where a good performance can change the outlook of an entire season, gain momentum, earn points and start securing the DP World Tour card while there is still time, it’s never too early to think about that.
Iván Cantero arrives after missing the cut in South Africa and eager to end the course on a high note, Manu Elvira, Arnaus, Sebas García and company know it can be one of those unexpected tournaments that…
Mauritius has not historically been fertile ground for our players, that’s clear, but the year is ending, the accounts are on the table and sometimes golf decides to break statistics when least expected, even if it’s just once, to silence the pesky joke about the five.
