Second tournament of the season and the first Sunday with a chance of victory. Not bad. Manu Elvira (-12) has given himself a chance to win at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open after a third round where he delivered a very good card of 69 strokes. He is four strokes behind the two leaders: Ryan Gerard (-16) and Casey Jarvis (-16).
The Spaniard played great golf on a day where the scores were lower than expected due to the really windy conditions, especially in the early hours of the day. It is the fifth tournament of the season on the DP World Tour and the fourth where a Spaniard has a good chance of winning with 18 holes to go. Four different Spaniards, moreover.
The first was David Puig, who also claimed the title in Australia, the second was Josele Ballester, also in Australia, the third was Eugenio López Chacarra at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and now it is Manu Elvira‘s turn. The Armada has started the season with a bang.
Manu has played very solid golf today. He has held on and stayed in the battle for everything. It was a shame about the three-putt on the 16th, from really far away, and the sequence on holes 12 and 13, where he left at least two strokes. The rest of his round of golf can’t be faulted much. Manu himself was satisfied and expressed this in a conversation with Ten Golf.
“I played well today, I was quite surprised at how low the scores were, but we know that on Saturdays everyone goes all out. Apart from the two drivers I missed on the 8th and 13th, the rest of the day was solid. Maybe I wasn’t as sharp as I would have liked with the long putts, but everything else was good. The 12-13 stretch slowed me down a bit, although I then made two good birdies on 14-15. Solid day,” he assures.
One of the goals this Sunday is to achieve victory. It would be his first career win on the DP World Tour, his first as a professional in a tournament counting towards the world ranking. It’s no small challenge he faces, especially considering he will need a very low round to really have a chance. Manu has the calculations very clear. “I think we’ll need to reach -19 -20 to be able to play a playoff because the leaders are very solid,” he states. This means he should deliver at least a 65-stroke card tomorrow. It has been done today. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible either. The solid leaders are, above all, four names: Gerard, Jarvis, Alex Levy and Jayden Schaper, last week’s winner.
Finally, Manu is keeping his feet on the ground and prefers not to get ahead of himself. He is convinced that victories are a consequence of play and process. For this reason, he will not go out this Sunday with the idea of winning as the only goal, but trusting and thinking mainly about the process. “I would be happy to leave Mauritius if I can achieve another good round tomorrow and thus have the certainty that I can be somewhat in control of the situation with my game, as I was a bit off these past weeks. Winning is complicated, but at least, we have to try to give a fight to the leaders,” he states with a great deal of common sense.
It does seem that Manu’s game is well ordered in recent days. At least, since the second round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship. Indeed, today’s good 69 is his fifth consecutive card below 70 strokes.
Beyond Elvira, there are other goals for the Spaniards this Sunday. For example, Eugenio Chacarra (-6) and Adri Arnaus (-6) are within reach of a top 10 spot. Specifically, they are four strokes away. Both scored 70 strokes today and with a very similar feeling: they can go very low at La Reserve Golf Links in Mauritius if all the pieces fit together.
Further back are Ángel Ayora (-4), Rocco Repetto (-1) and Quim Vidal (+2). For them, the goal is to end the year with the lowest possible round and a good haul of points. Especially tough was the end of the round for Repetto. He was at a notable four under par with one hole to go and finished with a crushing ’10’ on the 18th hole, par 5. As said throughout the week, this course is a specialist in breaking rounds.
