The European Tour leaves South Africa this week and moves to Mauritius. There it will close the year 2023. Last tournament. AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open. Last chance to score points and money. Mauritius is an island in the Indian Ocean and is almost nine thousand kilometres from Barcelona. Great, and this interesting but seemingly irrelevant fact, what is it for? Well, very simple, it turns out that we have two Spanish professionals with their suitcases packed and only waiting for a phone call to cover exactly that distance that exists between Barcelona and Mauritius.
They are Lucas Vacarisas and Joel Moscatel. At the time of writing this story, they are positioned as the first and second reserves of the tournament, respectively. Obviously, if the tournament were closer, both players would already be at the destination waiting for a player to drop out at the last minute. Or if they had played in South Africa, they might grab a plane and go to Mauritius waiting for good news. But of course, being in Barcelona, and with travel prices through the roof, there is no choice but to wait to have the bird in hand.
However, both Lucas and Joel have made it clear to the European Tour that they will play as soon as a drop-out occurs. The problem is that there is a deadline. The countdown ends this Tuesday morning. To get to Mauritius in time to play the tournament, there is no choice but to leave Spain tomorrow morning via Paris. It’s about 15 hours of flight. No joke.
So, Vacarisas and Moscatel are glued to their mobile phone waiting for that much-desired call. Both are also playing well and would love to test themselves again in a DP World Tour tournament. Remember that Joel made a top 10 in Australia and made the cut in the two weeks he played and Vacarisas also played all four days in the Joburg Open, his only appearance so far on the European tour this season. All that remains is to cross your fingers and wait for the call…
