Mauritius Open: Steve Palmer's preview, best bets, free golf tips

Free golf tips, best bets and player analysis for the Mauritius Open at the Heritage Club on the European Tour.

Where to watch

Live on Sky Sports Golf from 8.30am Thursday

Best bets

Shubhankar Sharma
2.5pts each-way 30-1 Sky Bet
Romain Langasque
2.5pts each-way 20-1 Hills
Johannes Veerman
1pt each-way 66-1 Coral
Clement Sordet
0.5pt each-way 150-1 Hills

Mauritius Open preview

South Africans have triumphed in the previous two editions of the Mauritius Open at the Heritage and there is every chance of a hat-trick with so many of them going to post this week.

George Coetzee, who won the inaugural Mauritius Open in 2015, has found some decent form over the last couple of months and will have high hopes of a repeat, while Brandon Stone, aside from flopping at his beloved Leopard Creek last week, has also shown enough to suggest he can be a contender.

Coetzee and Stone deserve plenty of respect and are the pick of the South Africans, but others are preferred at the prices.

Steve Palmer's top tip

Shubhankar Sharma 30-1

The management team of Shubhankar Sharma finally worked out why the starlet had lost his form when assessing his shoes just over a year ago, and he has slowly but surely been piecing together his game since then.

Sharma, having won the Joburg Open by three shots at the end of 2017 before winning the Maybank Championship less than two months later, was one of the most promising youngsters in the game and became the first Indian to be signed by Nike. The shoes Nike provided, though, had flat soles, different from the raised heels Sharma grew up with and, without realising, he started to make subtle swing changes to compensate.

By the start of last season, under the watchful eye of long-time coach Jesse Grewal, who spotted the problem, Sharma got some special sloped insoles from Nike and was able to remould the swing which had previously elevated him to 64th in the world. By the time of the BMW PGA Championship, the old Sharma was fully back in business.

A tie for 17th in the European Tour's flagship event restored some confidence, quickly followed by seventh place in the Italian Open and seventh again in the Turkish Airlines Open. At 23, Sharma is impressing again, and the short, fiddly Heritage Club, where he finished 27th as a maiden ranked 454th in the world in his only previous visit, is excellent terrain for him to show off.

Sharma's European Tour breakthrough came in Africa and the 2018 Rookie of the Year can complete his recent resurrection by winning in the same continent on Sunday.

Next best bet

Romain Langasque 20-1

French players are comfortable in Mauritius and Romain Langasque is an ambassador for the Heritage Club. He finished third in the 2017 Mauritius Open there, despite having missed 16 cuts in his European Tour rookie season, and he enjoys regular practice rounds at the venue.

Langasque, who suffered plenty of injury niggles during that first-season failure, got his career back on track by winning on the Challenge Tour last year, and this year he has been strongly threatening a European Tour breakthrough, finishing sixth in Kenya, fifth in China, third in Denmark and third in the Scottish Open.

The 24-year-old, Amateur champion in 2015, made it through the recent Final Series with form figures of 9-30-40 and is stalking a place in the world's top 100. European Tour victories seem inevitable and Heritage is a golden opportunity to get off the mark. His record in Africa generally is superb.

Other selections

Johannes Veerman 66-1

Clement Sordet 150-1

Complete a cosmopolitan staking plan with an American and another Frenchman. Johannes Veerman is a 27-year-old who forged a decent career in Asia before claiming a European Tour card in awesome fashion in November.

Veerman made a slow start at Q School, but nobody performed better over the closing four rounds and a 67, 67, 66, 66 burst secured European Tour playing rights. The Californian made immediate use of his card with four solid rounds for seventh place in the Alfred Dunhill Championship last week and his only previous Mauritius Open resulted in a final-round 67 (bettered by only two players that day) at Heritage in 2017.

Clement Sordet, like Langasque, is attached to the Heritage and playing a virtual home game this week. Sordet is trying to rebuild his career after heartbreak at the French Open in October when he took nine shots at the 18th hole to miss the cut by one shot, losing his Tour card the following week.

The four-time Challenge Tour champion, agonisingly beaten by a shot in the Oman Open in March, is good enough and young enough to fight back from the setbacks and 24th place in the Alfred Dunhill was a decent start, with new caddie Scott Carmichael alongside.

Players to note

Thomas Pieters
The former Ryder Cup star was sixth in the DP World Tour Championship last time out and could make a barnstorming Mauritius Open debut. His record in Africa though, allied to skinny odds, is off-putting.

Thomas Detry
The World Cup partner of Pieters is full of form but still waiting for his European Tour breakthrough as an individual and he has shown a worrying tendency for destructive shots after hitting the top of the leaderboard.

Justin Harding
The South African is an efficient putter who should go close if the weather remains calm throughout. Seventh place in the Alfred Dunhill was an excellent warm-up, although he has missed the cut in both his Heritage visits.

Calum Hill
The Challenge Tour star, a three-time champion on that circuit last season, finished 13th in the Alfred Dunhill on Sunday and can produce something similar in Mauritius.

Connor Syme
The Scot opened and closed with 69s in the Alfred Dunhill to finish 11th on his return to the European Tour. Another decent week can be expected.

Miguel Tabuena
The 25-year-old Filipino finished fifth in the last Mauritius Open at Heritage and he has been in good recent form on the Asian Tour. He could contend.

Heritage course guide

Course Heritage Golf Club, Heritage Bel Ombre, Mauritius
Prize money €1m (€166,660 to the winner)
Length 6,986 yards
Par 71
Field 156
Course records- 72 holes 268 Dylan Frittelli (2017) 18 holes 62 Arjun Atwal (2017)

Course winners taking part George Coetzee

When to bet By 2.20am Thursday morning

When to watch Live on Sky Sports Golf from 8.30am Thursday

Time difference Mauritius is four hours ahead of the UK and Ireland

Last week - Alfred Dunhill Championship 1 P Larrazabal (55-1), 2 J Sjoholm (200-1), T3 W Besseling (125-1), B Grace (18-1), C Schwartzel (16-1), 6 D Van Tonder (175-1)

Course overview Heritage GC, which staged this event in 2015 and 2017, is stunning, with mountains on one side and a lagoon on the other, and it is hilly.

It was designed by South African Peter Matkovich. Lakes and streams run through the layout, so errant shots are severely punished, but the trees (most of which are small, tropical ones) are less of a factor.

The track is close to the beach, so exposed to sea breezes, and many of the greens are enormous. There are four par-five holes, the first of which (the second) is just 521 yards long. The other three (the seventh, 14th and 18th) are just over 560 yards apiece.

There are five par threes – the 168-yard 15th the easiest and the 231-yard eighth the toughest. Matkovich is a failed golf professional who has designed a handful of courses in South Africa.

Pinnacle Point is his most famous creation. He is a fan of short par fours and there are two at Heritage – the 334-yard fifth and the 367-yard 12th

The story of last year Kurt Kitayama won by two shots at the Four Seasons track, the other Mauritius venue used for this tournament in alternate years

Weather forecast A mixture of sunshine and clouds, pleasant temperatures, with light breezes

Type of player suited to the challenge Scores of 13 and 16 under par have won the two editions at the Heritage in relatively testing conditions and South Africans have won both times (Coetzee and Dylan Frittelli). With hardly any breeze forecast this week, a 72-hole course record appears likely, and a hot putter seems essential

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