Andrew Dodt will have mixed emotions after a torrid week at the AfrAsian Bank Mauritius Open, the Queenslander recovering from a horror mid-tournament run to post his best finish of the year.

After opening with a stunning 66 to lead by two and backing up with 2-under 70, Dodt suffered a mini collapse on the back nine on Saturday, dropping six shots in four holes to fall four shots out of the lead. 

The disastrous run continued early Sunday when Dodt made two double bogies and a triple bogey in his first nine holes but he showed tenacity to fire 2-under on the back nine and finish outright fifth.

Dodt has struggled with his game for much of the year and came to Mauritius having missed his two previous cuts. While he will be disappointed with some of his play, there were a lot of positives from the week.

With only two players finishing under par for the week, Dodt’s 1-over total was easily top of the Australians after a Sunday charge from Scott Hend was short lived when he ran into trouble on the back nine.

Hend hit his tee shot out of bounds at the par-5 13th on Sunday and made a double bogey, he backing up that mistake with another double at the very next hole after taking an unplayable.

The aggressive play dropped the Queenslander from fifth overnight to a share of 12th, one shot behind Terry Pilkadaris and Jason Scrivener.

The West Australians were T7 after some impressive play which saw Pilkadaris’ first top-10 on the European
Tour since finishing T2 at last year’s Made in Denmark tournament.

For Scrivener the good finish was his second consecutive top-10 as he continues to impress with solid golf each week.

Sam Brazel was the only other Australian to make the cut and finished T50 while New Zealand’s Ryan Fox was two shots better and T46.

Unho Park, Dimi Papadatos, Kalem Richardson, Kristopher Mueck and Ben Eccles all missed the cut.