The venue may have changed but Scott Hend will still be among the favourites as he looks to build on a top-5 2015 finish at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
The venue may have changed but Scott Hend will still be among the favourites as he looks to build on a top-5 2015 finish at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
Hend’s recent form has been nothing short of spectacular with top-5 results at both of the co-sanctioned events in China.
Five times in his last eight rounds Hend has been in the 60s and as one of the highest ranked players in the field he will be expecting more success.
Co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour, the event will see 10 Australians take their place in the field at the Four Seasons Golf Club at Anahita.
Hend, Andrew Dodt and Jason Scrivener represent the European Tour regulars while Terry Pilkadaris, Kalem Richardson, Sam Brazel and Unho Park step up from the Asian Tour.
NSW Open champion Ben Eccles tees up on a second consecutive sponsor’s invitation while Kristopher Mueck earned his spot thanks to a top-10 finish in Morocco last week.
Dimi Papadatos is the last Australian into the field courtesy of making the 72-hole cut at the 2015 Q-School.
Mueck and Scrivener were the form players at last week’s Trophee Hassan with Scrivener looking particularly dangerous over the first two days.
While he faded at the weekend on what as a difficult golf course, the 26-year-old looks on the verge of a breakout year and with most of Europe’s biggest name players in the US for THE PLAYERS a great opportunity exists this week.
Mueck, too, will be keen to make the most of his place in the field after what was likely a surprise performance in Morocco.
One of several Australians to earn an invite to the Trophee Hassan tournament, Mueck was impressive over the four days, more particularly with his even par finish on Sunday which was one of the better scores of the day.
Another good result could be a game changer for the Victorian and with his golf clearly in good shape he could be one of the stories of the week.