Dylan Frittelli claimed his second European Tour victory this year when he beat Indian Arjun Atwal in a playoff to win the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open and climb to just outside the top 50 on the world rankings at the Heritage Golf Club on Sunday.
The South African finished regulation play with a 67 and tied for the lead with Atwal on 16 under par, who forced a playoff with a birdie on the last hole. Frittelli then won on the first playoff hole – the par-five 18th – with a birdie.
“It’s good for me to finally win a playoff. It’s been three on the European Tour and one on the Sunshine Tour which I’ve lost. I’m proud of the way I played the 18th hole,” said Frittelli.
His victory in this event as well as the Lyoness Open in the middle of the year have combined for the most successful year of his professional career, which will be confirmed when the Official World Golf Rankings place the 27-year-old within touching distance of the golden top 50 on Monday.
And with that comes the tantalizing prospect of getting into the biggest tournaments in world golf in 2018.
“I’m very excited about that. It was my major goal after winning in Austria to get inside that top 50 and secure some big tournaments next year.”
Frittelli dropped only one shot in a windy final round in which he and Atwal remained in touch of each other at the top of the leaderboard, and while seeing off a charge from world number 22 Louis Oosthuizen.
Oosthuizen went into the back nine with three birdies and an eagle in five holes and shared the lead on 14 under par. But then came a triple-bogey seven on the 16th that ended any hopes he had of a win. He birdied the last for a 67 and a finish of tied 12th on 11 under par.
“This is validation of all the hard work I’ve put in,” said Frittelli.
“It means a lot to win today. Some guys might say, ‘Oh, you won against an easy field in Austria’. Well I’ve won a tri-sanctioned event now against a very strong field today.”
Atwal, who led from day one following a course record 62, was understandably disappointed after the defeat.
“Dylan obviously did the right things and deserves to win. I’m happy with the way I played this week but right now I’m just disappointed to lose the tournament. You don’t get many chances especially at my age.”
Final scores from the €1 million AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, played at the par-71 Heritage Golf Club on Sunday:
268 – Dylan Frittelli 67 66 68 67
268 – Arjun Atwal 62 70 68 68
270 – Romain Langasque 67 69 67 67
271 – Louis de Jager 66 67 67 71
272 – Matthieu Pavon 69 68 69 66, Miguel Tabuena 66 68 67 71
273 – Louis Oosthuizen 67 68 71 67, Jose-Filipe Lima 68 66 69 70
274 – Ockie Strydom 66 68 73 67, George Coetzee 67 71 68 68, Jean-Paul Strydom 71 69 66 68, Oliver Bekker 67 67 71 69, Joel Stalter 67 68 70 69
275 – Jeff Winther 71 68 72 64, Justin Walters 68 66 69 72
276 – Darren Fichardt 70 66 70 70, Shiv Kapur 69 69 68 70, Laurie Canter 67 66 72 71, Ricardo Gouveia 68 68 68 72
277 – Ashun Wu 72 68 70 67, Jinho Choi 71 66 70 70
278 – Paul Peterson 70 69 70 69, Sam Horsfield 68 72 69 69, Scott Vincent 70 70 68 70, Neil Schietekat 70 70 68 70, Masahiro Kawamura 68 70 69 71
279 – Shubankar Sharma 68 72 71 68, Andrea Pavan 68 69 73 69, Nico Geyger 71 69 70 69, S S P Chawrasia 69 67 73 70, Dean Burmester 71 70 68 70
280 – Lyle Rowe 72 69 72 67, Scott Fernandez 73 68 71 68, Pep Angles 68 69 73 70, Richard Mcevoy 68 73 69 70, Jacques Blaauw 71 70 69 70, Jbe’ Kruger 67 72 70 71, Casey O’Toole 68 72 68 72, Mark Williams 69 66 71 74
281 – Jason Knutzon 67 73 72 69, Gaganjeet Bhullar 70 71 67 73, Haydn Porteous 69 71 66 75, Doug McGuigan 69 71 66 75
282 – Pedro Oriol 71 70 73 68, Jens Dantorp 70 70 72 70, Steven Brown 73 68 71 70, Ashley Chesters 72 69 71 70, Phachara Khongwatmai 71 68 70 73, Carlos Pigem 73 68 68 73
283 – Johannes Veerman 69 72 75 67, Jarin Todd 68 69 76 70, Clement Sordet 70 69 74 70, Sutijet Kooratanapisan 76 62 73 72, Marcus Kinhult 67 72 72 72, Suradit Yongcharoenchai 69 71 71 72, Peter Karmis 73 67 70 73
284 – Pavit Tangkamolprasert 72 69 74 69, Christiaan Basson 72 69 72 71
285 – Anders Hansen 67 69 75 74, Adilson Da Silva 66 71 74 74, Marcel Schneider 72 66 72 75
286 – Jaco Prinsloo 69 68 77 72, Jacques Kruyswijk 68 72 72 74, Sebastian Heisele 66 73 72 75
289 – Jack Harrison 71 69 73 76, Pontus Widegren 67 74 70 78
Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
