Coetzee Nips Olesen in Playoff


George Coetzee birdied the 18th for the second straight time in a sudden-death playoff to edge Thorbjørn Olesen and win the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open. The European Tour event took place at Heritage Golf Club on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.

The 28-year-old Coetzee entered the final round a stroke ahead of Olesen and fellow South African Thomas Aiken. Coetzee closed with a 69 while Olesen had a 68 and Aiken a 70.

Coetzee needed a birdie on the last just to get into the playoff, and he came through to match Olesen at 13-under 271. His third birdie on the 18th was a charm for Coetzee, the highest-ranked player in the tournament who has three wins in the past two years.

"Thorbjørn did unbelievably well to put pressure on me the whole day. I actually had to work to catch him in the end," Coetzee told the European Tour's website. "I would have loved to have won it on the first playoff hole with an eagle and do it in style, but I'm obviously happy just to have won.

"All in all, I'm happy the job is done and it doesn't matter how many holes it took. I was little upset and angry after my bogey on 16 and when I walked up the tee box, I saw that my name was no longer at the top and I couldn't believe that Thorbjørn birdied 17. I told myself that I needed to give myself a good opportunity on 18, which I did."

Olesen, who won his second European Tour title at the end of last year and then underwent hand surgery, was generally happy with his play. "It's disappointing, of course, when you are in a playoff and you don't win," the 25-year-old Dane said.

"It's difficult to play that 18th with a 3-wood, but I've been hitting my driver pretty badly so I had to. George hit some great shots there in the playoff to get two birdies, as it's not an easy hole, so big congratulations to him and he's played really well.

"I'm pretty pleased with the way I handled things today - I had a bad start again and fought my way back. It was a lot of fighting out there and George just played a little better. I didn't expect this before the tournament so to be in a playoff is unbelievable when I haven't been in a tournament for three months. I'm very pleased with that and I can take it with me. It's a good start."

Singapore's Mardan Mamat birdied two of his last three holes for a 67 to finish a stroke out of the playoff, while Aiken ended up in fourth at 273. Three players - Japan's Masahiro Kawamura, England's John Parry and Australia's Scott Hend - shared fifth at 274.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015034/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y.