Coetzee Up by One in Mauritius


Thanks to three birdies and an eagle that led to a 5-under 30 on the front nine, George Coetzee jumped into the 54-hole lead at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open. The European Tour event is being held at Heritage Golf Club on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.

The 28-year-old, who won earlier this year at his home Pretoria Golf Club in the Tshwane Open, could only add another birdie on the home half for a 6-under 65. But he reached 11-under 202, a stroke ahead of 36-hole leader Thorbjørn Olesen of Denmark and fellow South African Thomas Aiken, who shot rounds of 70 and 68, respectively.

Coetzee wasn't sure how he scored so well but is glad he did. "As I walked off the course, I told my manager I don't know how I'm shooting under par the way I'm playing, but obviously the course must suit my eye pretty well," he told the European Tour's website.

"Any way you get to a 65 is okay. I'm pretty happy, but I made it difficult for myself on the back nine. I hit a couple of loose tee shots on the back nine and that obviously puts pressure on the next tee shot and then the next one after that.

"But coming down the stretch I started to hit it a bit better, so I'm not going to read too much into it. Perhaps it was a bit more difficult on the back nine because the wind picked up a little and a lot of the shots played directly into the wind.

"I got to the turn in good shape, and the nice thing about this course is you don't have to force it coming down the stretch. I thought 'you know what, you can just play well and just pick up one or two birdies and the score should be pretty good without forcing it.' And fortunately, I made 65, so I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out in the end."

Olesen's swing was off from what it had been in the first two rounds, when he posted a 65 and 68, but his short game saved him. "My par saves were pretty amazing today. I'm happy that we are done now because it was not pretty out there. I was trying to find an escape and get the best score I could - I hit a lot of poor tee shots.

"Hopefully I can find something overnight otherwise it is going to be a long round tomorrow. I couldn't be happier that I'm only one shot off the lead with the way I played today. I'm still in contention and I have a good chance tomorrow. I have to find something from tee though to get my ball on the fairway.

"I'm very proud of myself because when you play like that it is not easy to be out there. You want to play your best but when it is just not there it is tough."

Trailing by three is Singapore's Mardan Mamat (67), while Carlos Pigem, Dean Burmeister, Andrew McArthur and Nathan Holman share fifth at 206.

Pelle Edberg, who began the third round trailing Olesen by just a stroke, fell down the leaderboard into a tie for 11th at 208 after a 74. Also at that number is 2013 U.S. Amateur champion Matthew Fitzpatrick, who shot 73.

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