Battle for Mont Choisy

A Sunday showdown at the 2024 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open golf finale

- Meraj Shah

IF THE HIGH winds—swirling in from the Southern Indian Ocean—gusting frantically across the fairways of the Mont Choisy Golf Club forebode difficult playing conditions ahead, then 23-year-old Robin 'Tiger' Williams' stellar efforts to surmount them marked him out as a potential contender. Last Wednesday, one day before things got underway at the 2024 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, an unflustered Williams meticulously dismantled the defence put up by this formidable golf course on the Mauritian coastline.

The stocky 'rookie of the year', on the tier-three continental Sunshine Tour, has already secured full playing rights on the DP World Tour; nearly broken through with a win (he lost in the playoff at the SDC Championship); and been taken under Gary Player's wing by none other than the great man himself (who sees a great deal of potential in Williams). And it's not hard to see why: playing the pro-am with Williams on Wednesday, I saw up close a golfer who blends youthful swagger with the steely focus of someone twice his age.

His drives? Pulverised. His irons? Long and surgical: 300 yards off the tee with a three-iron and laser-like approaches with his wedges. His mental game? Unfazed, even when swirling winds conspired against us.

"It'll be a fun week!" he shrugged, "There's going to be a lot of wind but then everyone has to deal with that!" Williams plays with a maturity beyond his years, a quiet confidence that feels like the beginning of something significant.