Back home, a week out from the big day, festivities are dominating the thoughts of most, but Rowan Lester is hoping Christmas comes a little early as he gets set to compete in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
The co-sanctioned DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour event is taking place at Heritage La Réserve Golf Links on the island nation in the Indian Ocean, and by virtue of his Sunshine Tour ranking – he lies 57th in the Order of Merit in his maiden campaign – he’s due to make his first appearance on the DP World Tour since 2021 when he competed in the Omega European Masters on an invitation shortly after turning professional.
“Back then, I feel like I was a good player but my technique was nowhere near as good as it is now,” he said. “It definitely wasn’t good enough to be competing on the DP World Tour or the Challenge Tour as it was then called, but I’ve become a lot better technically, my game is much better all round.”
In 19 starts since earning his Sunshine Tour stripes at Q-School back in April, he’s made 11 cuts – and 10 of his last 14 – and made the trip to Mauritius as second alternate but fairly confident that he’d have a tee time to look forward to on Thursday.
“I was out on the course on Monday playing a practice round and when we’d finished, I saw a message on my phone saying I was in,” he explained. “I’d booked the flights weeks ago because I’d been told that it was fairly certain I’d get in, but it was a lot closer than I expected. The exemption list didn’t go down the rankings as far as we thought it would, but I’d have been more surprised if I didn’t get in. Even still, I was very, very happy because I could easily have missed out too.”
Though a victory would obviously bring DP World Tour membership, he’s not allowing any such thoughts to creep in and instead is viewing the week as an excellent opportunity to further cement his status on the Sunshine Tour with elevated ranking points on offer.
It also further vindicates his decision to move to the southern hemisphere and try the less travelled Sunshine Tour route.
“These opportunities, you just don’t get them playing on the third-level tours back home. You have to finish top six on the Clutch Pro to get any HotelPlanner Tour starts, and you have to play pretty amazing golf to be in the top six. Here, I’m 57th on the Order of Merit but with the co-sanctioned events with the DP World Tour and HotelPlanner Tour – there are triple and quadruple points on offer there – you can really catapult yourself up the rankings.”
The importance of maintaining a good ranking can’t be overstated, with just one regular Sunshine Tour event remaining alongside four co-sanctioned events with the HotelPlanner Tour and a further two with the DP World Tour. Remaining inside the top 75 will see Lester advance to the Sunshine Tour playoffs, and finishing the season inside the top 50 would bring Category 8 membership but also, he believes, would make him eligible for Golf Ireland funding, and when you’re playing for a living, that makes a big difference.
As a result, he’s not just in Mauritius to make up the numbers.
“One good week at one of these co-sanctioned events could see you climb up 20 places easily,” he said. “So, that’s the goal. Getting points, and a few bob too, hopefully. But it’s all to gain and nothing to lose, really, so I’m planning to play aggressively. Playing conservative and finishing tied for 45th or something isn’t really going to do that much really.
“Playing aggressive, and getting a stroke of luck or two, and you could end up top 15 or top 10, you never know. So that’s the mindset.”
What’s more, as he found out in his practice rounds, it’s a golf course that you need to be aggressive on.
“I think I hit driver on 13 of the 14 holes that are par-4s or par-5s,” he said. “Unless they move the tees well up on some of the holes – which I can’t really see the DP World Tour doing – that’ll be the strategy. And it’s giving gusts up to 48 kph tomorrow, so even though the wind direction was the same for the practice rounds, it’s going to play tough.
“I was talking with my coach – David Ruddy – and said that I have a tendency to play a little too conservative when the weather is tough, but I’m going to try to play a lot more aggressively this week.
“He was asking if I was nervous, but I’m not – not any more than I would be for a Sunshine Tour event anyway. You just know that you’re not going to get away with much. The cut will be tight, and you have to play great no matter what.
“But I have a full season of Sunshine Tour events behind me, so I couldn’t really be anymore ready than I am. All the work is done, so it’s about going out and playing as well as I can.”
Lester will play the opening two rounds alongside South African and fellow Sunshine Tour member, Toto Timbha Jnr, and 2025 Irish Challenge winning Frenchman, Oihan Guillamoundeguy.
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