Thorbjørn Olesen reeled in George Coetzee to set up a fascinating back nine battle for the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
South Africa’s Coetzee, the top-ranked player in the field this week, started the day one ahead of compatriot Thomas Aiken and Dane Olesen, but pulled clear with birdies from close range at the second and third courtesy of some wonderful iron play.
Already a winner at his home Pretoria GC course this season in the Tshwane Open, the 28 year old Coetzee found himself three clear and maintained that advantage when he birdied the fifth.
Olesen, whose driving was all over the place on Saturday, had failed to get up-and-down at the first.
But the 25 year old’s putter had been hot all week and with his long game firing once more he birdied the fifth from 12 feet, converted an eight footer at the sixth and made light weight of the long seventh.
The same could not be said for Coetzee, who drove out of bounds on the par five seventh and bogeyed, and Olesen – returning from a three-month injury lay-off – made a ten foot putt at the ninth for a share of the lead on 13 under par.
It was not yet a two-horse race, but Aiken, Australian Scott Hend and Singapore’s Mardan Mamat, all of whom were tied for third on ten under par, had plenty of work to do to mount a serious challenge.
Olesen bogeyed the tenth to drop one behind, and with birdies on the back nine hard to come by the gap remained the same heading into the closing holes.
Aiken and Mamat both closed to within striking distance, birdieing the tenth and 16th respectively to lie 11 under.
