The curtain comes down another fascinating European Senior Tour season this week as Mauritius provides the spectacular backdrop for the MCB Tour Championship.
For Colin Montgomerie, Constance Belle Mare Plage will be the scene of his coronation as the Senior Tour’s Number One player, with the Scot heading to the season-finale with an unassailable lead in the Order of Merit following an astounding year.
The 2010 European Ryder Cup Captain is looking to keep his staggering run of form on the Senior Tour going over the Legend Course, having won four times - including two Major Championships -and finished runner up once in his five appearances in 2014.
Montgomerie finished sixth in his debut in the tournament 12 months ago, but he returns hoping to succeed Paul Wesselingh as champion, having already ensured he follows the Englishman in lifting the John Jacobs Trophy as the leading player on the Senior Tour.
Having won the Harry Vardon Trophy a record eight times, Montgomerie becomes just the second former European Tour Number One to repeat the feat on the Senior Tour, treading in the spike marks of Ian Woosnam, who lifted the John Jacobs Trophy in 2008.
Woosnam is also in the field this week, and the former World Number One is also hoping to end the year on a high note as he seeks to build on his recent resurgence after winning the Dutch Senior Open in his last appearance. The Welshman credited his work at the European Tour Performance Institute at Terrre Blanche, home of the French Riviera Masters, as the key to that first victory in three years, and he made a return visit to the south of France before flying to Mauritius for his debut in the MCB Tour Championship.
Woosnam and Montgomerie are joined by Scotland’s Sam Torrance, the first time the trio of Ryder Cup Captains have featured in the tournament together, while South Africa’s David Frost will be aiming to extend his impressive record over the Legend Course. Frost won the former Mauritius Commercial Bank Open in December 2010 and the MCB Tour Championship in 2012, and he has also been runner up on two occasions, including last year behind Wesselingh.
Meanwhile, Wesselingh will look for inspiration as he returns to the scene of his sentimental victory 12 months ago. The long-term club professional finished five shots clear of Frost and Spaniard Miguel Angel Martin to claim his fourth victory of 2013, stylishly sealing the Order of Merit crown in the process.
He starts this week in ninth position on the Order of Merit, having won the WINSTONgolf Senior Open, and he will be hoping to break into the top six in order to earn a spot in next year’s US Senior Open.
Currently occupying that final berth is American Tim Thelen, the Senior Open de Portugal champion, while Rookie of the Year Cesar Monasterio (fifth), Phil Golding (fourth), Barry Lane (third) and Rick Gibson (second) all now look assured of their places, and will instead battle it out to finish as high as possible in the Order of Merit, behind Montgomerie.
