Antoine Rozner produced an impressive display of front-running as he fired a Sunday 67 to storm to a five-shot victory at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
The Frenchman began the day with a two-shot advantage and carded an eagle and three birdies on the front nine to stretch his lead to five strokes at the turn.
He then safely parred the next seven holes in breezy conditions before a bogey-birdie finish saw him end the tournament on 19 under par and banish the memory of his play-off defeat to Rasmus Højgaard in this event three years ago.
Rozner’s commanding victory in the final event of the calendar year is his third win on the DP World Tour and first since the 2021 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
Spaniard Alfredo Garcia-Heredia finished alone in second on 14 under after posting a flawless 67 on his 41st birthday.
France’s Julien Brun was two shots further back in third after his level-par 72.
Rozner did well to keep his card clean in the early stages of the fourth round, pulling off a remarkable recovery shot from a tricky lie to save par at the third.
The 29-year-old opened his birdie account from around six feet at the fifth before an outstanding approach into the par-five seventh set up an eagle chance there.
And his ten-foot putt just caught the right edge of the hole and went below ground to move him to 17 under.
Rozner found the green with his tee-shot at the par-three eighth and rolled in the putt to pick up another shot before draining a monster birdie effort at the ninth to move five shots clear.
Yet another phenomenal iron shot gave Rozner a birdie opportunity on the tenth but this time he was unable to convert, and a further chance evaded him at the short 11th.
He recovered from an errant
tee-shot on the 12th to walk away from there with a par, before parring the 13th, 14th and 15th.
Rozner lagged his enormous birdie putt to tap-in range at the 16th but dropped a shot on the short 17th after missing the green.
He made amends at the last, though, almost chipping in for an eagle before knocking in the close-range birdie putt to close out a stunning victory.
An emotional Rozner said: “Unbelievable. It’s a tough game. We practise so hard all year long and a win is a win and I’m so glad I got this done.”
“It’s so hard to win so I’m just so happy. I didn’t know anything about the scores, I didn’t want to have a look. I knew I was in the lead.”
“I knew if I kept playing like this there was going to be no issue at the end but it was so hard.”
“I started hitting bad shots so I think with my caddie we did a really good job to stay focused and stay in the moment and not think about the scores and the other guys.”
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