All eyes on red-hot Frittelli in Mauritius

– Inside the top 20 in three of his last four tournaments, Dylan Frittelli (right) is definitely one to watch in this week’s Mauritius Open.

His recent performances include a share of fourth in the European Tour’s 2017 season-ending DP World Tour Championship, and a share of 16th in last week’s European Tour’s 2018 season-opening UBS Hong Kong Open.

The Mauritius Open, sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour, the Asian Tour and the European Tour, tees off today at the Heritage Golf Club, and, although there are two Open Championship winners in Louis Oosthuizen and Darren Clarke in the field, Frittelli is certainly a player who catches the eye in any field in the world right now.

“I’m a different player now from the confidence I’ve gained,” he said. “It’s crazy to look back and see the type of golfer I was – even a year ago, I had four years of pro golf under my belt, but the mental aspect has become clear to me over the last year. I’ve learned a lot of confidence from the good play and I now am able to see myself with the top golfers in the world and competing with them and winning.”

Things may well have started for him with his maiden European Tour win in June’s Lyoness Open in Austria, but eyes were well and truly opened when he came so close to unseating Justin Rose on his charge to victory in the Turkish Airlines Open at the beginning of the month.

Fritelli builds his success on being sneaky-long off the tee – 302.96 yards on average last year, and 314.50 last week in Hong Kong – and he’s getting more accurate in to the greens too, hitting 71.26% in regulation last year and 75% last week.

“Probably the key factor in my game is the ball-striking,” he said. “That keeps me there consistently. I guess that’s what every top golfer wants to have – if you have good ball-striking, you’ll be in contention. From there you try and get more specific and play well under pressure. – Own Correspondent