December 05-08
Heritage Golf Club, Heritage Bel Ombre, Mauritius
€1,000,000
Round 1, Round 3, Round 4

European Challenge Tour graduate Calum Hill will take a one shot lead into the weekend at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open after a stunning second round of 64.

“The last couple of days the game has been nice. Managed to get the putter going well today, which added up to a good score. Last week was a slow start and I played better at the weekend. I've just built on it from there."

The Scot recorded a top 15 finish at last week's Alfred Dunhill Championship to get the season off to a promising start and he brought that form to Heritage Golf Club, moving to 12 under par as he matched the low round of the week.

“I'm happy with that, especially to make a putt on the last hole to finish off a good round. I made a lot of long range putts - 20, 25 foot - probably made four of those. 

“So far, so good (on the European Tour). We seem to be following the sunshine so we're always playing in warm weather and the courses are in great condition. I haven't noticed a huge difference yet coming from Challenge Tour. Obviously the fields are stronger, but it's the same as every tournament you play - you go out and do your best, see where that puts you at the end of the week, and dig in when you need to.”

Hill won twice in 2019 to secure his European Tour card, and he now leads his second event of the new season after recording nine birdies and just a single bogey on Friday.

The final gain - a 20 foot putt on the last – was enough to edge the 25 year old ahead of Rolex Series winner Brandon Stone of South Africa, Belgian Thomas Detry and Frenchman Matthieu Pavon, who all reached 11 under par in Bel Ombre.

“Very happy with how things went today," said Stone. "I got off to a nice start this morning; a couple of birdies early which kind of settled the nerves a little bit. And then from there I just played great all day.

"Very low stress, always in play, gave myself a lot of opportunities and managed to convert a fair number of them and sitting 11-under-par going into the weekend is exactly where you want to be.

“The target for the weekend to is go as low as we can go, actually. It's going to be a challenge and at the same time, there's a lot of really top quality players in the field, so you're going to go out and try to shoot as low as you can and, hopefully, by Sunday evening it's going to be enough."

French pair Benjamin Hebert and Antoine Rozner, American Sihwan Kim and Scot Connor Syme are one shot further back in the event that is tri-sanctioned with the Asian Tour and Sunshine Tour, with Danes Rasmus Højgaard and Søren Kjeldsen and South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout at nine under par.