South African Casey Jarvis and Scott Jamieson of Scotland broke out of a congested pack on Thursday at La Réserve Golf Links to share the first-round lead at the 2026 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
Battered by a constant wind from dawn to dusk, and with intermittent squalls of rain, the pair rose to the top of the leaderboard for the shared clubhouse lead with rounds of five-under-par 67. The round was unable to be completed because of darkness and will restart on Friday morning, with five groups still to complete their first round.
There were another 13 players within two shots of the lead, with the group at four-under featuring former champion Dylan Frittelli and Frenchman Alexander Levy, on his first DP World Tour appearance of the season.
Jarvis, winner of two Sunshine Tour events in the past month, birdied the last to cap off a round featuring two eagles.
Jamieson, starting on the back nine, birdied four of his first five holes and eight in all to offset a pair of sixes at the 15th and the first.
The Scot’s one previous win on the DP World Tour came in South Africa at the 2013 Nelson Mandela Championship presented by ISPS Handa, while Jarvis is chasing a maiden victory.
Frittelli and Levy, playing together in the fourth group to tee off on the back nine, set the early target along with Frittelli’s fellow South African Herman Loubser after rounds of 68.
Frittelli, the 2017 champion, was over par until a spectacular finish with three birdies in succession from the fourth followed by an eagle at the eighth.
“The wind was howling and we had three rain squalls come through,” he said. “I was really happy to be under par today. But I’m also starting to learn this course.”
Loubser was another early starter and looked set to post a mark of six-under-par but after five birdies in eight holes, helped by a brilliant bunker shot at the sixth, he ended his round with a double-bogey at the ninth.
The trio were part of a leading group which for much of the day saw between four and six players tied, with Ryan Gerard prominent among them. The American eagled the eighth while his five birdies included superb approaches at the fourth and 15th.
Manuel Elvira and Brandon Stone were the other players to shoot 68 on Thursday, with last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship winner Jayden Schaper in the group at three under after a round featuring four birdies and just a single bogey.
Schaper summed up just how difficult a first day it was. “It’s a tough course out there and we were out there for quite some time. I managed to stay calm and not focus too much on the wind around me. I did well to block it out. But it’s definitely a challenge out there. It’s very windy and the course is quite tight, and there are a lot of crosswinds.”
Alex Fitzpatrick nudged ahead at five under until a bogey-bogey finish left him alongside Schaper, Joakim Lagergren, Andreas Halvorsen, MJ Daffue, Hugo Townsend and Anthony Quayle. The latter had two holes left to play and was the only player under par among the 15 yet to complete their rounds.
Defending champion John Parry was three off the lead on two-under.
