Defending champion Antoine Rozner sets course record with an eagle and 10 birdies at Mauritius Open

The defending champion of the Mauritius Open, Antoine Rozner, started the defense of his title at full speed. The Frenchman had an impressive first round in the last tournament of the DP World Tour 2023 calendar year, with a record included.

Antoine Rozner set the record for a round at Heritage La Réserve Golf Club, home of the Mauritius Open, by carding a 10-under 62 on the first day of the event on Thursday. Rozner leads the leaderboard of the tournament he won last year.

Antoine Rozner's performance came close to being even better, as it included 10 birdies and an eagle. But the Frenchman could not avoid two bogeys on the 6th and 9th that made it impossible to set at 60.

There is no doubt that it was a favorable day for low scores, since, even with a record score, Antoine Rozner only leads by one stroke. The temporary runner-up, Paul Waring, scored 63 with nine birdies and zero bogeys.

As is becoming the tone of the autumn on the DP World Tour, players in one way or another linked to LIV Golf are also excelling at the Mauritius Open. Laurie Canter is T4 (66), while Louis Oosthuizen is temporarily in T16 (68).

South African Oosthuizen has had a particularly good LIV Golf off-season, winning two consecutive tournaments on the DP World Tour (Joburg Open and South African Open).

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Who is Antoine Rozner?

Antoine Rozner, 30, is a native of Paris, France. He had an interesting career in American collegiate golf, where he played for the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He won six tournaments there.

Rozner started his professional career in 2016 and has spent most of this stage of his career on the European circuits. He started on the Alps Tour, a third-tier circuit based in several countries on the continent. He remained there until he earned his membership on the Challenge Tour for the 2018 season.

Rozner did not take long to showcase his quality on Europe's second most important circuit. He won two events in 2019 (Challenge de España and Prague Golf Challenge), which earned him promotion to the DP World Tour in 2020.

The Frenchman has remained at the top European level since then and has won three tournaments (2020 Golf in Dubai Championship, 2021 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and 2022 Mauritius Open).

After the 2023 season, Rozner finished 33rd in the Race to Dubai rankings, with 1432.26 points, 531.87 points short of earning his PGA Tour card.

However, Rozner has started 8 times on the PGA Tour. He has accumulated five cuts there and his best result has been finishing T18, which he achieved twice (2021 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and The Memorial Tournament).