The 2016 edition of the Mauritian National qualifying event, the AXYS Mauritius World Corporate Golf Challenge Qualifier, took place on Saturday 21st of May 2016 at the Heritage Golf Club, Bel Ombre.
Milestone Construction Consultants Ltd, represented by Mr Mark Cridlan, emerged as the winner, and he will be partnered by Mr Henk Barnhoorn at the forthcoming world finals in Cascais, Portugal.
Just as last year, out of 200 players who had been invited to participate in the event, only the first 72 to register have been booked with this year’s competition format having been set as full handicap individual stableford, and offering the winner to select the partner of his choice to accompany him/her to the world finals. After a few days of rainy weather prior to the event, the tournament took place under sunny skies with somewhat windy conditions, which brought an additional challenge for the participants in their quest to snatch their ticket to Portugal.
In addition to the star prize, there were 5 ‘challenge’ holes organised by the sponsors, making their rounds even more exciting. These were as follows:
a) A Hole in One (with the chance to win the latest BMW X1 model, showcased on the tee);
b) Two ‘Nearest to the Pin’ competitions: one for the ladies and one for the gents;
c) Two ‘Longest Drive’ competitions, equally for ladies and gents.
Although there were a couple of close calls on the 8th green, unfortunately nobody managed to score the hole in one. The winners of the other challenge holes all brought home several prizes.
The lucky winners were:
Ladies’ Nearest to the Pin (on Hole 15): Mrs Christine Ben Hamou (from RESMAU Life Ltd)
Ladies’ Longest Drive (on Hole 7): Mrs Beatrice d’Arifat (from PNL)
Men’s Nearest to the Pin (on Hole 13): Mr Kirk Varaden (from Metropolitan Mauritius)
Men’s Longest Drive: Mr Daryl Csizmadia (from Ernst & Young)
Despite the somewhat challenging weather conditions, the players managed to post some nice scores on this beautifully maintained Golf course. Mr Mark Cridlan (from Milestone Construction Consultants Ltd) put up a very consistent card throughout his round to come out on top with 40 points, two points better than Mr Jean Michel Pitot (from Attitude Hospitality Management) and Mr David Axten (from Frontiere Finance), whom although have scored well especially in their respective back nine holes could not manage to catch the leader. Mr Cridlan has chosen his partner from last year’s event, Mr Henk Barnhoorn, to partner him at the forthcoming world finals in Portugal. It is interesting to highlight that the Cridlan-Barnhoorn pair had come short of victory by one point last year, which makes it even more rewarding for them this year to represent Mauritius in Portugal.
At the prize giving ceremony, after thanking co-sponsors BMW & Sotheby’s International Realty for their support, the title sponsors AXYS have communicated their satisfaction to have renewed their association with World Corporate Golf Challenge for this Mauritian National qualifying event and look forward to next year’s edition where they trust to have an even better impact on the local Corporate Golf World.
For the time being, both AXYS and Affluent Options Ltd (licensee to WCGC in Mauritius) are thrilled to be sending out the Milestone Construction Consultants team to represent Mauritius in Portugal in mid-June.