Staff WriterIf you’re going to sign off a season, you may as well do it with theatre. At the Mauritian Open, South Africa’s Jayden Schaper saved his finest for the last act — chipping in for eagle in a playoff to beat American Ryan Gerard and win the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at La Réserve Golf Links on Sunday.
It was the kind of finish that makes grown golfers stare into the middle distance and question what they’ve done with their practice hours. Schaper, still only 24, delivered a moment of pure nerve and touch to complete back-to-back victories on the Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour, having also won last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship — again, via playoff. Some players chase form. Schaper appears to be mugging it in a dark alley and taking its wallet.
“Those are the shots you’re dreaming about when you’re on the practice green as a youngster. To pull it off in a tournament and in a playoff – I don’t know. I just can’t wait to get back and look at the footage of that shot because you’re in the moment and focused and you don’t really take in what just happened. I’m pretty sure it’s going to hit me later but it’s just so insane,” said Schaper.
A closing stretch that screamed “not finished yet”
Schaper arrived in Mauritius with his year already humming, and left with it singing. In the last three weeks he’s finished second in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player, first in the Alfred Dunhill Championship and first in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
The final day at La Réserve brought wind, nerves and the sort of leaderboard tension that makes even the calm ones start bargaining with the golf gods. Schaper fired a final-round 64, including three birdies in his final four holes, to post 22 under par — a number that usually earns you a trophy and a quiet handshake, not a playoff against a man with everything on the line.
Gerard, playing in the group behind, arrived at the 18th one shot back and promptly found a new way to raise blood pressure: he thought his ball had moved when he addressed it on the fairway. A rules official cleared him, and then Gerard produced a bunker birdie so audacious it deserved its own boarding pass, tying Schaper after a closing 66.
Gerard had the Masters on his mind — and played like it
This wasn’t a casual end-of-year swing for Gerard. He made his intentions clear before the week began, explaining he’d flown all the way from Florida to play the event as a final opportunity to win and end the year in the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking — thereby securing himself a Masters invite.
And he very nearly wrote the script. But golf, as ever, prefers improvisation.
Playoff: par, par… and then a proper ending
On the par-five 18th as the first playoff hole, both players made par. Still level. Still no daylight. And then the second playoff hole arrived, and Schaper reached into that rare place where confidence and execution meet without an argument.
The chip-in eagle ended it — a clean finish to a career-defining 2025 and a flashing sign for what might be coming in 2026. The Mauritius Open had its champion, and it had him with a flourish.
“So far it’s been two of the best weeks of my career, but hopefully there is more to come. It’s been insane and you could never have asked for any better. It’s unreal,” he said.
The chasing pack — and a course that’s winning admirers fast
South Africa’s Casey Jarvis finished third on 17 under par with a final round of 71, rounding out a strong showing for the South Africans in a week that felt like a statement across both tours.
Schaper’s win also added another headline to the rapid rise of La Réserve Golf Links, a venue collecting praise almost as quickly as it’s collecting tourists with cameras.
“It is an incredible golf course. When we played it for the first time in 2023 it had only been open for a couple of months and it was a bit young. But two years later it has matured incredibly well and the playing surfaces are as good as I’ve seen anywhere. It has to be perhaps the most stunning golf course I’ve ever seen in my 32-year tenure on the DP World Tour,” said Miguel Vidaor, Tournament Director for the DP World Tour.
For Schaper, the takeaway is simple: a season-ending win at the Mauritius Open, a second straight trophy, and the sort of momentum that doesn’t knock politely — it kicks the door in.
