MCB Tour Championship: A unique end to the season and the perfect test

There is nowhere quite like Mauritius and Seychelles on the Legends Tour schedule.

The circuit’s golfers get to play on some of the most famous courses in the world every year, but nowhere else has the Indian Ocean’s combination of sensational weather, beautiful golf courses and world-class resorts.

In the case of Constance Lemuria and Constance Belle Mare Plage, hosts of the MCB Tour Championship – Seychelles and MCB Tour Championship – Mauritius respectively, those three aspects are combined in perfect fashion.

Constance Lemuria will offer the first test, and it is a spectacular one. The first 12 holes are on flat ground with fairways that sneak between mangroves, volcanic rock and the beach. The final six holes are even more extraordinary, and when the Legends Tour players first encountered them in 2018, the response said it all: they immediately grabbed their phones to take photos which they then sent across the world.

That late stretch climbs crosses and descends a steep rainforest-covered hill. From the 15th and 18th tees, shots are fired towards distant targets with nothing in the far distance but thousands of miles of blue sea.

It’s an exacting test and will this year also welcome the Grand Final of the Celebrity Series which will see international footballers, cricketers, a skier, a Formula 1 driver and a pop star fight it out for a donation to their favourite charity.

When the action is complete in Seychelles, the field will travel south to a favourite venue – the Legend Course at Constance Belle Mare Plage. It will be the 11th edition of the MCB Tour Championship, and the course has proved to be an examination that rewards the very finest golfers.

In fact, there has been only one winner there who was not a major champion, a multiple PGA Tour winner, a Ryder Cup representative or the winner of the Order of Merit rankings.

The Legend is a tight test that demands expert ball-striking, both from the tee and with approaches to the small greens. Everywhere danger lurks, whether from water hazards, jungle or rocks.

The MCB Tour Championship is a worthy conclusion of the season, a two-week celebration of the sport on magnificent golf courses that produces primetime sporting drama and which always sees world-class players crowned champion.

These are Legends by name (the Tour and the golf course) and Legends by nature, too.