LAURIE Canter took a large injection of confidence from his opening tournament performance on the 2018 European Tour as he prepared to end his golfing year in South Africa this week.

Canter, based at the Cumberwell Park club in Bradford on Avon, produced his highest finish on tour for nearly a year by finishing tied 16th at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at the weekend.

The 28 year old was within a shot of the lead after two rounds, but despite being unable to maintain his birdie blitz into the weekend - as a 72 and 71 followed on from his opening 67 and second-round 66 - he gave the thumbs-up to his display at the Heritage GC.

Canter was heading on to South Africa's Joburg Open this week - the tournament getting under way on Thursday morning - and did so in good heart as he prepared for his final tournament before a month-long break for the Christmas and New Year period.

"I was really happy with my performance (in Mauritius),'' he told the Wiltshire Times.

"I played really well all four days and particularly on the weekend. The scores didn’t really reflect that but I felt very comfortable in that environment and gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.''

He added: "I felt like I was in a position to challenge for the win over the weekend. Unfortunately I made a couple of poor bogeys and missed some crucial putts which would have really helped the momentum build.

"It was a good learning experience though, and next time I would be confident of pushing further up the leaderboard.''

Canter has happy memories of this week's event, having achieved one of his best European Tour finishes in it in 2017, as he finished tied 16th, although that was at Johannesburg's Royal Johannesburg & Kensington GC, rather than the Randpark Golf Club layout being used this week.

The Cumberwell man, who retained his European Tour card at the Q School finals last month, added: "It’s a new course in Johannesburg this week, one I haven’t played but I’ve heard good things.

"I love playing golf in Joburg and feel like if I can take care of a few work-ons from this week that I can put in another solid performance this week.

"I’ll have a month off competing over Christmas and New Year, interspersed with catching up on some home Bath Rugby games and enjoying some time off.

"The season then restarts on January 11 (the BMW SA Open) in South Africa again.''

Canter's Cumberwell Park clubmate Steve Surry, who holds playing rights on South Africa's Sunshine Tour, is also poised to play this week, with the Joburg Open a tri-sanction event between the Sunshine Tour, European Tour and Asian Tour, as was last week's Mauritius event.