Five Share Lead After AFRASIA BANK Mauritius Open First Round

A group of five players shares the lead after the first round of AFRASIA BANK Mauritius Open, with low scoring aplenty on Thursday.

The leading quintet all carded 66s on the opening day of the Afrasia Bank at Heritage Golf Club in Bel Ombre, with the top 77 all posting under-par scores.

Denmark’s Rasmus Hojgaard, playing in only his second European Tour event after qualifying for the Tour through the Final Stage of Q School, was the only one of the leaders to go bogey-free in the opening round.

The French duo of Romain Langasque and Benjamin Hebert both had seven birdies and a bogey in their opening rounds, as did South Africa’s Brandon Stone. Grant Forrest had a slightly more up and down round, with two bogeys canceled out by six birdies and an eagle.

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Some big names sit just a shot back at -5, with both Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Zander Lombard in the nine-strong group in a tie for 6th.

Jaco Ahlers and Keith Horne make it four South Africans in the group of nine, with the latter having a strong first round for the second week running, after posting a 66 at Leopard Creek last Thursday.

The European quarter of Thomas Detry, Matthieu Pavon, Antoine Rosner, and Ricardo Santos are all amongst that group, with American Sihwan Kim the last of the nine men to post their opening round of 67.

The man who sits highest in the Official World Golf Rankings, Justin Harding, came in with a 68 on opening day to sit two shots back at -4, thanks to this eagle on the final hole.

He is joined by compatriots Ockie Strydom and Darren Fichardt, Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen and the Scottish trio of Connor Symer, Calum Hill and David Law.

Nicolas Colsaerts and Jack Singh Brar are among those at -3, while the likes of Raphael Jacquelin, Daniel van Tonder, Johannes Veerman, and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano are part of the 24-man group at -2.

Twenty more sit at -1 to make it 77 in the red after the opening 18 holes of the week in Mauritius Open, with former AFRASIA BANK Mauritius Open winner George Coetzee among those who posted a 71 on day one.

Paul Lawrie, Lorenzo Gagli, David Drysdale and Joel Sjoholm, the runner-up at last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship, are also in that group just inside the cut line.

27 players shot 72 on opening day, with the likes of David Howell and Gaganjeet Bhullar among them, while Pierre Pellegrin is the leading amateur, with the Mauritian sitting at +1 after the opening day.

Thomas Pieters, Clement Sordet and Benjamin Poke are among those who sit over-par after the first round, and they will need to improve on Friday if they are to make it through to the weekend’s action at Heritage.

One man who will not be making it through is India’s Shubhankar Sharma. The two-time European Tour winner carded a ten-over-par round of 82 on opening day and now sits 11 shots off the cut line ahead of Friday’s play.

Talking of Friday, the action gets underway at 06:20 (GMT+4) once more, with two groups starting things off with a two-tee set-up in operation again.

Malcolm Kokocinski, Adrien Saddier and Jake Roos will get things going from the 1st, while the 10th will see Alejandro Canizares, Anthony Michael, and Arjun Prasad start the day.

World No.66 Justin Harding will play alongside two of the overnight leaders, in Brandon Stone and Romain Langasque at 07:10 (GMT+4). Expect at least one of that trio to be flying near the top of the leaderboard after Friday’s round.

Leaderboard:

T1 (-6): Romain Langasque (FRA), Brandon Stone (RSA), Grant Forrest (SCO), Rasmus Hojgaard (DEN), Benjamin Hebert (FRA)

T6 (-5): Jaco Ahlers (RSA), Ricardo Santos (POR), Sihwan Kim (USA), Keith Horne (RSA), Antoine Rozner (FRA), Zander Lombard (RSA), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (RSA), Thomas Detry (BEL), Matthieu Pavon (FRA)

Selected Others:

T15 (-4): Justin Harding (RSA), Darren Fichardt (RSA), Connor Syme (SCO)

T22 (-3): Nicolas Colsaerts (BEL), Jack Singh Brar (ENG), Haydn Porteous (RSA)

T35 (-2): Daniel van Tonder (RSA), Johannes Veerman (USA), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (ESP)

T59 (-1): David Drysdal (SCO), Joel Sjoholm (SWE), George Coetzee (RSA)