Rolex Series winner Brandon Stone was one of five players to shoot 66 and sit on top of a packed leaderboard after Thursday’s opening round at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
Joining the South African are rookie Rasmus Højgaard, French duo Benjamin Hebert and Romain Langasque, and Scot Grant Forrest.
The island paradise was playing host to players from the European Tour, Asian Tour and Sunshine Tour and the leading quintet took advantage of good conditions to get to six under.
There were then nine players in a share for second just one back, with 77 players under par and within five shots of the lead.
Forrest, Langasque and Stone played beautifully despite the wind picking up to sit a shot ahead of South Africans Jaco Ahlers, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Keith Horne and Zander Lombard, French duo Matthieu Pavon and Antoine Rozner, Belgian Thomas Detry, American Sihwan Kim and Portuguese Ricardo Santos.
Horne, Rozner and J J Senekal had all also been at six under at one point but dropped back with Forrest joining the lead with a birdie on the second to add to a roller coaster first nine holes.
After starting with three birdies – including a monster putt on the tenth – he bogeyed the next but eagled the par five 14th with a chip-in and also made the most of the 18th.
He dropped a shot on the fifth but picked it back up as he got up and down on the par five seventh and there was soon a five way tie for the lead.
Stone had birdied the two par fives on the front nine to go with gains on the first and fifth but dropped a shot on the tenth. His dominance on the par fives continued with a gain on the 14th and he hit a stunning tee shot on the par three next and recovered from a poor tee shot to birdie the last and hit the front.
‘Tee to green, I think I was decent,’ he said. ‘I hit the irons quite nicely, some really good iron shots earlier on in the round and towards the end there. The driving was okay, a few little wayward ones like the one on 18 that I managed to get away with but overall the game feels fantastic and I’m looking forward to a fresh start tomorrow morning.’
Playing partner Langasque made it four out of four on the par fives when he got up and down on the last to go with gains on the ninth, 12th and 16th and a dropped shot on the 13th.
‘It was pretty solid all day,’ he said. ‘It was the kind of round I was looking for to start the tournament, so I’m pretty happy. I played well here two years ago and I think this is a course that fits my game really well. I’ll just stay focused on doing my own thing.’
There were seven players at four under including European Tour winners Darren Fichardt, Justin Harding and Søren Kjeldsen.
Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
