Oleson tied at the top in Mauritius

Thorbjorn Olesen, Jeunghun Wang and Carlos Pigem are tied at the top of the leaderboard after round one of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.

The trio each carded six under 65’s for a share of the opening round lead at the Heritage Golf Club in Domaine de Bel Ombre on Thursday.

Olesen was particularly impressive as he the competition is his first in three months after he was sidelined following hand surgery. The Dane enjoyed eight birdies and a couple bogeys.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this…three months to play a competition round,” the 25-year-old told europeantour.com.

“I was excited to get out there this morning. We had great conditions and I hit a lot of great putts, so it was fun.

“Being out for three and a half months is a long time, especially when you can’t do anything. You are just doing rehab training, so it is frustrating. I’m excited to be out here again and I’ll be playing a lot of golf now.

“I’m really pleased to be back out here on The European Tour and play competition golf. I’ve been practising hard over the last two weeks but you don’t know what it will be like when you get out here. 

“I didn’t have the biggest expectations. I knew I was swinging the club better than I have been, but you never know what will happen, so I couldn’t be happier with this start. It’s an awesome start.

“Having a break is very nice, but having a break because of injury is not very nice. You play so much golf so sometimes it is nice to get away from it and clear your mind, but I would definitely have preferred to have been without that injury.”

One shot off the pace after their respective 66’s are Australia’s Terry Pilkadaris and Oliver Bekker of South Africa.