December 05-08
Heritage Golf Club, Heritage Bel Ombre, Mauritius
€1,000,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Rookie Rasmus Højgaard, French duo Benjamin Hebert and Romain Langasque, Rolex Series winner Brandon Stone and Scot Grant Forrest all fired opening rounds of 66 to share the lead at the top of a congested leaderboard after day one of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.

“It's always nice to start a tournament in this way," said Hebert. " I enjoy the course. It is in very good condition. It was a good round of golf and it was pretty fun out there. 

“The wind was quiet this morning, a little bit different direction than usual. But then it turned and started to blow. The course is in great condition anyway so, if you find a good way to manage the wind it is very scoreable.”

The island paradise is hosting players from the European Tour, Asian Tour and Sunshine Tour in the tri-sanctioned event, and the leading quintet took advantage of good conditions to get to six under par.

A further nine players are in a share for second just one shot further back, with 77 players under par and within five shots of the lead.

Dane Højgaard made his first European Tour cut at last week's Alfred Dunhill Championship and he carried that momentum forward with a bogey free effort to sit alongside Hebert in the early lead.

The 18-year old may be playing his first season on the European Tour but the family name has been on golfing lips since 2018 when he and identical twin brother Nicolai combined with John Axelsen to win the Eisenhower Trophy for Denmark and played together in the Junior Ryder Cup.

“It was great, I played well and gave myself a lot of chances. Conditions are very good. It's a course where if you are playing well you can see a lot of chances. I managed to take them today. 

“I had a full season on the Challenge Tour, which gave me a lot of confidence in what I am doing. I just need to believe in myself. It's paying off right now and hopefully it will pay off in the long run as well.

“Rookie of the year would be very nice (as an objective to meet) but it will definitely take some good results to get that. I'll just try to play as well as I can and see where I end up.”

With increased winds in the afternoon, it looked like the duo may not be caught but Forrest, Langasque and Stone played beautifully to reach the summit and 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.