Benjamin Hebert made five birdies in his final eight holes to post a 6-under-par 35-31=66 in the opening round of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at Heritage Golf Club, good enough for T1 in the clubhouse with Danish rookie Rasmus Hojgaard. UPDATE: Hebert ended R1 in a five-way tie for the lead.
With the morning wave complete, that’s a shot ahead of Thomas Detry, Matthieu Pavon, Antoine Rozner and South Africans Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Zander Lombard and Keith Horne. Hebert was 1-over thru 4 today after following pars at 10, 11 and 12 with a bogey at 13. He got back under the card with back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 but did his best work coming home. He boarded the birdie train with a gain at No. 2 and then ticked 4, 5, 7 and 9. Hebert has held two previous R1 leads on the European Tour, going on to finish T8 and T12. He missed the cut in this event last year although this is his debut at Heritage. The 32-year-old was runner-up at the Turkish Airlines Open three starts ago, a result which helped him finish 16th on the Race to Dubai.