Mauritius Open 2016: Thursday Leaderboard Scores and Highlights

Andrew Dodt raced to the top of the leaderboard at the end of Day 1 of the Mauritius Open, posting a score of six-under par at a windy Four Seasons Golf Club in Anahita.

The Aussie produced a putting masterclass on his way to a Thursday round of 66. It’s an effort that puts Dodt two shots ahead of the chasing pack, with Rashid Khan and Siddikur Rahman shooting respectable opening rounds of four-under par.

Here is how the leaderboard is shaping up following a fascinating opening day in Mauritius and a closer examination of how the action panned out.

Position	Player	Overall	Round 1 Score
1.	Andrew Dodt	-6	66
T2	Rashid Khan	-4	68
T2	Siddikur Rahman	-4	68
T4	Estanislao Goya	-3	69
T4	Jeung-Hun Wang	-3	69
T6	Jbe Kruger	-2	70
T6	Chiragh Kumar	-2	70
T6	Srithong Natipong	-2	70

Full leaderboard available on the European Tour website.

Dodt Putts his Way to the Top

Ian Walton/Getty Images

Every now and then, a golfer settles into a brilliant groove on the greens and their putter can become very hot very quickly. Dodt, ranked 304th in the world coming into this event, enjoyed one of those brilliant days on Thursday.

While his card did contain a couple of blemishes—dropping shots at the second and the 14th—for the vast majority of his round the Australian played wonderfully. His approach play into the flag was solid, and that gave him a lot of chances on Day 1.

As these numbers from the European Tour Twitter feed illustrated, Dodt putted as well as he has ever done in his professional career:

Given the difficult conditions, Dodt admitted he was delighted to have been able to post such a low score.

“If someone said six under at the start of the day, I would have put my hand up yesterday and taken it," he said, per the European Tour website. "It's not easy out there. if you're off by just a little bit, everything gets magnified by the wind. I played really solid, I didn't make too many mistakes and the momentum in the round just kept flowing.”

Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

These conditions, should they remain, mean things can change very quickly over the course of the next three days, and the chasing pack will be confident of reeling in the leader.

Arguably the most steady player of the day was Rahman, who had just one bogey on his card; that came at the eighth, his penultimate hole having begun on the 10th tee. Khan, by contrast, had a day much more in keeping with the rest of the players involved, as he scrambled to seven birdies and three bogeys.

There were isolated moments of brilliance on Day 1, too. This blind approach from Brandon Stone, who is one-over par after his first round, was arguably the shot of the day:

Dodt has won twice on the European Tour before, the most recent being a victory at the True Thailand Classic last year, so he knows what it’s like to be atop the leaderboard in a prestigious event. If he continues to putt with such quality for the next three days, he’s going to be difficult man to catch.