Returning to golf after a year’s break Steve Jones has quickly found himself leading the BMW ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open.

Playing at The Hills, Steve Jones battled through the tough morning conditions to shoot 6-under 66 despite opening with back-to-back bogeys.

Having spent 2015 at home caring for his family, while his wife received treatment for a brain tumour, Jones was happy to see today’s result close that period in his life.

Sitting a shot further back from Jones on 5-under the card is 25-year-old Callan O’Reilly. Coming into the tournament confident in his game O’Reilly was happy to post a good number around The Hills in the opening round.

The BMW ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open has been dominated by young New South Welshman in recent times. In an interesting coincidence all three of the past champions, Jake Higginbottom (2012), Dimitrios Papadatos (2015) and Jordan Zunic all played alongside O’Reilly as amateurs in the 2012 NSW state team.

Shooting an opening round of 4-under 68 at Millbrook, the best result to come from that course, was New Zealand Rookie Pro Josh Munn.

This is just Munn’s second tournament on the PGA Tour ofAustralasia after he made his debut last week at the Holden NZ PGA Championship and he is pleased with his transition so far.

He is joined tied third by season Australian ProfessionalMatthew Millar who posted 4-under 68 late in the day at The Hills.

Rounding out the top-5 on 3-under the card are Shunsuke Sonoda, Darren Beck, Rory Bourke, Hideto Tanihara and Anthony Brown.

A further 12 players are all tied 10^th after the first round on 2-under the card.

In the pro-am component of the tournament, which is being played for a bonus NZ$50,000, Steve Jones and his amateur partner Stuart Munro lead at 13-under the card.

The second round of the BMW ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open will tee off at Millbrook Resort and The Hills at 7.35am with Jones in action atMillbrook Resort at 1.22pm.

Quick Quotes:

Steve Jones, 6-under,1^st

"When I started it was gusting pretty hard and raining. I thought it’s going to be a tough day."

"I got off to a pretty shaky start; I bogeyed the first two holes. Then I chipped in on the 12^th and I thought that’s alright."

 "Last year was tough;mentally it was hard to juggle the rigours of professional golf, the travel and then being the person I needed to be at home. I thought I would take the year off to look after my wife."

 "Kate has really been encouraging me to come back; she is doing really well which is why I can travel again."

 "My scoring hasn’t been good the last couple of tournaments but I have been feeling like I am building some momentum and my game is getting better after some time off last year. It was good to get a good reward today."

Callan O’Reilly,5-under, 2^nd

"I started early with a double bogey and thought it was going to be a hard day. I managed to make some good swings and got through the tough holes while the weather was bad. I managed to get the round going through the middle."

"I think it was just a case of accepting how tough the conditions were and knowing that everyone was going to make a mistake." 

 "You grow up playing with those guys (Papadatos, Higginbottom and Zunic) and to see what they have done early in their careers, you hope that you can mirror what they have done."

Josh Munn, 4-under, 3^rd

"It was an amazing start pitching in on the first hole for eagle which got me going."

"It was a crazy day with the wind coming in and I didn’t know which way it was coming from. But thankfully it disappeared after ten holes. It was a good day and I’m really pleased with the round."

"I played my first event as a Pro last week at the NZ PGA and it still had the same feeling as amateur golf. We were just out there playing18 holes of normal golf with no different feelings or mind sets. I’m out thereto make as many birdies as I can and get on the top of the leaderboard."

"My mind set all day after I got to 3-under was to try stay aggressive, I don’t really shy away or back away from too many shots."