After a short hiatus, Steve Jones has made his return to theTour and already finds himself on top of the leaderboard.

Playing at The Hills in the first round of the BMW ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open, Jones fired 6-under 66 to be leading after the morning field.

Starting on the 10^th, Jones opened with two bogeys in conditions that would test the best.

However Jones was able to hold his composure to fight back with two birdies on his next two holes.

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

"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."

"It’s funny, when you have a good score the conditions don’t seem that bad. It was just a weird day, it was hard, it was raining with no wind, then it was perfect for about six holes, then it got really windy again."

"I just had to deal with each hole as it came and obviously my score stacks up against everyone else because I am up the top, so I am happy."

His round was made even more impressive by his lack of tournament golf experience in the past year.

Jones is only just returning to the PGA Tour of Australasia after taking last year off to care for his family while his wife, Kate, received treatment for a brain tumour.

"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."

"I wasn’t sure when I was going to be able to play again. It was tough. But I didn’t miss playing for a long time."

"The year previous had been so stressful with what I was going though off the course along with playing really inconsistently. So I really enjoyed not playing."

But with things moving in a positive direction for Kate and at her encouragement, Jones has made his return to golf.

"As the summer came around, tournaments were on and I saw my mates winning, I got a bit of the urge back," said Jones.

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

"We are hopefully past the tough times now and are just really looking forward to all the positive things in our future and leading the New Zealand Open is a really good start." 

Expecting to pick up where he left off, Jones found his return frustrating but today is happy to see the hard work he has been putting into his game paying off in Queenstown.

"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," added Jones.

"I expected when I came back that I would get straight back into it, which was a little silly. I was a bit frustrated through the first couple of tournaments."

"I have never really taken any time off since I started as a Pro 10 years ago. So nine months off, just playing socially once a week, you lose the little things like scoring and my swing was a bit off. It’s just lots of little things that I have been trying to get back," he continued."I am happy that the things I have been working on seemed to be working today which was some reward for the work I have been putting in."