DUBAI, March 7: Defending champion Thomas Bjorn returned from a three-month injury layoff to share the lead in the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic Thursday.

The Dane did not drop a stroke on the UAE course as he carded a five-under-par 67 to move to the top of the leaderboard with Sweden’s Robert Karlsson.

Leading first round scores (Britain unless stated):

67 — Robert Karlsson (Sweden), Thomas Bjorn (Denmark).

68 — Niclas Fasth (Sweden), Ernie Els (South Africa), Olle Karlsson (Sweden), Sam Torrance, Charlie Wi (South Korea).

69 — Mark Mouland, Paul Broadhurst, Gregory Havret (France), Sven Struever (Germany), John Bickerton, Pierre Fulke (Sweden).

70 — Gary Evans, Rolf Muntz (Netherlands), Stephen Dodd, Anthony Wall, David Park, Eduardo Romero (Argentina), Richard Bland, Richard Green (Australia), Marten Orlander (Sweden), Stephen Scahill (New Zealand), Andrew Butterfield, Carl Pettersson (Sweden), Mark Pilkington, Padraig Harrington (Ireland).—Reuters