Peter Uihlein was delighted to be able to put his injury worries behind him as he fired an opening 66 at the UBS Hong Kong Open.
The American is playing just his fifth event since May as he makes his way back from major wrist surgery and was bogey-free to sit just two shots off the lead at Hong Kong Golf Club.
Uihlein withdrew from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic due to the problem but then secured three consecutive top tens in a fine run of form through the Spring.
Another withdrawal then came at the Volvo China Open and Uihlein opted for surgery, missing three months before returning for the Aberdeen Asset Management Paul Lawrie Match Play, Italian Open and Porsche European Open.
The 2013 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year began his 2017 campaign at the Australian PGA Championship last week and is now pain-free, although he admits it has been a long road back.
"It took a while to be honest with you," he said. "I pitched up at the Match Play after a few months and had not touched a club. I just tried to see how it would do there and then pitched up a couple of times in the summer just to kind of see where my game was at.
"The wrist just wasn't quite healed up fully to where I wasn't thinking about it.
"It was nice to kind of just shut down right after those couple of events to really just regroup, let it heal, and start back up. At least I had the mindset that I was going to play last week in Australia, so it kind of got me motivated on that level to get back and get ready to play.
"It's kind of a process when it comes from an injury. You've got to get healed up and then your swing, you've got to get that back fixed and then the mental side of it comes into play. Then you've got to go out and play.
My wrist is fine completely, no issues. I haven't had any issues with it for a long time - Peter Uihlein
"I've been playing a lot of golf the last couple of months back home but it's just totally different when a Thursday rolls around. Now it's just getting back into the swing of things and getting back into the flow of tournaments and getting back into the rhythm of that.
"My wrist is fine completely, no issues. I haven't had any issues with it for a long time. I've had a lot of good people helping me out, getting me back playing fully fit."
Uihlein's round on Thursday contained birdies on the seventh, eighth, 16th and 18th, and he was pleased with his day's work.
"I hit some quality shots, putted well and holed some nice putts early on for pars which were nice to kind of get the round going," he said. "I'm pleased with it, for sure."
