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A chaotic first round of Australian Open is done and dusted with an LIV star on top in the men’s, while a forgotten Australian put a poor year behind her to jump out in front as the defending champions struggled.
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Cameron Smith has been the talk of the tournament for his comments about the course setup, but he backed up his words with an impressive showing in the form of a -6 round to sit two shots off the lead.
Smith made a blistering start at Victoria Golf Club, incredibly reeling off six straight birdies after an early bogey on his third hole of the round, while last weekend’s Australian PGA Champion Elvis Smylie struggled early in the same group to be +3 before finding his groove with four straight birdies of his own among Smith’s scintillating run to finish -1.
Another Aussie who lit up Victoria is Smith’s Ripper GC teammate Lucas Herbert, who concluded a stellar opening round of -8 with an eagle on his last hole to give him the outright lead.
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Remarkably, Herbert was not entirely pleased with his round of 63.
“I felt like there was a lot of shots left out there,” he said. “I feel like that with every round of golf, to be fair, but didn’t really think I holed that many putts. Just hit it quite nicely.
“Got it into the right spots. Probably got a couple of lucky breaks here and there where shots that maybe weren’t the best didn’t get punished.
“So, look, if that’s the worst round of the week, I’d be pretty happy.”
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At Kingston Heath, the afternoon belonged to Hannah Green.
The Australian is attempting to end the nation’s 10-year drought in the women’s tournament after arriving on Wednesday morning and not getting the chance to play a practice round because of Wednesday’s wild storms.
Not that those obstacles, or the jet lag, bothered her.
Green has won three times on the LPGA this season, and showed her class with five back nine birdies on her way to -6 to be one shot off the lead.
Earlier in the day, Japanese amateur Rintaro Nakano was the toast of the venue which will host the weekend action.
The 21-year-old carded a -7 round of 65 in the first round to enter the clubhouse with the lead before Herbert’s late eagle.
Nakano won the Japanese amateur last year and sits tied second alongside American Ryggs Johnston.
Australian Su Oh had a tough year only featuring in three LPGA events as she only made roughly $7,000 on the Epson Tour, but is lapping up a return home as she produced an excellent round at Kingston Heath to be -7 and tied for the lead.
“Good thing I like playing golf,” Oh said with a laugh when asked about her low earnings for the year.
“I think I wouldn’t keep playing if I didn’t like it. It was pretty tough, but I think I’m back on the right track with a better team around me.”
Oh, who is a Melbourne local, is the latest Australian golf to join the stable of revered Perth-based coach Ritchie Smith – who boasts Hannah Green, Minjee and Min Woo Lee, as well as Elvis Smylie among his pupils – to try reignite her career.
The Olympian from the 2016 Rio Games is joined at the top of the leaderboard by Korean amateur Hyojin Yang who also shot -7 in qualifying to earn her place in the field.
Australian LPGA stars Steph Kyriacou is among a group of players three shots back from the leaders, she played in the group behind Smith and Smylie at Victoria along with Minjee Lee.
The two-time major winner had a day to forget with a +2 round of 74.
Lee and Green flew into Melbourne on the same flight from America which arrived on Wednesday morning, and the jet lag played havoc with a 7:11am tee time.
“I’m pretty tired. I was yawning quite a lot, it was pretty bad,” she said.
“I wasn’t quite 100% on.”
PGA Tour fan favourite Harry Higgs started strongly with a -5 round, while Australians Marc Leishman and Karl Vilips both kicked off their campaigns with -3 rounds.
Min Woo Lee dropped two shots on the back nine to finish -1, while defending champion Jaoquin Niemann battled in the same group to be +2 and with plenty of work to do on Friday morning to make the cut.
In the group behind Niemann, two-time women’s reigning champion Ashleigh Buhai birdied her last two holes to finish even par.
Australian PGA Tour player Cam Davis had a poor start to the tournament at +2 and he is joined at that mark by Frenchman Victor Perez.
NOTABLE TEE TIMES – R2
7:00am AEDT, Tee 10, Victoria – Min Woo Lee, Joaquin Niemann, Jordan Smith
7:11am AEDT, Tee 10, Victoria – Grace Kim, Ashleigh Buhai, Hannah Green
7:22am AEDT, Tee 10, Victoria – Darius van Diel, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, David Micheluzzi
12:05pm AEDT, Tee 1, Kingston Heath – Elvis Smylie, Cameron Smith, Victor Perez
12:11pm AEDT, Tee 10, Victoria – Su Oh, Cassie Porter, Meghan Maclaren
12:16pm AEDT, Tee 1, Kingston Heath – Steph Kyriacou, Minjee Lee, Jiyai Shin
12:27pm AEDT, Tee 1, Kingston Heath – Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert, Yannik Paul
12:49pm AEDT, Tee 11, Kingston Heath – Todd Clements, Cameron Davis, Harry Higgs
For the full list of tee times, click here!
HOW TO WATCH
Watch all the Australian Open action on Kayo and Foxtel, with every big moment broadcast on Fox Sports channel 503 – which has become a dedicated Australian Open channel for the week.
Coverage begins at 12pm AEDT each day.
FOLLOW ALL THE DAY 1 ACTION OF THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN IN THE BLOG BELOW! Can’t see the blog? Click here!
