MELBOURNE, Australia – Lucas Herbert shot an 8-under 63 on Thursday at the soggy Victoria Golf Club, including an eagle on his final hole, to take a first-round lead at the Australian Open, with fellow Australian and champion British Open 2022 Cameron. Smith is two strokes behind.
The Australian Open and the Women’s Australian Open are held simultaneously — using alternating tee times — and for the second year in a row the money rate is on Melbourne’s two sand belt courses, the par-72 Kingston Heath (par-73 for the Women’s Open ) and 71 Victoria.
Japanese star Rintaro Nakano and American Ryggs Johnston shot 65s at Kingston Heath and tied for second, while Smith tied for fourth after his 65s, including six birdies in a row, in Victoria in the men’s event, sanctioned in conjunction with the Europeans. Visiting.
The pumps worked well into the morning to clear the pools of water left by another overnight storm in Melbourne, and the preferred lie was played.
Herbert said it was “insulting” that players would return their balls to the green flags that are usually “concrete” on the famous sand belt south-east of Melbourne.
“It fits the conditions well, it’s soft and slow, which I know they won’t want here,” he said. “It’s probably insulting to come to the sandbar and try to put it past the hole, it’s not the way these courses are designed to be played.”
Conditions are unlikely to change from a severe outlook, with more rain forecast for Saturday.
Smith said he would need about 20 points to win his first Australian Open.
“The course is available,” Smith said. “I mean, there’s some soft greens, and there wasn’t a lot of wind out there this morning. So a lot of those teams are playing really short … if it stays like this, it’s probably going to be closer to 20-below [to win] if there is no wind, which is madness.”
Elvis Smylie, who won last week’s Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland, where Smith finished second, shot a 70 on Thursday in Victoria.
Australia’s Su Oh and South Korean novice Hyojin Yang are tied for the lead at the Women’s Australian Open at 7 under. Oh had a 66 at Kingston Heath and Yang a 65 in Victoria.
Hannah Green had a 67 at Kingston Heath and was in third place.
After the successive reductions, Saturday and Sunday play will be held exclusively at Kingston Heath, the site of the 2028 President’s Cup.
LPGA Tour regular Minjee Lee shot a 74 at Victoria while his brother, PGA Tour player Min Woo Lee, had a 71 at Kingston Heath.
Defending champions Joaquín Niemann and Ashleigh Buhai both shot 73s at Kingston Heath.
Wenyi Ding, who gave up his spot in the Masters by winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur and is playing as a European Tour rookie, shot a 71 at Kingston Heath and tied for 35th.
Source link
