Australian Open: Cameron Smith opens with six-under after blowing up about softness of course

Cam Smith was furious with how soft the courses were at the Australian Open, but it paved the way for an opening day birdie blitz in Melbourne.

Lucas Herbert got off to a flyer. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Calling out the soft course conditions at the Australian Open earned Cam Smith a lot of support from his fellow players but the “gettable” nature aided his quest for a maiden title in a blistering opening round as his LIV teammate Lucas Herbert set the pace.

With pumps working well into the morning to clear lakes of water left by another overnight Melbourne deluge, Smith walked off Victoria Golf Club after a six-under start, two shots behind Herbert, who eagled his final hole to record a bogey-free round of 63.

Players were playing preferred lies because of the big wet, ruling out the chance of any course records, and sandbelt regular Herbert labelled it “sacrilegious” that players could spin their balls back to flags on greens used to being “concrete” using it to his advantage.

“It’s great condition-wise, it’s just soft and slow, which I know they wouldn’t want here,” he said after carding six birdies in the morning, keeping the lead after little movement from the afternoon groups.

The course was ‘soft and slow’. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“It’s probably sacrilegious to come to the sandbelt and try and land it past the hole, it’s just not the way these courses are designed to be played.”

Conditions are unlikely to get tougher, from a hardness perspective, with another band of rain set to hit on Saturday.

Herbert leads by one shot from Japanese amateur Rintaro Nakano and American Ryggs Johnston, a 24-year-old who hadn’t played Kingston Heath before his round after his practice was cancelled on Wednesday due to the bad weather.

Defending champion Joaquin Niemann struggled in the afternoon, also at Kingston Heath, finishing at two-over with playing partner Min Woo Lee finishing at one-under.

Lucas Herbert on his way to an eight-under round. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

A day after labelling the soft set-up disappointing and suggestions the rain was to blame “bulls**t”, Smith said he’d heard nothing from tournament officials but got a lot of positive feedback from his peers.

“Lot of players liked it. Yep, haven’t heard from anyone else yet,” he said.

“I feel like I’ve told them before and haven’t really got much. So yeah, I’m not expecting anything back.”

Cameron Smith reeled off six straight birdies. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Unfazed by the fallout from his comments, Smith went on a tear when the “coffee kicked in” following his 7am tee time, reeling off six consecutive birdies from the 14th hole through to the 1st, having started on the 10th tee.

He labelled the soft layout “gettable” as it opened the door for him to achieve his Australian Open dream, although the former world No.2 suggested he may need to get to 20-under to hoist the trophy, despite the lack of afternoon movement from the rest of the field.

“If it stays like this, it’ll probably be close to 20-under (to win) if there’s no wind, which is crazy.,” he said.

“I mean, usually around here, if you get off to a nice start, anywhere in those kind of high singles to maybe 10 or 11-under is a really good score. So yeah, hopefully it firms up a little bit.”

LEADERBOARD

8-under Lucas Herbert

7-under Rintaro Nakano (a) (JPN), Ryggs Johnston (USA)

6- under Cameron Smith, Oliver Lindell (FIN), Kazuma Kobori (NZL), Jordan Gumberg (USA)

-6 F *

Originally published as Australian Open: Cameron Smith opens with six-under after blowing up about softness of course